About three summers ago, my company got a job to build a website for a client. After discussing the website’s ideas and nature, in between our conversation, I often heard the client interchange web design and web development. At some point, he dismissed the function of a complete ledge website as the sole job. I had to explain the different processes involved in building a website calmly.
The misconception between web design and web development is no longer a new thing. Both terms can be very confusing, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises looking to build a business website. Often, people mistake both times to mean the same. This is a contradiction that many e-commerce come up with when dealing with web companies.
Whether you are an individual starting to be a web developer/designer or e-commerce looking to build a suitable website for your brand, perhaps you have wondered what the difference between web design and development? Or you want to know if they are the same.
Well, the answer is NO. Web design and web development are not the same. We can explain both concepts to be two distinct sides of a coin with clearly defined roles and specifications. Web design and web development have to do with building a website to its total functioning capacity. However, they perform different tasks in accomplishing this.
In a nutshell, web design refers to the aesthetic aspect of a website and its functionality. This is done using design tools such as sketchpad, adobe photoshop, framers, etc., to create a layout and other visual aspects. Web development, on the other hand, builds a website into full functionality from the design. Developers use programming languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc., to turn designs into interactive web pages.
A closer look at both concepts:
Web Design
Web designers convert an idea into a visually appealing format and use their setup to create the user experience throughout the website. This is done by putting the customer’s websites’ objectives into perspective, that is, the focus point and the website’s goal.
You first envisioned the idea and started with a sketch or draft to design. Web designers move from sketching to wireframes, mock-ups, and the final design. Experienced web designers create an entire website in design elements, with a pixel-perfect layout of all the web pages, icons, typography, and other intricate features.
The idea is to create an aesthetically appealing layout that also offers an amazing user experience. Hence, a web designer models your website’s layout before a web developer can turn it into an actual interface. Some of the roles of a web designer include:
- Having good skills in graphic designs and logos.
- Knows how to use software tools such as adobe photoshop, sketch, and framers to create the website structure.
- Keep updated with trending designs. This helps you streamline the best approach to creating an interesting interface, easy to navigate and user-friendly.
- Web designers must use layout, virtual buttons, and the website’s general set up to understand and apply the best strategy to attain the desired function.
Web Development
Just as the contractors enact a building after the architect must have done the plan and underground work, as the case with web designers, the web developers are responsible for transforming the design into a full-functioning website capacity. To make it simpler, the design is a passive, non-interactive feature of websites. The developers collect this design and break it up into various elements using different programming language tools.
To bring life into a design, web developers make use of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. An advanced approach involves integrating programming languages such as PHP, MySQL, etc., to enhance various websites’ pages. Professional developers sometimes choose to use CMS like WordPress to facilitate development and allow easy access and updates for clients.
Some of the roles of web developers include:
- Developing a real interactive channel through which users communicate and interact with the website.
- Front-end developers make use of HTML, CSS, and JS to create a simple interactive interface.
- Back-end developers use PHP and MySQL to build the backbone of the website.
- Web developers use Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to code and structure the website.
- Front-end developers work with the back-end developers by providing mark-ups design which the back-end developers use in implementing a dynamic website.
Although web design and web development are operational concepts of the same environment, for small and medium businesses looking to build their websites, cutting the edges between the two terms may be confusing. Many web companies have separate designers who create the layout, while the developers bring these layouts into an interactive and functional reality. Suitable for use.
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