When you think of creating a website what’s the first thing that comes to mind? If you understand web design you might think of the user experience and layout. If you understand how the web works your mind immediately fills with HTML, CSS stylesheets, Javascript.
Many people use web design and web development interchangeably to refer to the creation of a website. I guess both are true. Here’s what you need to know about the differences and how they work together to create a web page.
The Artist
Web designers, like the ones at Cowlick Studios in Leamington, are responsible for adding the visual styles on a website. Visit a website, like Google for instance, and you’re presented with a relatively blank page and a search bar. The user-interface (UI) team intentionally directs the viewer towards the main focus of their business; search. This creates a simple and positive user experience.
Correctly implemented, web design creates a pleasurable user experience and accentuates the brand and brand message of a business. When implemented incorrectly, design distracts the user and causes them to become overwhelmed by the site’s content and they miss the important actions and information.
This process of coming up with a unique but functional user experience is quite challenging. Graphic Designers have to implement captivating and artistic design while being mindful of the end user’s experience. With hundreds of thousands of websites launching every single day, designers in Leamington and Windsor must hone their skills and be constantly learning about user experience.
Web Development
Do you enjoy puzzles or solving riddles? If yes, you may be a web developer in the making! Web developers are responsible for implementing the code required to present the design or user experience. Most of their work is rarely visable and lives on a server and database. Code is rarely seen by the user’s eyes, but it’s critical to creating a website.
To understand why a good developer is important to a website’s user experience, you must understand what happens when you visit a website. Here is a brief glimpse into how a website works and the life of a developer.
- You decide that you want to read the news for the day, so you go on your favourite news website.
- When you type the name of the domain and press ‘enter,’ a request (packet) gets sent from your computer to the server (computer) that hosts the website.
- This type of request is often encrypted and broken into chunks that are pieced back together on the server’s end.
- The server reads this request, validates who you are and sends the page back to your browser.
- When you click various links or images throughout the article, fill out email forms or type a comment, this process continues in the background.
- If the server is running efficiently, this interaction is a seamless experience with little or no downtime.
There’s a delicate process occurring constantly online, even if we can’t see it. If a single bit of code is out of place, an error can cause a conflict and crash the website, ruining the user experience.
The Full-Stack Developer
Full-stack developers are a rare individual that enjoys the user interface side of things but has a knack for the complexity of code. If you were the type of person that loved art class but also aced your math tests, full-stack development may be for you.
Full-stack developers do it all. They’re capable of creating an attractive web page but capable of writing code. These are highly valued individuals within a business and given the most responsibility and trust. Here is a brief look at the job responsibilities that a full-stack developer must cover:
- Comprehensive knowledge of databases
- Dealing with server requests and understanding errors
- Implementing efficient ways of capturing a visitor’s attention via visual cues and design, making for a positive user experience
- Knowledge of programming languages and frameworks
- The persistence to learn and adapt to new and emerging technologies
- Ready to objectively look at their code and be willing to re-write it if necessary
Whether a person is a designer or developer, or they fall somewhere in between, their main goal is to serve users more efficiently. They understand that businesses need to embrace technological changes online. Graphic Designers and Web Developers are the engineers and artists that shape and create the internet! Create a positive user experience by working with Cowlick Studios in Leamington.
