If you’re considering building a website, the primary goal would be to hire a designer or a developer. However, while contemplating your options, did you realize that there are significant distinctions between web design and web development?
Website development and design are essential components in creating modern websites, software platforms, and even the everyday applications used on smartphones and tablets.
Website design and development have many parallels and differences. Knowing them will help you better appreciate how they work together and why they are essential for any online project. This post will help you understand the differences between website development and web design.
What is Web Design?
The skill of structuring and organizing material on a website so that it may be shared and accessible by people worldwide is known as web design. Web design is creating a digital design that affects how a website looks, including its colours, fonts, images, and user interface. It combines aesthetic and functional features. Today, building a website involves more than just its appearance; it also considers its whole operation. User interface design, web apps, and mobile apps are all included in web design.
The world of web design is, therefore, as active as ever. It is continually improving to suit the expanding demands of website owners and visitors alike, including mobile apps and user interface design. Another essential factor to remember is that your website’s design may significantly affect how well it performs in search engines like Google.
What is Website Development?
Web development, usually called website development, describes the activities involved in developing, constructing, and managing websites and web applications using a browser to access information online. However, it could also involve database management.
Although the task of creating the features and functioning of websites and apps is closely connected to web development, the phrase “web development” is often reserved for the actual creation and programming of websites and apps.
Consider all the websites you have used over the years. Web developers created those sites, ensuring they worked properly and provided an outstanding user experience. Web developers use different programming languages to write lines of code depending on their activities and the platforms they are working on.
Difference Between Web Design and Website Development
The distinction between web design and web development may seem confusing to you. It is not difficult to understand this. ‘Web design focuses more on visual elements,’ to put it simply, and it has to do with how a website looks and feels from the outside.
The speed and usefulness of a website are discussed in terms of web development. Let’s discuss their differences and how they contribute significantly to a great website user experience.
Asset Creation is Not the Responsibility of Website Developers:
Web designers create visual elements that add aesthetic value to the site (and improve user experience), while web developers are responsible for including such features. The main distinction among web design and web development is that the developer will use JavaScript, CSS, and HTML to translate the designer’s prototypes, diagrams, and other resources into code.
Code Authoring is Not the Responsibility of Website Designers:
Web designers do not write code. This is one of the essential things to remember about web design. Although there are always exceptions, designers are often not held accountable for the code.
Consider the primary duties of a site designer. These involve developing photos with an editor like Photoshop, making prototypes, and planning layouts. However, none of these jobs needs code, so that’s where web development comes into play.
When Compared to Web Development, Web Design Typically Costs Less:
Web design has historically been less expensive than web development. According to ZipRecruiter, web developer opportunities typically pay higher, whereas designer roles typically pay slightly less. There are variations, but for the most part, web design is cheaper than web development. Why? Because learning coding and other skills is necessary for web development.
Website Design Provides Appealing Visuals And Website Development Brings Functionality:
Each function plays an essential part in creating a website that shows how website development and web design are differentiated.
Website development adds features to the webpage through code, but website design attempts to improve the user experience and design of the website so that people desire to visit it. These divisions of website creation are, therefore, equally important.
If you want to know more about websites and how they work, you can read the blog on the qualities of a great website.
Types of Website Developers
Front-end, back-end, and full-stack developers are the three main categories of web developers. Let’s take a quick look at each sort of web development separately.
Front-End Web Developers:
As an Internet user, you view and interact with the front end of a website or program. Front-end developer has coding languages that allow a website to run without needing to constantly “engage” with the Internet when data is transmitted from a computer to a browser.
The majority of front-end development, sometimes referred to as client-side development, is coding and programming the user-visible graphic components of a website.
Back-End Web Developers:
Back-end developers build the database and server using advanced programming languages and other server-side frameworks. Back-end development, sometimes called server-side development, primarily refers to website features that occur “behind the scenes” and are invisible to front-end users.
Full-Stack Developers:
The phrase “full-stack” refers to web development that often includes front-end and back-end developer responsibilities. In other words, a full-stack web developer should have the skills to manage all aspects of the web development process, from the server to the client to the database.
In Need of Website Design & Development?
Web designers and web developers have extremely diverse jobs and unique duties, even though they may seem identical.
Remember the key differences when considering hiring a web designer or a developer for your next project.
If color theory, branding, and the artistic component of designing websites interest you, check out Cowlick Studios. We will help you create a visually appealing website which is designed based on latest industry trends and is optimized for higher performance.
