Web Design vs. Web Development: Knowing the Difference
For those not aware of how the industry operates, there is not much difference between “web design” and “web development.” Honestly speaking, it’s a bit tricky, considering how these domains have changed since the beginning. Today, the lines get blurred, and lots of people confuse these two closely related and yet substantially different concepts. To set the record straight, we want to raise the common question of web design vs. web development. What is the difference, and is there a winner?
Web design vs. web development
The best way to illustrate the difference is to provide definitions to both terms and then draw a parallel between the two. Let’s start with web design.
Web design
Web designing is one of the first stages of website creation. In contrast to web developers, web designers have an increased capacity to express their ideas since they are dealing with the aesthetical part of website production. It’s easy to describe them with only three phrases: graphic and web design, color scheme, and information flow. These are the basics of a web designer’s life.
However, it doesn’t mean that they can do whatever they want. The primary goal is to meet and exceed clients’ expectations. With that in mind, custom web designers put all their efforts and knowledge to build a relevant layout, pick the most eye-catching typography, and spend hours creating an authentic logo for branding purposes. All this is needed for improving UX and UI (user experience and user interface), which finally defines the best web design.
Web development
Web development is another story. Finished web design is half of the work; another half belongs to web developers. In a nutshell, website developers are in charge of making web design work. Such programming languages as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP come across as indispensable tools helping a web developer implement a raw web design into the frameworks of a website.
Another crucial aspect of the web design vs. web development competition is that development is aiming at functionality rather than beauty. This is very important, especially when it comes to hiring either web designers or web developers in NYC. A developer doesn’t create beauty in terms of visual design but builds an engine for the website’s functionality.
Conclusion
Web design vs. web development? Draw. There are no winners in this competition, as these two highly demanded jobs are widely different. What really matters is the fruitful cooperation between a web developer and a web designer, which is the only way to produce the best-designed websites.