Best Gear for Budding Web Designers

When it comes to web design, it helps to have the right tech that will let you do your work more efficiently and produce better quality outputs. And with such a wide range of equipment available, you can easily turn your home office into a web design workroom! From high-end displays to ergonomic equipment, here are five things every web designer should invest in.

Monitor Calibrator

Color accuracy is an important part of every designer’s hardware, whether for graphics or web design. After all, you want your output to look a particular way, which faulty monitors or settings can prevent you from achieving. Rather than buy a new monitor, however, multimedia blogger Vince Tabora recommends buying a monitor calibrator. These devices can be expensive (around $100 to $150), but they provide the best results for reading color accuracy. By measuring your screen’s color output and signals, you can now toggle with your screen settings to get the most optimal display. This will ensure you produce the highest quality web pages.

Desktop Setup

You may already be comfortable with working on a laptop. However, for software-heavy jobs like web designing, it helps to have a dedicated desktop. The obvious benefit is that you can hook your PC tower to a monitor of your choice, or connect it to two monitors, as suggested by HP. Not only does doing so help you visualize your projects, but it also gives you access to extra processing power (which definitely comes in handy for big projects like web design). Plus, this customizable setup allows you to separately choose your monitor, PC tower, keyboard, and other components to suit your preferences.

External Memory

Web design software such as Hover takes up a lot of space and a lot of RAM. To make sure that your computer always has room for other applications and for your software to run without lag, it’s good practice to own external drives. There are two types: hard drives and solid-state drives. The former is used for space and the latter is used to increase PC speed. You’ll want both for a more efficient workflow.

Ergonomic Chair

From start to launch, a typical website takes weeks to finish—and that’s with full eight hours dedicated to your job every workday. If you’re going to be sitting on a desk for an extended period, then it’s worth investing in an ergonomic chair. A guide to selecting ergonomic chairs on Bone and Spine informs that they’re made to adapt to the body shape of whoever sits on it, so it’s always comfortable. This will make it easier for you to concentrate on your projects and stay productive all day.

Variable Desk

Of course, if you have a comfortable chair, then you’ll also need a comfortable desk. A variable desk is one that can be manually adjusted to your height to ensure that you get the best work position possible. Man of Many outlines how they come in plenty of forms—from those with a mouse pad underneath, to those with elevated monitor stands. It’s all about selecting the model that supports the setup you’re most comfortable with to encourage productivity and prevent the aches and pains that come with constant computer use.

Your journey to becoming a web designer starts by having the right gear. If you don’t have the budget to purchase everything on this list, you can start with the essentials, like an adjustable desk and a good monitor. As you gain more projects and use new programs, then you can invest in the add-ons like calibrators and SSDs.