What is the difference between web design and web development?

More individuals are connecting to the internet as new technology and Wi-Fi capabilities make it more accessible. According to World Bank data from 2017, the number of individuals who go online more than doubled between 2008 and 2018, and the great majority of people in the United States (87%) are online. Furthermore, with the proliferation of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, consumers can connect on the move - anytime and wherever they choose.

It's no surprise that a solid digital presence is more vital than ever for businesses of all kinds. A website makes it easy for customers to locate a business and acts as a low-cost advertising platform that is displayed 24 hours a day. It gives vital information about a firm to potential clients, such as business hours and acceptable payment methods. Companies may offer their products to people all around the world over the internet. Finally, an internet presence helps a company to broaden its reach and increase its market, therefore strengthening its public image.

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However, in order for a website to be effective, it must be both visually appealing and technically sound. When people visit a website, they should find it aesthetically pleasing as well as simple to use and navigate. It is the responsibility of web designers and developers to ensure that this is the case. Continue reading to learn about the similarities and differences between web design and web development, as well as how a Web development company in India may help people enhance their business.

What is web design?

Web design dictates everything pertaining to a website's visual aesthetics and usability—color scheme, layout, information flow, and anything else pertaining to the visual components of the UI/UX (user interface and user experience). Some common abilities and tools that separate web designers from web developers are as follows:

Adobe Creative Suite 

Graphic design

UI design

UX design

Logo design

Layout/format

Placing call-to-action buttons

Branding

Wireframes, mock-ups, and storyboards

Color palettes

Typography

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Web design is more concerned with what the user sees on their computer screen or mobile device than with the processes that make it all function. They bring a digital experience to life by using color, imagery, typography, and layout.

However, many web designers are also proficient with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—being able to generate living mock-ups of a web app is useful when pitching an idea to the team or fine-tuning an app's UI/UX. Web designers frequently use templating services such as WordPress or Joomla!, which allow you to construct websites with themes and widgets without writing a single line of code.

What is web development?

Web development governs all of the codings that make a website function. It is split into two sections: front-end and back-end. The front-end or client-side of an application is the programming responsible for determining how the website will actually display the designs mocked up by a designer. An application's back-end, or server-side, is responsible for managing data in the database and transmitting it to the front-end for display. As one might anticipate, the function of the front-end developer overlaps the most with that of the web designer. Some prominent skills and technologies assumed to be specific to front-end developers include:

HTML/CSS/JavaScript

CSS preprocessors (i.e., LESS or Sass)

Frameworks (i.e., AngularJS, ReactJS, Ember)

Web template design

Libraries (i.e., jQuery)

Git and GitHub

On-site search engine optimization (SEO)

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Front-end web developers seldom produce mock-ups, choose fonts, or choose color palettes; these are typically given by the designer. It is the developer's responsibility to bring those mock-ups to reality. Understanding what the designer wants, however, necessitates some knowledge of best practices in UI/UX design so that the developer may select the appropriate technology to offer the intended appearance, feel, and experience in the final product.

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Back-end developers are in charge of an application's business logic and data administration. They create the APIs and routes that allow data to move between an application's front and back ends. Back-end developers' programming languages and tools are mentioned below:

Server-side programming languages (e.g., PHP, Python, Java, C#)

Frameworks for server-side web development (e.g., Ruby on Rails, Symfony. NET)

Database administration systems (e.g., MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL)

APIs that are RESTful

Security and authentication (e.g., OAuth, PassportJS)

Servers (e.g., Linux, Apache, Express)

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Full-stack developers are web developers that have a working knowledge of both the frontend and backend of a technological stack.

Web Design vs. Web Development: Similarities

Web design and development are critical for companies that want to build and maintain a positive online presence. These two tasks work closely together and, in certain cases, can be performed by a single person. Both web designers and web developers need programming knowledge, although to different degrees. They must also have strong analytical and problem-solving skills since they will be testing design and function options to discover the best fit. Finally, web designers and developers must stay current with the latest trends, programs, and advancements in their respective fields. When done well, design and development create a coherent tech-driven notion that connects to and promotes a company's mission, allowing the brand to communicate with more people more easily.

Web designers vs. web developers—major differences at a glance

Now that we've established that web design and web development are two independent professions, let's look at the key distinctions between the two.

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The vast majority of web designers are not programmers

Web designers are in control of a website's overall appearance and feel. They may use a visual editor like Photoshop or an app prototyping and animation program such as InVision Studio to create layouts and produce high-fidelity prototypes for creating images. None of these key responsibilities, however, need coding.

Aside from their traditional position as visual designers, the rise of content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress and no-code website builders such as Wix means that there are web designers that can use their graphic skills to construct your website without having to write code.

Assets are not created by web developers

Hire web developers in India who have the coding expertise required to make a website function. They convert the designer's wireframes and mockups into code. Web developers seldom require visual assets such as pictures behind buttons, color schemes, and typefaces. To incorporate them on the page, they only need to employ code.

In general, web developers are more expensive than web designers

Employing a web developer is typically more expensive than hiring a web designer. According to ZipRecruiter, the average hourly wage for web engineers is $36 per hour, while the average hourly rate for web designers is $29 per hour. The main explanation for this disparity is most likely supply and demand—there are more designers than developers, and coding in general is in high demand. The disparity between rates narrows as coding becomes more common among the skill pool. When it comes to knowledge, you are paying for experience whether you are employing engineers or designers.

End Note

The designer/developer hybrid who can do it all, which began as a joke in the business, is now a possible goal for both web designers and front-end developers, due to the increased availability of instructional materials on the web.

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Developers/designers with a strong understanding of both ends of the spectrum are in great demand in the business. Not that you'd want them to; the actual benefit of designers who create and developers who design is their ability to communicate in one other's languages. This not only leads to greater team communication and a smoother process, but it also means you'll arrive at the best answer possible. As a general guideline, a Web development company in Kochi can manage both the back-end and front-end of an application.