When it comes to building a successful website the terms web design and web development often come up. While these two terms are closely related they refer to different angles of the website creation process. Understanding the main differences between web design and web development can help you make valid decisions about how to route your website project and work with the right professionals to hit your goals.
In this blog we’ll dive into the necessary differences between web design and web development explore their respective roles and explain how they work together to create a perfect online experience for your users.
What Is Web Design?
Web design is all about the look and feel of your website it involves the planning creation and layout of a site’s visual elements to create an attractive native and user friendly experience. Web designers focus on how a website appears and how users deal with it including color schemes, typography, images and the overall layout.
Key components of web design include:
- Visual Elements: Designers decide on fonts, colors, icons, images and other graphical elements to secure the site is seeing attractive and smooth with the brand’s identity.
- User Interface (UI): This refers to the design of the combine elements that users deal with such as buttons, sliders, menus and forms.
- User Experience (UX): Web designers aim to create a smooth, productive and good user experience secure that visitors can easily navigate the website and find the information they need.
- Responsive Design: With expanding mobile internet usage web designers center on making sure the website works well on all devices including desktops, tablets and smartphones.
- Prototyping and Wire framing: Before the actual design process begins web designers create wireframes or prototypes to map out the structure of the website and secure all elements are in place.
What Is Web Development?
Web development on the other hand focuses on the functionality of the website. It’s the procedure of turning the web design into a fully functioning website. Web developers use programming languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript and others to build the site’s core structure and make it interactive. Web development covers the technical aspects that power a website’s back end systems and its dealings with users on the front end.
Key factors of web development contain:
- Front-End Development: This is the part of web development that deals with the visible angles of the website the combine basis users deal with directly. Front end developers use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to bring web designs to life and create interactive elements.
- Back-End Development: Back end development aims on the server side of a website. It involves working with databases servers and other back end systems that store and manage data. Back end developers normally use programming languages like PHP, Python, Ruby or Java to manage the functionality behind the scenes.
- Full-Stack Development: Full-stack developers treat both front-end and back-end development. They’re skilled in building websites from scratch controlling everything from design management to server side functionality.
- Database Management: Web developers manage databases that store required data for the website such as user information, product details and other content. They ensure data is correctly stored, saved and presented to users.
- Website Optimization: Web developers focus on improving a site’s speed performance and security. This can include optimizing images decreasing server load times and implementing security efforts to protect sensitive data.
The Main Differences Between Web Design and Web Development
To sum up the differences here’s a type of web design vs web development:
| Web Design | Web Development |
|---|---|
| Focuses on the visual presence and layout of a website. | Focuses on the functionality and technical phases of a website. |
| Affects creating graphics, typography, color schemes and UI/UX elements. | Affects coding and programming to bring the design to life. |
| Works with design software like Photoshop, Sketch and Figma. | Works with programming languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP. |
| Initially involved with the user experience and how the website looks. | Initially involved with making the website work and function correctly. |
| Frequently focuses on ensuring the website is responsive and skilled to various devices. | Secure the website is fully functional and can interact with users. |
How Web Design and Web Development Work Together
While web design and web development are different fields they depend on one another to create a successful website. Think of web design as the foundation the elegance and layout while web development builds the functionality that supports those design elements.
- Collaboration: Designers and developers must work closely together to secure the final website meets both design and functionality requirements. The design elements must be possible to implement while developers must secure the site functions as planned.
- Responsive Web Design: A well designed website is great but if it doesn’t work across all devices and browsers it’s useless. Developers secure that the responsive design elements created by the designer are properly executed and that the site functions well on desktop, tablet and mobile.
- Testing and Feedback: Once the design is executed developers test it for any bugs or issues that could impact functionality. Designers provide feedback on the visual sides and developers fix any issues in the code.
Which One Do You Want? Web Design or Web Development
Both web design and web development are demanding to the success of your website. If you want to create an attractive website that engages users and drives conversions, you need both excellent web design and good web development.
If you’re building a brand new website, it’s important to start with web design to define the look and feel. Once the design is ready developers can then take over to make sure it’s built and functions correctly.
In short web design and web development are both strong for creating a website that is both seeing stunning and fully functional. Web design focuses on the elegant and user experience angles while web development brings those designs to life through coding and technical performance. When paired together they work perfectly to deliver a website that not only looks great but also performs at its best.
If you’re building a website, make sure to choose professionals in both web design and web development to secure you get a product that’s both beautiful and productive. Understanding these main differences will help you make logical decisions when working with designers and developers to win your online goals.