Web Design Vs Web Development – What Is The Difference?

It is very common to hear the terms ‘web design’ and ‘web development’ used interchangeably. Whilst it is true that they are closely related, they are two separate stages of creating a website that have different aims, skills and tools. Let’s have a quick overview of these areas.

Aims

Web Design: Web Designers are more focused on creatively designing the user interface – what users of a website interact with – taking into consideration user experience as they navigate the site.

Web Development: Web Developers then take that design and implement it using code. This stage takes the creative vision of a website and makes it functional and interactive.

Skills

Web Design: As well as design principles like colour theory and typography, Designers are skilled user interface & experience (UI/UX) design – these skills, coupled together, enable Web Designers to create a design that will drive traffic to the website and create a strong internet presence. Other skills include responsive design (making sure the design works across different devices), graphic design and photo editing.

Web Development: Developers have a strong understanding of programming languages and best practises in order to write efficient code that keeps the website running quickly, smoothly and without errors. This means that the website should face fewer complications in the future as technology advances.

Tools

Web Design: Common tools used by Designers include Adobe XD, Illustrator, InDesign, Figma and Photoshop.

Web Development: Developers use languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the frontend (what you see and interact with) and languages like PHP and Python for the backend (what is going on in the background to store and process information).

Conclusion

Although Designers and Developers are very different, they do share some similarities. For instance, both have to keep a few similar things in mind – user experience, adaptability and accessibility to name a few, with the common goal of creating engaging and functional websites.