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Web development or Web design
Web design is the customer-facing part of the website. A web designer is concerned with how a site looks and how the customers interact with it. Good web designers know how to put together the principles of design to create a site that looks great. They also understand about usability and how to create a site that customers want to navigate around in because it’s so easy to do.
Web development is the back-end of the website, the programming and interactions on the pages. A web developer focuses on how a site works and how the customers get things done on it. Good web developers know how to program CGI and scripts like PHP. They understand about how web forms work and can keep a site running effectively.
I have never met a web designer who knew absolutely no JavaScript, PHP, or HTML. And I’ve never met a developer who wasn’t aware of the importance of design to a website.
But when you apply for a job or look for someone to work on your site, you need to know what you’re looking for — web design or web development. Even if you can do or hire someone to do both jobs, knowing the difference is key to getting the job done.
Many people do not understand the difference between Web Design and Web Development. It is easy to get confused and assume that the two are one in the same. They are not. They are actually two completely different sciences that usually require two different professionals to get the most out of your Website in both perspectives. Lets define the two:
Web DesignWeb design is the process of creating the look, feel, and branding of a Website. This should be seen as auto body work. You are working on the exterior (front end) features of your Website. Web design includes the creation of logos, graphics, and other advanced visual elements such as FLASH. Web DevelopmentWeb development is the programming (data processing) of your Website. This should be seen as building the engine of an automobile. Web development often refers to data driven Websites but also refers to other automated features such as mail scripts. Web developers add the functionality to your Website. This may be a shopping cart, registration system, or any other automated tasks you might have that, in most cases, require a database.To find someone who is superior at both is very difficult to do. In most cases, one person does the Web design while another professional does the Web development. Designers normally do not do programming and programmers normally are not graphic artists. Each requires enough work of its own. Some Crossing Over for Web DevelopersThat being said, those in need of Web development (programming) often do not require a lot of design work from a Web designer. Why? Because they forego a Website overloaded with graphics and focus the user experience on the functionality of the Website set within a simpler, usually textually based, design. A good example of this is shopping carts. ECommerce storefront owners often want the focus to be on their products and certainly the photos of their items. Overloading the Website with heavy advanced design can be distracting and slow the Website down. Under these circumstance, the Web developer will actually be doing most of the design in a textual manner using style sheets (CSS), materials provided by the Website owner, and perhaps a handful of clip art images. The logo and page header are usually the only advanced things when it comes to design. So, a Web developer does need to have design skills. They are just not geared at high level graphics or things like FLASH. My company does Web development. We do not concentrate on design, not at this time anyway. Yet, we have many Websites where we have done the design in the manner explained above. We were provided a logo and perhaps a few other materials and then we built the data driven system concentrating on good textual design and layout that compliments functionality and vice-versa.
