If you've ever seen those commercials boasting about technical schools, then you already know that careers like web design are in high demand. What you might not have known, however, is that you do not need to attend a special school or take a course to learn web design. You can pick up the skills necessary from these tips below.

Use graphics that are right for your website. Keep in mind that bitmap files are quite large and typically do not work well, but PNGs work okay. For screenshots, text buttons, and other non-photographic images, use PNG if the image has more than 256 colors, and GIF if not. JPEG images are good for pictures.

If you're creating a website, make sure you look at it in different browsers. What you see on your screen may be different from what others see. Research the most popular browsers and fix your site accordingly. You may also want to view your site using a different computer operating system to make sure that everything is compatible whether they are using Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Always look for broken links prior to publishing pages on the web. Nothing is more frustrating to a visitor than clicking on a link and being taken to an error page. Feel free to manually check them or use some programs to scan and report the broken links.

Always ensure you are giving meaningful feedback, as this is what creates the communication between a website and its visitors. For example, if an action taken by a visitor results in an error, do not simply display "error occurred." Instead, provide a message that explains what happened and how the visitor can correct the error by taking a different action. Without this feedback, visitors are more likely to grow frustrated and just give up by leaving your website.

Of course, you won't find every single tip under the sun in one article. No article is that long. You should be able to get the hang of web design through these tips, however. 

Once you master these few techniques, you can then begin to expand your knowledge base and ultimately expand the scope of your designs.