Hello, Wix Partner community.
I have a confession to make. I have been building websites, and I haven’t been using Wix.
Ok, put your pitchforks and torches down! I can explain it.
My journey, becoming a website designer, copywriter, and, dare I say, a developer is most likely not a typical journey. However, I think there might be a few people in the same situation or dealing with the same struggles I faced. This post is intended to resonate with those people.
So, to give clarity, I need to begin this story further back in my life.
I am pretty much self-educated. The last grade I completed in high school was 8th grade. I struggled with maintaining interest and engagement in class, and I preferred interaction with smaller groups.
This lead to me dropping out as a freshman. I joined a school that allowed students to learn from home using a computer the school provided. This was a very new concept at the time, and the community and engagement from students and teachers in this system weren’t very interactive. For this reason, I felt isolated from teachers and peers. Basically, the group was too small now. It was only me, and it wasn’t working.
So, I decided to say “screw high school,” I will go straight to college. So, that’s what I did. I was maybe 16 when I went to Sinclair community college and took their placement exam. Spoiler alert, I passed and received all college-level classes.
I found college a much more rewarding experience than high school. I really enjoyed being able to choose my classes. I felt like a real adult exploring the giant campus and being responsible for my own schedule. Being there fulfilled my drive to continue my education.
Sadly, I took advantage of my student loans and opportunities at the college. It seems my formal education thus far had not prepared me for time management, scheduling, budgeting, taxes, contracts, finance, or business in general.
Unfortunately, I was dissecting giant worms from the great lakes area and learning about confusing mathematical equations in high school.
Anyway, I was only in college for one and a half years. I passed all the classes I took, but I was ready to get into the field. (Or so I thought.)
I was very interested in building something with my own hands, and so I applied to a college for HVAC (Heating and Air conditioning). I was gaining more experience as an “adult” and the idea of being an HVAC technician was exciting. I completed the training and was a certified HVAC technician.
I actually got a job in plumbing and couldn’t find a good fit as an HVAC technician, even with my certification. Plumbing companies, however, did hire me, and I spent the next 8 years as a plumber.
I was a new construction plumber (not the dirty kind, not a drain cleaner) and our team, and the work was very demanding. A great team, but a demanding one. I ended up being injured a few times and was always looking for more ways to be educated and continue education. I felt there was something more for me.
I quit that job on good terms and began designing directors’ treatments for my sister part-time. (She is a music video producer in LA) I used photoshop, and there was a steep learning curve.
And so began my passion for design.
I began to dive into basic design concepts and principles. Following popular design communities and reading every book on design I could find.
I have always been an artist (Music, writing, art, etc…) But being a designer was different. I started to realize the meaning behind the design. I enjoyed the idea of my designs being directly linked with the concepts of user functionality and experience. It gave me a very different feeling than producing art or other work.
I felt I had found a higher purpose, something that was interesting. Something that would allow me to be infinitely challenged.
Now comes the part about Wix. Remember the Plumbing company I worked for? Well, the owner of that company happened to be talking to me one day about building a website. I had seen advertisements all over the internet for Wix. I was thoroughly impressed with the marketing, and I felt that designing a website with Wix was totally do-able.
So, that’s what I did. I built the site in about 3 months. There was a steep learning curve, and I quickly realized how deep the website rabbit hole goes. I loved it! Absorbing all the information about websites and how to operate them was exciting. Wix made it easy to understand their systems, and I found the whole process rewarding.
Here’s a link to that site. (I’m getting ready to update it and I have permission to showcase it in my portfolio and use the design for marketing purposes.)
https://www.ipsplumbingsolutions.com/
However, I didn’t understand the fundamentals of website building, and this was an issue.
Let me explain. Using Wix was my first experience with building websites. I found the Wix editor was easy to use and understand.
All of Wix’s documentation helped me realize what I needed to do to accomplish my clients’ goals. Basically, my personal user experience with Wix was incredible.
However, the design process was, at times, limiting and frustrating. I didn’t understand why. I looked at situations like form builder and thought. Why would I pay them for forms? I can create forms with Wix, I can create my own database, and it comes with my package.
So that’s what I did. I didn’t stop there. I learned everything I could that would help my client have the best website possible. I designed his site, created databases, closed deals with his companies partners, created custom icons, company logo, wrote the companies policy, wrote the companies copywriting. Studied marketing techniques, created a competitive analysis, helped with his brand strategy, etc… I did this with many other clients, as well. I was also unintentionally feeding my need to continually solve complicated problems, and that was my favorite part.
As I got deeper and deeper into web design and learned more about the Wix system, I started to become frustrated with the limitations I was running into with Wix. I now know I was missing the fundamentals of web design and development.
Through that process, I found something was missing, I couldn’t achieve specific designs, I was having trouble understanding how Corvid worked. I had difficulty understanding the code. I had reached the pinnacle of what Wix offers as far as web development education, and to be honest, I blamed Wix.
After this, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I would learn how to code my own websites from scratch. I started by learning the basics. I learned the history behind computers, operating systems, the world wide web, HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I began to learn the fundamentals of website development. Also, I started to create a website in the browser on my local machine using only code.
I started using Figma to prototype my designs and created design systems that could easily be accessible. I learned about components and children, parents, nesting, etc…
Learning these fundamentals changed the way I view everything about websites and code. It made me realize how fantastic Wix actually was. Concepts that I couldn’t have understood being “just a designer.” or “just a Wix user.”
This post is for people who stumbled into web design and have no formal education in design, computer science, or any other related fields. People who are tired of dancing around code tutorials that dance around the fundamentals of web design. This is the information you are missing.
I would encourage you to learn the fundamentals of web development. Even if you plan to only create websites using Wix. Everything about Wix’s editor becomes crystal clear after you learn about how HTML, CSS, JS, JQuery, Flexbox, divs, CSS gird, parents, children, nesting, event listeners, etc… are used.
You will start to make connections that designers without this knowledge simply can’t make, and you will be one step closer to understanding the entire web development process.
You will start to fully understand strips, databases, columns, etc. You will understand meta tags, Corvid, NPM, and you will have much more insight and control of how you build your sites in the future. Also, you will have a severe appreciation for Wix and all its features, functions, as well as the community.
Going through this journey made me realize that Wix was a fantastic company that makes web design and development simple and easy.
I am happy I found Wix, and Wix introduced me to Web design and development. I will be forever grateful to Wix and their team for that.
So yes, I have been building websites outside of Wix. What I have learned through this process is how incredible Wix actually is. For all you people who stumbled into the design industry, anyone who has no formal education and you want to take your skills with Wix to the next level.
Remember, you are the only one responsible for continuing your education, and just like me, you too, can fully understand the web design process. (Or at least most of it.) I encourage you all to take that next step. Learn fundamentals.
I would also encourage you to build out a design system in Figma, sketch, or Adobe XD, although it’s not necessary, and Wix does have solutions with similar features. I found that collaborating with clients and prototyping the site in Figma allowed for easy revisions and a looser creative process. Also, it allowed me to quickly make wireframes and prototypes.
So once again, here is the Wix site that got me started. Please let me know your thoughts. Feedback
https://www.ipsplumbingsolutions.com/
Here is the Figma file of that same site and the redesign I have planned.
https://www.figma.com/file/tJ3s47MO8Xt9bb47TIA4Wz/IPS-Website?node-id=7%3A9
How did you come about using Wix?
Was Wix your introduction to website design and development?
Please let me know in the comments below. thanks!
