What is the difference between web design and web development?
I remember in my early stages of learning web
development, that I found myself confused multiple times about the
differences between design and development. What are the roles of a web
designer? What is involved in working with web design? Are web design and web
development the same? Are they interchangeable terms with the same meaning?
The simple answer would be no. The role of each is
completely different from the other. But let’s have a look into the different
roles and methods, of both a web designer and a web developer.
Web design
Think about web designers as those who transform an
idea, or a story, into a visually appealing design, and use their layout to
build the user experience throughout the whole website. They design
the website’s look and feel. As an architect would create a plan of your house
prior to start building it, similarly a web designer would model the layout of
your website before a web developer can start developing it.
Web designers have a difficult role which is often
underrated. In their designs they need to integrate the best user experience
possible, and create a welcoming environment for the user. They have to change
an idea from writing, into a usable design and interface that catches the
user’s attention. A website cannot be described as great if a proper design
strategy wasn’t applied into the early stages of the project. Nowadays, web
designers are rated at the same level of web developers, as without a great
user experience, the development cannot be truly appreciated by the user.
Web designers have built a whole library of strategic
techniques for themselves. You don’t just create a perfect website immediately
after reading or thinking about the specifications or the features required.
You start with a scope — the focus point and the purpose that the website will
offer. You would first roughly envision the designs in your head, and start
with a sketch or draft of the design. From sketching, web designers move to
wireframes, mock-ups, and to the final design. Professional web designers build
the whole website in design components, with a pixel perfect layout of all the
web pages, icons, typography and other intricate features.
These are some of the main roles of a web
designer:
·
Using
software tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, 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 interface easier to navigate and use, as it is already familiar
to the users eyes.
·
Web
designers have to also keep in mind the branding of the website, colour
palettes to be used, and the typography and readability of the website.
Web development
Think about web developers as those who turn the
designs into a live website. Web developers uses web languages and software
tools to develop the design and functionality of a website. Notice, that web developers
are further split into two sub-categories; front-end developers, and back-end
developers. I see front-end developers as the connection between both web
designers and back-end developers, as having a little knowledge of both, would
allow a front-end developer to build a fully working website. A
front-end developer is the one who builds the interface, and provides the
layout as the interaction between the back-end of the website and the user.
Front-end developers use three main languages;
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript
(JS). With these languages, a developer is able to create a full-fledged
website. From the main design layout, to inserting images, applying different
types of typography and font families, implementing animations, the flow of
different pages, form interfaces, and more.
Back-end developers are those who control the server
data and requests. Usually a website requires back-end services if it contains
dynamic data. This means, for example, users submitting a form with personal
data (such as creating an account), or saving an article for your blog page.
Generally, if the website requires data to be saved, and making it accessible
at a later stage, it means that it would also need a database connection.
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.
Here are some of the main roles of a web
developer:
·
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 (see my
previous article).
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