Web designers and web developers work towards the same goal: creating highly engaging, visually pleasing websites that offer great user experience and functionality.
In this article, we will look at the comparison of web design and web development, and look at the specific duties and skills of web designers and web developers.
What is web design?
Web design refers to the user experience (UX) and visual appearance or user interface (UI) of a website.
Layout, information flow, color palette, user interface/user experience, and everything related to the visual elements of a website are part of web design.
Web design agencies create a visual user experience using imagery, typography, branding, and graphic design. Taken together, these factors can increase user flow and improve customer experience.
A web design agency provides an important building block to web developers who will build a functional website, including its interface and backend. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the most used web design tools, while programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are used to create website mockups used by web designers.
Web design professionals excel in the:
- Design
- Visual design
- Content
- Conversion
- Funnel
- User experience
- Site prototype
Web design is not just about aesthetics. Including everything from prototyping to user journey strategy, the site template provides developers to code functionality, and create pages.
What is web development?
Web developers code the website interface, which is what users see on their screens. This code shows the prototype of the site created by the web designers.
Web developers also create the backend or server side of a website, which is responsible for managing data in the database and serving the data to the front end that is visible to customers.
While web designers provide the design of the website, web developers give the design – functionality.
Web developers code website prototypes, applying UI and UX best practices to deliver what the client envisioned. This enables web developers to choose the right tools to deliver the final product as per the client’s wishes.
Frontend developers work closely with web designers as their work overlaps in many places.
Web developer skills and tools include:
How do web design and web development complement each other?
Web designers begin by brainstorming the goals of the website after conversations and questionnaires are completed by the client. They then create the information architecture that guides the design process.
They then come up with a prototype of the website and proceed to the design stage, taking into account the optimal user experience as well as the current principles of aesthetics.
This is where web developers take and use the created design – a static website image – to build a fully functional website by making the design into different components.
They develop web pages using programming languages or use content management systems to streamline site development and make it easier for clients to update and maintain their own websites.
Web developers turn a static layout provided to them by web designers into a dynamic presentation by adding interactive elements.
The best web development teams consist of web designers who understand the language of developers and web developers who understand the language of designers.
This principle of operation:
- It improves communication between the two groups
- Creates a smoother workflow
- It guarantees the best result
Webness provides both specialized web design and web development services. Tell us about your project and we’ll provide you with a free personalized quote and web strategy. Click to get an individual quote for website design and development.
