Many people are confused about the difference between Web Design and Web Development. And this leads to certain questions like; What are the exact roles of a Web Designer and Web Developer, is Web Design and Web Development considered the same?

With this being asked, we were left quite interested in figuring out the answers. So we conducted our research with regards in the difference between above mentioned, what are their roles, and how are they different from one another.

Web Design

If you think about it, web designers build websites by converting their ideas into visual design, and they add or use their experience to make it appealing.

Web designers are like architects that create plans of a house, store or office prior to constructing the building. While the web developers are the engineers that will implement and develop these plans or projects.

Web designers are often underrated, they have a difficult role in which they need to integrate and create a welcoming environment, together with the best user experience for their consumers and changing an idea from written to a captivating and informative design that attracts customers. Applying a strategic plan into the project as early as possible will greatly contribute to the success of the design. Today, web designers are treated and considered as same as web developers, because with the collaboration of their skill set and experience, it is expected that the outcome will provide a highly appreciated service to the users.

According to experts, web designers usually establish their website by focusing on a point and knowing the purpose of the product or service. Then they read, study and analyze the features and specifications that will be needed on the website. Also, web designers build a whole library of strategic techniques that they can use for themselves, this includes, of course, the experience that they had. Applying the visualization in their minds and experimenting on the design by using sketches or drafts are the second step. From sketching, web designers move to wireframes, mock-ups and the final design.

Typical roles of a web designer that we have researched;

• Using software tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Framer, or Sketch to build the final layout design of the website
• Have good skills in graphic design and logo design
• Have a good feel for user experience, to identify the simplest approach possible to attain the desired function. This includes the layout, buttons, images and the general format of the website.
• Web designers need to keep themselves up to date with the latest design trends. It’s also important to keep design consistency that is made popular from other web giant companies, such as Google, and Facebook. This makes the website environment and interfaces easier to navigate and use, as it is already familiar to the user’s eyes.
• Web designers have to also keep in mind the branding of the website, color palettes to be used, and the typography and readability of the website.

Web Development

Web developers, on the other hand, are the ones who turn the designs into a live website. As we mentioned earlier, Web developers implement the plan in accordance with the designer. They develop the design and functionality of the web by using languages and software tools. In addition, they are categorized into two, the front-end developers, and back-end developers. These two has their own responsibility, as we’ve discussed in the previous blog (Do I need to hire a developer or designer). For a brief summary, Front-end developers use three main languages; Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript (JS). While Back-end developers are those who control the server data and requests. Usually, a website requires back-end services if it contains dynamic data. We strongly suggest that for a website to have a database connection, this helps the website to save data that are needed and easy to access. Database connections are made possible by a direct connection from the server itself. Thus, a back-end developer then uses server languages such as PHP or ASP.NET and writes database queries by using languages such as SQL or MySQL.

Typical roles of a web designer that we have researched;

• Building the actual interface through which a user interacts with the website. This interface is built by front-end developers using HTML, CSS, and JS languages.
• Front-end developers can use styling preprocessors, javascript libraries, and frameworks to fasten the process of development. Front-end developers provide the markup design to back-end developers, so they can implement a dynamic website, and submit all the required data on the server and databases.
• Back-end developers create the backbone of the website using languages such as PHP and MySQL.
• Both front-end and back-end developers can use the same development environments or IDEs (Integrated Development Environment). These are software application tools where you code and build the structure of the website.
• Web developers may also use versioning tools to keep a history of the previous builds. This will help them to quickly and effortlessly move back to a previous “unbroken” version if required to do so.