What Is The Difference Between Website Design And Website Development
Web design and web development are the key elements of building a website, as your website is the heart of your online presence. Social media, email marketing, or any other online marketing channel will lead prospective customers to your website. Here’s where they convert from a possible customer to an actual one.
What’s the difference between web design and web development, and why do you need them? Let’s find out!
Table of Contents
The Goals
Web design aims to determine what your website needs to look like to convert the most customers. Web designers answer questions like, “How can we convey your brand image through the website?” and “Where should we place a customer call-to-action?”
They create the visuals of a beautiful custom website aimed to provide the best user interface and customer experience. If we use the analogy of a phone, they are the people that decide what material the front and back case should be, if the phone has curved or straight edges, and where the home button goes.
A web developer works on the website’s back end or makes everything work. They are behind the complex coding which makes each feature of your beautiful website work. To use the phone analogy again, they would be behind the circuit boards, battery, and things you wouldn’t even know about that make your phone function.
There is a lot of cross-over between the fields, and their leading goal is the same, to build a world-class website. They both go hand in hand and should be compatible. Ultimately, the person who designs what a website looks like and how it works should be on the same team. The same can be said for our phone analogy. Imagine if someone designed the phone and someone else built the inside circuitry without ever speaking. That’s a recipe for disaster!
The Priorities
A web designer will focus and nearly obsess over creating a clean, unique, and easy to navigate website for both your visitors and you. Anyone who can use Photoshop and knows a little HTML can get up and claim they are a web designer. However, a true professional would create a masterpiece, while an amateur would barely get the job done.
You can judge the difference by what they emphasise. A professional web designer would highlight how to entice your customer to make a purchase and leave an impression on them. The web pages would be clean and beautiful.
In contrast, an amateur will clutter your web pages. They may have unique design elements, but it might be difficult for customers to find what they are looking for, and the colours might be too loud and the text in your face.
A professional web developer wants a fast-loading and efficient website for you. They want to make the website easy to maintain as well. Adding new features and web pages would be a breeze if coded well. Do you expect to see a ton of traffic? Will your website work just as well under pressure? That’s what a web developer would work on.
Anyone with a little python or java under their belt can claim to be a web developer. An expert can get twice the work done in half the time and half the coding. They have mastery over the technology they use and are quick to solve problems.
What’s the point of a beautifully designed website when it has terrible loading speed? What if a customer used a Contact Us form or requested a quote for a service, and you were never notified? So many things can go wrong if the web developer doesn’t focus on the right things.
We build stunning, user-focused websites that will wow your customers.
Are you a business owner in Singapore, Australia or worldwide? We work with clients across the globe to deliver beautiful yet functional website designs.
The Technology
Web Design utilises aesthetic tools like Photoshop, sketch, and other interface design tools. Web designers think creatively and focus on making your website visually stunning and leading customers to a call to action.
They will create the visual building blocks that make up your websites. They can use various tools to make custom action buttons, infographics, and a customer-funnelling landing page.
They will obsess over the colour, spacing, lines, and forms to create the perfect aesthetic for your website. When they are done, you will have a website that efficiently conveys your brand image and converts customers.
A web designer can get away without knowing how to use coding languages and platforms. However, if they have basic knowledge of different techniques and technology, they can design website features better around them.
If they know how to code, they can create your website from both the front and back. While the focus is on what stuff looks like, understanding the principles behind making it work helps them design better.
Web designers are inherently graphic design experts. They comprehend UX or UI design and can craft compelling wireframes, mockups, and storyboards. At the same time, they are marketing experts and understand human psychology to some extent. Knowing where to place call-to-action buttons and how to design a landing page for the most customer conversion come’s with the territory.
To accomplish all this, they use tools like:
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Digital Storefront platforms like Wix and Square Space
- Digital Website Builders
- Flutter
- CorelDraw Graphics Suite
- Sketch
Web developers use the heavy technical machinery that makes your aesthetic website work. They utilise different programming languages, libraries, and frameworks to encode a website. While all developers use programming languages, web developers utilize what we call “client-side” code.
They only serve the backend, with technologies:
- Java Script and assorted frameworks like NodeJS or React
- Libraries like JQuery or
- CSS and CSS Preprocessors
- Git
Conclusion
To put everything in perspective, web designers decide the ingredients and flavour of a cake that web developers mix and bake. Then the web developers add the frosting and decorations too!
While the developer makes the gears turn, a website designer makes your website a true asset. Web designers make your website look great and function well. They know how to draw the customer’s attention and leave the right impression for your brand. Knowing the difference between web design and development helps you hire the right team to build a website.
Get in contact with the team at Chillybin today and we can start designing the perfect website for your business.
