Web Design & Development ; Definitions, Differences & Benefits
“ A user-interface (UI) is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it’s not that good.”
-Martin LeBlanc, Iconfinder.
Have you ever come across a website or a game app? A funny question, right! Since in this digital era, there’s no way you have never seen a website, because if you haven’t, you weren’t be here in the first place!
Now the right question is, have you ever wondered who’s actually building up all those websites for us? There comes the role of web design and development in! Now you must be confused with the said role since it clearly involves two completely different terms, ‘design’ and ‘development’. So how come they appear together in most of the usage? Let’s have a sneak peek into it!
1. What Is Web Design & Development?
Briefly, web design and development is an umbrella term that encompasses the whole process of creating a website. Now it is apparent that it involves two major and separate skill-sets naming; ‘web design’ and ‘web development.’ Where web design takes the charge of visual and aesthetic appearance of a website, web development looks after the overall functionality of it, the way it performs on the user’s end. And since there is no hard line to separate these two otherwise different roles, people often use these titles interchangeably
But what is more interesting to know here is the fact that a website’s design is responsible for almost 94% of the first impression that users get while 42% of people will leave a website because of poor functionality (Top Design Firms, 2021). So, both are equally important in one way or the other.
However, as the world of webs continues to evolve, so do these two roles. Even while often working together, a web designer and a web developer generally do different tasks to build a complete website. You might possibly come across someone who is a designer and the developer at the same time, but generally, these two are different areas. Together they work to create websites and apps that are easy to use, visually appealing, and accessible to a wide range of devices.
Now, let’s have a deeper understanding of each of the two roles by breaking things down into smaller chunks.
What Is Web Design?
In simple terms, web design is all about what the users see. It involves everything that is related to the visual aesthetics and usability of a website – from color scheme, layout, and information flow, to everything else that is related to the visual aspects of the user-interface (UI) and the user-experience (UX).
A web designer is mainly concerned with what users actually see on their computer screens or mobile devices instead of bothering about the mechanisms beneath the surface that make it all happen and work. He has the power to use colors, typography, images, and layouts in such a way to bring digital experience to life.
Main focus of a web designer is to provide good user-experience to the users by keeping them in mind while designing the sites. He makes sure that the layout is practical and easy to follow for the users and above all, the web is efficient for different types of devices.
Common skills and tools that set a web designer apart from a web developer are;
- UI & UX design
- Graphic design
- Logo design
- Adobe Creative Suite (e.g., PhotoShop, Illustrator, or other designing software)
- Layout / format
- Placing CTAs (Calls-to-action) buttons
- Branding
- Wireframes, mock-ups, storyboards
- Color palette
- Typography
You’d be hard pressed to find a web designer who didn’t know at least a little HTML or CSS since they help him to create living mock-ups of web apps while pitching an idea to the team or fine-tuning the UI/UX of an app.
What Is Web Development?
Opposite to web design, web development is all about what users do not see. It governs all the code that makes a website tick. The role of a web developer can be split into two categories; front-end and back-end development.
Front-end development
It is the client-side of an app, dealing with the code responsible for determining how exactly a website will actually display the design mocked-up by the designer. Now you may have it confused with the role of a web designer. But the main difference is, a front-end developer doesn’t usually create mock-ups, pick color palettes or select the typography – these are all provided by the designer.
A front-end developer is responsible for having a sound understanding of what designer actually wants and how to deliver the expected final product. Hence, it demands some knowledge of best practices in UI/UX design so that the developer is able to choose the right technology while delivering the desired look, feel, and experience.
Common skills and tools associated with a front-end developer are;
- HTML / CSS/ JavaScript
- CSS preprocessors (i.e., LESS or Sass)
- Frameworks (i.e., Angular JS, React JC, Ember)
- Web template design
- Libraries (i.e., jQuery)
- Git & GitHub
- On-site search engine optimization (SEO)
In a nutshell, a front-end developer is responsible to breathe life into the mock-ups designed by the designer.
Back-end development
It is the server-side of an app responsible for managing data within database and serving the data to the front-end to be displayed. It involves governing the business logic and data management on the back-end of an app or a website.
A back-end developer writes the APIs and routing that allows data to flow between the front-end and back-end of an app. In other words, he takes care of the overall functionality of a website on the bac-end, while tweaking with the database, programming language and codes.
Common tools and programming languages unique to a back-end developer are;
- Server-side programming languages (e.g., PHP, Python, Java)
- Server-side web developing frameworks ( e.g., Ruby on Rails, Symfony, NET)
- Database management systems (MySQL, Mongo Database, PostgreSQL)
- RESTful APIs
- Libraries (i.e., jQuery)
- Authentication & security (OAuth, PassportJS)
- Servers (e.g., Linux, Apache, Express)
Here is the catch: A web developer who keeps the work knowledge across the front-end and back-end of a technology stack is regarded as a full-stack developer.
2. Benefits of Web Design & Development
With the prevalence of digital marketing, a business is incomplete without having its online presence, that is to say-so a website that represents its core purpose and objectives. So if you have a business, you must own a website that is well-designed and developed to provide best user experience. Some major takeaways from web design and development are;
- Boosts sales growth
- Generates long-term customer relations
- Provides accessibility to larger and wider audience
- Builds branding authentication
- Offers well-maintained consistency
- Gives competitive SEO and better search rankings
Need Web Design & Development Services For Your Business?
Whether you have a start-up or a scale-up business, go and grab some good web design and development services to unlock the maximum potential of your online marketing. Not familiar with any web design and development agency? Let’s us make it easier for you! Reach out to Devbolts LLC which stands out for its best web design and development services for all kinds of businesses in the market.