Difference Between Web Design and Web Development

Many business owners search for both web design and web development without actually knowing the difference between these two. Well, although these two can be put under one hat called “web company” there is still a big difference between the services they offer. We are actually talking about two different approaches of website creation and the skills of those doing it are completely different. Do you really have to know the difference between them since you actually want to hire someone to build your company website? Let’s try to make things more clear.

The Basics Difference between Web Design and Web Development:

Basically, when we talk about web design we talk about the visual look of the website and its usability at the same time. Web designers use various programs intended for graphic design to create the website layout and add various visual elements to the website.
Alternatively, web development means that those doing it will use the web design and turn it in a fully working website using different programming languages like CSS, PHP JavaScript and even HTML. They actually bring life to the design.

A Brief Introduction to Web Development:

Web developers, also known as programmers build a fully working website from the web design created by web designers. They break the complete design to small pieces and use programming languages to put them back together. With the help of web developers the static layout becomes a dynamic website. They can even use some CMS (Content Management Systems) like Joomla or WordPress to make it easier for their clients to update and maintain their website.

A Brief Introduction to Web Design:

Web designers generally start the work by talking to the client about the website’s objectives and purpose. After that they work on the Information Architecture and order the information given by the client. The next step would be to create a wireframe and continue with the design. There are some specific design principles that have to be followed when designing a website in order to create a great visual look of the website while taking care of the overall user experience.
Learn More Aboutthe Basic Design Principles

• Contrasting Colors – In order to make some parts of the website stand out web designers often contrast colors, element sizes, textures and shapes.
• Balanced Layout – This one is very important.A balanced website design has the right proportion of dark and light elements as well as large and small objects.
• Repetition a.k.a. Consistency – This is one of the crucial principles in web design.Having a clear and consistent navigation system on the website leads to better user experience.
• Emphasis – Some specific elements have to be emphasized. This has to be done with extra caution because if you emphasize everything it won’t have any effects. A good example is to look at a printed page which has over 85% of the text highlighted. It doesn’t look good, right?
• Unity – This represents the overall relationship between all the elements and parts of the website. It takes care of the way the human brain visually organizes different elements and groups them into categories.

Conclusion Note:
Knowing the difference between web design and web development will help the various companies choose the right one if they have to redesign their company website or make a brand new one.Of course, they can easily find people who are great at both design and programming, but most often companies hire a web design team first and after they are completely satisfied with the looks and feel of their company website they give the design files to the skilled programmer to connect all these elements in a fully working website.
We hope we have made the difference between web design and web development a bit less confusing. So, now when you know more about the difference between these two you can continue searching for the right company or person to do the required work for you. We are sure you won’t hire a web developer to design your website now or contact a web designer to make some website modifications which are not related to web design.