Web Design versus Web Development: What’s the Difference?

Website design is an amalgamation of flexible website and graphic design solutions designed to enhance the website’s appearance, performance and user interface. Websites are typically designed to be easy to use and intuitive. Professional website tools are specially designed and introduced to address the user’s specific needs. Most well-designed and effective websites offer an attractive and appealing layout, a professional back-end, an attractive landing page. All these elements combine together with an SEO strategy to position the site high up on a Google search and ranking. An excellent professional web designer develops and codes the website pages and mobile apps for businesses and companies. With the massive surge in popularity of mobile devices, more websites are now requiring mobile touch screen accessibility. The website designer will code sites connected to the main website so they will be compatible and work smoothly together.

Web designers are thoroughly familiar and up to date with new internet technology. They should be fully versed in the latest computer programming and coding skills. Web designers also need to be creative so that the website is appealing, follows modern standards and has a degree of interactivity for the user. It needs to be populated with relevant and informative data. The development stage also includes links to social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google +, or Pinterest. There may also be a downloadable brochure or YouTube video. One of the primary objectives of a web designer is to ensure users visit the website and stay there as long as possible. That will create a better chance of making a sale, gaining a new client, or even retaining existing customers.

Web development, on the other hand, is a broader term for the job that involves developing a website for the internet. Web developers need to understand how all the social media networks function. One of the everyday tasks a web developer has to deal with is debugging. They will need excellent time management skills in order to meet strict deadlines. They will need to know how to deal with clients and be patient. Web development ranges from the development of the most basic static single page of plain text to the vastly more complex internet applications which are web-based, e-business and social media networking skills. Web development deals with the significant, non-design aspects of building and constructing the website.

Web development also includes Content Management Systems (CMS). It acts as a sort of middleman between the user and the data. The CMS can be built up from scratch, it may be proprietary or even an open source. The main benefit of an effective CMS is that one does not need any technical skills to operate it and make changes to the website. Large businesses sometimes have a whole team of web developers. In contrast, small companies might only need one person who may be a full-time employee, a contracting developer, or assigned to someone within the business. For larger firms, web development is a collaborative effort between various departments instead of the responsibility of one designated department. There are three areas of web development that can be specialised. They are Full Stack developers, Front-End, or Back-End Developers.