What is the difference between web design and web development? Well, if we go back in time then the answer to that question would be totally different. Apparently, back in the days when we were just introduced to the concept of web, the answer to that question was quite simple: designers are made for designing and developers are meant for coding.
However, times have changed. Its 2020, and businesses all across the globe are planning on expanding there products and services by implementing both web design and development strategies. If you are an amateur, then you will find these terms quite interchangeable and you’ll refer them as web companies. The truth is, both these terms signify two different aspects of the website developing process that require two unique skill sets.
Now you must be thinking why is it necessary to know the difference when you are looking for a web designer and a web developer for your brand’s reputation? The answer to that question would be simple, which is, “because that’s what you need in the first place”.
In this article, I did my best to provide you every single aspect of web design and web development to portray the meaning of the respective field.
Web Design Versus Web Development
Web design refers to both the aesthetic aspect of the website along with its usability. For that reason itself, web developers use a handful of design programs such as Adobe Photoshop in order to create the layout and other crucial visual elements of the website. While web developers, on the other hand, text that web design and make it a functioning website. Programs like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP are being used extensively by developers in order to program languages and to bring life to the designed files.
Web Design
As mentioned above web design is the combination of visual aesthetics and usability of a website which includes the scheme, layout, information flow, everything in between. These elements should be made while keeping in mind to provide the user with the best UI/UX experience. Following are some common skills and tools which a web designer should possess:
- Adobe creative suite
- Logo design
- Branding
- Typography
- Colour palettes
- Call to action buttons
- Graphic design
- Wireframes and storyboards
According to what I mentioned above, it has been made quite obvious that web design is something that a user sees on their system for smartphones. It is a designer’s responsibility to make sure that the user shouldn’t worry about the mechanism involved. With the help of colors, images, proper layout, along with typography, a designer can change the whole concept of a brand’s website.
However, it doesn’t mean that web designers don’t possess knowledge about HTML CSS and JavaScript. In fact, all these development aspects help them to create living mockups of a web application which they used to pitch an idea to the team in order to tune up the UI/UX of a web app.
Principles Which a Designer Should Follow
- Balance
The first and foremost thing that a designer should worry about is creating a balanced layout. A website’s design consists of dark and light colors which means it is a designer’s responsibility to make sure that the correct proportion of each element should be taken in order to make a balanced website design.
- Contrast
In the world of art and colors, contrast refers to colors that complement each other. In a web designing campaign, you will have to make sure that the whole concept of contrast should be kept in mind while devoting appropriate time on textures and shapes to define and draw the attention of the users to various elements of the website’s design.
- Consistency
If you are a web designer then you will have to be consistent with your website design. You will have to make sure that your design should be clean and consistent so that it provides flawless navigation two uses which eventually help users to have the experience possible.
- Unity
Unity is referred to as the relationship between various parts of the web site’s layout and composition. According to the concept of Gestalt, unity is something that deals with the human brain and tells us how to organize information by grouping elements into various categories.
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Web Development
Web developers are often called programmers, as they take the design created by the designers and build a fully functioning website out of it. More concisely, a developer takes that design and breaks it up into different components which later turned into different website pages by simply implementing HTML or PHP which is a more dynamic programming language. Moreover, highly experienced web developers rely upon content management systems like WordPress or Joomla just to streamline development which also helps clients to maintain and update their website without any hassle.
Apparently, web development has two categories; front-end and back-end. The front-end (client-side) application of the code that is responsible for determining how a website will look like. While back-end, on the other hand, is responsible for the server-side of the web application that manages data within the database and serves that data to the front-end which later gets displayed.
Following are some of the skills and tools which a web developer should be aware of:
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- CSS preprocessors
- Libraries (jQuery)
- Git and GitHub
- Frameworks (Angular JS, ReactJS, Ember)
You should know for the fact that front end developers don’t usually create mockups, choose typography, or pic color palettes. In fact, these jobs are done by the designers themselves. A developer’s job is to bring those mockups into life and turn it into a flawless user experience.
Principles which of the developers should follow
- Mobile compatibility
In an era where smartphones have taken over the world, a developer should make sure that his website should work effectively on various screen sizes. If a website doesn’t support all screen sizes, there are great chances that you will end up losing to your competitors. Designers, on the other hand, can use various web design studios to turn the desktop design into a more responsive and adaptive one to various screen sizes.
- Easy loading
Nobody likes to wait, which means your website should be fast while loading content. To do so, you have to optimize your image sizes and you will have to combine codes into a central CSS or JavaScript file in order to reduce HTTP requests. Other than that, you can compress HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to enhance the loading speed.
- Easy navigation
It has been found that uses tend to spend more time on websites that offer easy navigation. In order to make effective navigation, you will have to create a logical page hierarchy. You can use breadcrumbs and design clickable buttons for flawless navigation. It is also recommended for you follow the three-click rule so that visitors can access the required content within three clicks.
Final Words
Nowadays it doesn’t matter whether you are a small size business or a medium-sized business, what matters the most is your website. It has been found that, clients and visitors in general, 10 to visit a company’s websites in order to know more about it’s working process. So, if you want to make the most out of a website, then it is highly recommended to hire highly experienced web developers and designers for the best possible results.
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That question always creates confusion for me as both web development and web design seems somewhat similar thanks for bringing that up.It makes me understand the difference between the two upto some extent.
Hello, All along I had considered both web design and web development to imply the same thing,. This is worth sharing. Thanks for the enlightenment.
The website is one among the most crucial parts of a marketing strategy. In simple words, it’s just your brand online so whatever you’re showing must be true and honest about your business. Therefore, you must be clear by the motive of your websites, means, what does one want your visitors to examine and expect.
Hello Ansul,
Thanks for clearing the dilemma between web design and web development. I often use these terms wrongly in the usage. But after this post, I clearly understood.
So informative and enlightening! This is a perfect guide to understanding the difference between the two!