Web development vs web design – what are they and why do business owners need to understand them? Read on to discover the similarities and differences between these two concepts for a more effective web-building project.
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What Is Web Design?
Web design uses design theory to improve the appearance and user experience of the website. The web designer supervises the formation and impact of the website. They maintain the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design of the website.
UI design focuses on the visual elements of the website. On the other hand, user experience design deals with the usability and navigation of the website to obtain a better user experience.
What Is Web Development?
Web development manages all the code that makes the website tick. It can be divided into two categories-front-end and back-end.
The application’s front-end or client-side is the code responsible for determining how the website displays the design simulated by the designer. The back-end or server-side of the application is responsible for managing data in the database and providing the data to the front-end for display.
Web Design Vs Web Development: Similarities
Web design and development roles work closely together.
Web designers and web developers need programming knowledge, albeit at different levels. They must also have analysis and problem-solving skills to test the design and available options to determine the most appropriate option.
Finally, web designers and web developers must keep up with the latest trends, procedures, and innovations in their respective fields.
If executed properly, design and development will create a cohesive technology-driven concept linked to its vision and further advances, making it easier for the company to connect with more consumers.
Web Designer Vs Web Developer: Significant Differences
The difference between web design and web development is shown through the duties of web designers and web developers.
Specific skills & Responsibilities
Web designers
The web designer’s role revolves around creating the layout and visual aspects of the website. Their goal is to ensure that the website is beautiful and user-friendly and encourage visitors to stay as long as possible.
In addition to the general framework and layout structure, this also means considering and constructing conversion generating elements and designing web pages that translate well on various devices.
Responsibilities
The web designer is responsible for the overall look and feel of the website.
The job also involves a lot of research and testing. Ensuring that the website’s design meets user expectations and customer specifications is essential. Web designers conceptualize the idea and appearance of the website, creating models based on vision, user experience, and UI elements.
Moreover, web designers need to consider how their design affects the website’s coding. Designers create a site structure and model, and then developers work to bring it to life.
The job of a web designer usually includes some post-launch services. They may provide content creation and update, maintenance and monitoring services, and continuous performance checks.
Skills required
In general, some essential skills of a web designer include:
- HTML and CSS knowledge
- Understand website design principles and web accessibility standards
- Responsive and interactive design
- Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
- User journey map
- Wireframe and prototyping
- Branding, color theory, and typography
- Design tools and software
Some non-technical skills like communication with clients or teamwork are essential for web designers as well.
Web developers
The main job of a web developer is to build and maintain the core structure of the website. Their role involves a lot of technical work, including complex coding and high-level programming languages.
In short, they take ideas and concepts proposed by business analysts and web designers and turn them into real, real-time, fully functional websites.
Responsibilities
More specifically, a web developer’s responsibility involves building the website itself. This includes encoding and configuring servers and databases on the backend and integrating user-oriented features and functions.
They also perform testing and debugging and may handle a range of post-release services, such as providing ongoing support and maintenance and repairing server or hosting issues.
Web developers are to websites what construction companies are too new houses. The developer adapts the design plan and blueprint drafted by the architect (web designer) and lays the foundation to ensure complete functions and reasonable structure.
Web developers determine whether the concept is financially and technically sound, and program and code the site.
Skills required
Web developers need a lot of technical knowledge, including understanding complex programming languages and frameworks:
- Programming and coding languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP
- JavaScript frameworks like jQuery
- Testing and debugging
- Back-end and database
- Content Management System (WordPress, etc.)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Skills such as analytical thinking and problem-solving can also be helpful during debugging. It’s also essential to have solid communication and collaboration skills to work with clients and other key parties (such as web designers).
Used tools and programs
Web developers frequently use tools, and programs including coding libraries and frameworks, code version control and issue tracking platforms (such as GitHub and Jira), hosting control panels and FTP clients, and CMS.
Web designers usually use design editing software (such as Photoshop), CMS (such as WordPress), and website builders (such as Elementor), as well as wireframing and prototyping tools.
Types of web designers
UX designer
UX designers help ensure that the website’s structure attracts visitors and provides a positive experience. Their role is to create a human-centered design based on data-driven decision-making. This involves conducting research and testing to collect and analyze data used to inform their final design choices.
UI designer
UI designers also play an essential role in website design. Asides from an app’s experience, they also prioritize interaction. More specifically, their part is to increase the website’s usability and optimize it in a way that helps encourage conversions.
Visual designer
Visual designers use the layout and visual elements of the website. This work combines certain aspects of UX and UI design. The graphic designer’s job is to ensure that the interface is beautiful and easy to use.
Types of web developers
Front-end developer
The part of the website that the user directly interacts with is called the front end. It includes all the content users experience: text colors and styles, images, graphics and tables, buttons, colors, and navigation menus.
HTML, CSS, and Javascript are languages used for front-end development. When opening a website, web application, or mobile application, the structure, design, behavior, and content of all content seen on the browser screen are implemented by front-end developers.
Responsiveness and performance are the two main goals of the front end. Developers must ensure that the website is responsive. It can be displayed correctly on devices of all sizes, regardless of the screen size.
Back-end developer
Back-end development, also known as server-side development, mainly includes all aspects of the website that occur “behind the scenes” that visitors cannot see from the front end.
Users indirectly access components and features developed by back-end designers through front-end applications. Activities such as writing APIs, creating libraries, and using system components without user interfaces or even scientific programming systems are also tasks of backend developers.
Full-stack developer
Finally, full-stack developers can code the front and backends of the website. They have a deep understanding of how these parts work together and operate. In addition to coding web pages with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, full-stack developers also set up and configure servers and write application programming interfaces (APIs).
Web Development Vs Web Design: Tigren Bridge The Gap Between The Two
Web designers and web developers play a crucial role in building and maintaining websites. Ultimately, these two roles depend on each other to provide quality products.
But it can be challenging to get the best out of these two aspects on your own. The answer is to choose a web provider company with an experienced and skilled design and development team like Tigren.
Tigren is a company that provides excellent website design and development solutions with a team of professional designers and developers, working together to help you build a website with an eye-catching appearance and outstanding, user-friendly features.
Our team of designers and developers has been highly qualified and professionally trained for many years, and they work seamlessly together on every project. Our working criterion is to bring the best results, provide services to satisfy customers.
To Sum Up
Although web development vs web design is two processes with many different functions and tasks, their common goal is to build a complete and satisfying final website. These two processes need to be combined smoothly, and the designer and developer need to work together to make an attractive and solid website
Creating a website involves a lot of moving parts. And knowing how each role complements the next will help you better understand the process of building a website and enable you to discuss and provide feedback with website developers.
Read More:
10 Key Steps Of A Successful Web Design Process For New Businesses
