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Perhaps you have extra time on your hands and want to put it to good use. Or maybe you're new to web design and finding that there's a lot you still don't know how to do.

Whatever the reason, there are many ways to level up your web design skills in 2021. Here are 12 ideas to get you started:

Tip 1: Niche Down If You Haven't Already

Jack-of-all-trades designers might be able to say “yes” to everyone. However, they're going to be stretched very thin as they attempt to strengthen every skill needed to keep up with demand.

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It's much easier to become a trusted designer and to improve your skills if you have a smaller and more specific skill set to develop.

Just keep in mind that niching down doesn't necessarily mean focusing on a particular industry. For instance, you might choose to be a UX designer instead of a web designer. Or you might specialize in designing ecommerce websites instead of monetized blogs. Just find something that you're passionate about and will be good at doing, and zero-in on the skills needed for it.

Tip 2: Play Around in the Sandbox

Local development environments are useful for staging websites, doing redesigns, and testing updates safely away from live sites. But you can also use them for experimenting with new design techniques, trends, templates, plugins, and more.

Local by Flywheel is the one I prefer to use:

• Use a sandbox like Local by Flywheel to improve your web design skills
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Here's a good exercise to start with:

Take a website you like — something you've looked at in awe and couldn't imagine ever building on your own. Then, put yourself to the test. See if you can recreate it in your sandbox.

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Don't be hard on yourself if you don't figure it out right away. Consult your resources and give yourself time to make sense of what's going on and implement it with the available skills and tools.

Tip 3: Redesign One of Your First Projects

There's always a clear evolution in a designer's skill set, from the day they begin designing to the present day. And that's a good thing. If your work doesn't improve or change with time, then you're going to have a lot of catching up to do when the stagnation begins to hurt your business.

Want to see how much progress you've made so far? Revisit one of your first projects and look at it with fresh eyes. I bet you'll see a big change in how you design today from how you designed that site then.

Now, ask yourself what you would do differently. And then, go to your sandbox and do the redesign.