The Difference Between Web Design & Web Development5 min read

During the early stages of web technology, developers programmed and designers designed. Nowadays, the majority of front-end developers can also guide you through a storyboard, and the majority of designers are also familiar with some front-end apps like HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

In this article, we’ll compare the responsibilities of web designers and developers and go over their differences and similarities.

Web Design

The visual elements and user experience of a website are both a part of web design. A web designer would be in charge of the user experience, information flow, and color scheme. Designers are worried about what visitors to the website can and will view.

Types Of Web Designers

1. User Experience (UX)
2. User Interface (UI)
3. Visual

UX Designers

UX designers work to make sure that the website is organized in a way that engages users and provides a satisfying user experience. Their responsibility is to develop data-driven, human-centered designs. This calls for extensive testing and study to collect and analyze data that will be utilized to guide their final design decisions.

UI Designers

A website’s design team should include UI designers as well. They prioritize interactions in addition to the experience it offers. More specifically, their job is to improve a website’s usability and optimize it so that it can help promote conversions.

Visual Designer

As their name implies, visual designers deal with a website’s visual components and layout. In this project, elements of both UI and UX design are combined. A visual designer’s responsibilities center on making the interface both aesthetically beautiful and simple to use.

The majority of web designers work with a limited number of devices, applications, and programs. The most significant of these are design and editing applications and software, for instance, Adobe Photoshop.

Additionally, they might make use of tools for image compression and optimization as well as sources for stock photos. Additionally, a CMS like WordPress is frequently used by web designers.

A number of non-technical abilities are also crucial for web designers to possess. For instance, effective customer communication to manage expectations requires great communication skills. Additionally, in order to make sure that each project runs as smoothly as possible, having the capacity to work with others on a team, such as web developers, is crucial.

Web Development

All of the technical aspects and functionalities that go into creating a website are included in web development. The front-end and back-end of this can both be divided into separate groups. Front-end refers to client-side programming languages like HTML, CSS, and Javascript that directly affect how a website is displayed. The mockup of a website’s front end completes whatever tasks the designer assigns to the developer.

The code for the databases that communicate with the client-side portion of a website is written and maintained by the back-end developer.

Even though some web designers can write code, the majority of them cannot. They are in charge of the overall aesthetics of the website, but not so much its operation.

Building and maintaining a website’s fundamental framework is the main responsibility of a web developer. Their job entails doing a lot of technical labor, which includes using sophisticated programming languages and intricate coding. In a word, they translate the concepts and ideas presented by designers into actual, live, and fully-functional websites.

Web developers typically concentrate on a small number of programming languages. However, the languages they employ will vary depending on the web development work they conduct.

Types Of Web Developers

1. Front-end 
2. Back-end 
3. Full-stack 

Front-End Developers

With the use of Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress and other languages, front-end developers create real website code. The majority of front-end development, also known as client-side development, entails coding and programming the user-visible graphic components of a website. As a result, front-end developers and web designers frequently work together and overlap.

Back-End Developers

Advanced programming languages like PHP, C#, Java, Ruby, and SQL, as well as NodeJS and other server-side frameworks, are used by back-end developers to write the database and server. Back-end development, also referred to as server-side development, mostly refers to website features that take place “behind the scenes” and are invisible to front-end users.

Full-Stack Developers

Last but not least, full-stack developers write code for a website’s front and back ends. They are quite familiar with how these components operate separately as well as together. Full-stack developers set up and maintain servers, program Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), query databases, and more in addition to creating web pages using CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.

Non-technical skill sets are also useful for web developers in addition to technical ones. This includes the ability to solve problems and think analytically, both of which are beneficial while debugging. In order to effectively collaborate and communicate with clients and other significant parties, it is also crucial to possess these skills (such as web designers).

Costs Of Hiring

Employing a web developer is typically more expensive than hiring a web designer. The average pay for web engineers is $36 per hour, while the average pay for web designers is $29 per hour, according to ZipRecruiter. Supply and demand are probably the main causes of this mismatch; there are more designers than developers, and coding as a whole is a highly in-demand ability. The disparity between rates narrows as coding becomes more commonplace across the skill pool. Whether you hire developers or designers, you are paying for experience when it comes to expertise.

It would be advisable to employ a web developer to make a unique website for your business if you’re just starting out and need to build a website from the ground up. A web designer is, however, your best choice if you want to redesign a website where all the difficult coding work has already been done or if you utilize a content management system.

Website creation, development, and maintenance require the skills of both web designers and developers. In the end, the two jobs rely on one another to provide a high-quality result.

The primary distinction is that developers concentrate on the technical facets of the project, including coding and programming. Designers handle the conceptual and graphic work required to guarantee a strong UX and UI.