Difference between web design and web development

Web Design vs Web Development

If you are a beginner in the web world then it is significant to learn the difference between web design and web development to make the right choices ahead.

Whenever a small business or anyone wants a website design or if they look to redesign their website they search for website design company or web designing company in Delhi in Google, which is correct.

People may also use terms like “best web design company” or top website design company or dynamic website design company. It all makes sense.

However, in over 10 years of our experience we have noticed that people also use another search term which is “web development company” or website development company” or its other variations.

But very few understand the difference between web design and web development. Hence they land up choosing web development for web design or vice-versa.

The main reason of writing this article is to give a clear picture to non- technical businesses about the difference in these two search terms. So that they can get the best professional web expert for their business needs.

We feel that web design is the most common search term used for any web related technical service. It is more of the generalization of the different services provided by website experts companies.

Let’s take a sneak peek at the difference between web design and web development and how knowing this difference can get you the best resource available in the web industry to fulfill your needs.

Understanding web design or website design.

Web design is the part of creating a website which deals with front-end capabilities of a website.

This includes the look of the website, structure of the navigation, color combinations and graphics on the website.

Web design focuses on the usability of the website and is sometimes termed as US Design.

The prime role of a web designer is to make a website as user friendly as possible without compromising on the aesthetics and the visual appeal of all the web pages in a website.

It involves the use of various design programs.

For example,

Photoshop is used to create the front-end look of the website by most of the designers and no wonder it is the best tool available.

Web design process often begins with understanding the requirement of the client and the business goals they want to achieve with their website. Understanding the business goals helps web designers to come up with the written architecture of the website in which they define the flow of the information through the website.

The second stage…

…is to design the wireframes and check with client if they are moving in the right direction. Once the client approves the wireframes, web designers can move on to designing the UX UI and come to a user friendly, visually appealing layout that provides a wonderful user experience to the website visitors.

Web design is a process and involves keeping the various design principles intact while working on creating the face of the website. It is the most creative phase of website making which every company should be careful of.

Web Designers should be able to use their imagination and creativity to the fullest to get the best possible design for a website.

Read : Eight stages of our web design process.

Understanding web development.

Now comes another term which people often use when they want to search for web design companies. We being around for over 10 years providing web design and development services in New Delhi India often get leads which land on our website’s landing pages by using “web development services in Delhi” as a search term.

But actually, they want a simple website design or change the look of their existing website by redesigning it completely.

If you land on the website of a web development company while looking for web design services you may not get the experts for web design and it is vice versa.

Web development deals mostly with the programming part of website building process.

Once the design is ready for the website then web developers convert it into interactive prototype using HTML5, CSS, jQuery etc.

For dynamic websites PHP MySQL is used often these days. In fact, these days web developers use CMSs like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or Magento, Shopify for ecommerce development for dynamic features of the website.

Talking about simple features accomplished by a web developer are image sliders, images, content sliders, contact forms etc.

So this is the basic role of a developer to make the static design interactive using programming skills.

Difference between Web Design and Web Development

The role of web designers and developers may look different. But to get a professional and an interactive website for your business you need these two working their best.

To attract more visitors your website should look good and also it should work properly.

These days a web developer may also know how to work with Photoshop so one guy can accomplish the task of both. But still you should be careful while choosing the web design company.

An ideal company will have dedicated designers and developers.

Learn how to choose the best company for building your website.

There should not be any communication gap between a designer and a developer working together. Because it can lead to a disaster website rather than a beautiful and functional website. The communication between the two should be simple and easy to understand. Not only among themselves but the communication should be understood by the client and the other members of the team.

Gone are the days when beautifying your website was the trend. That used to happen 20 years back. Even print designers used to design the beautiful websites.

But these days…

…if the designers and developers are not working in coordination. Then your website will not work towards the goals of the business it is supposed to achieve.

Conclusion

This article was aimed to give a clear understanding about the difference between web design and web development. A designer can also be a developer and a developer can also be a designer.

But you should be double sure if you are hiring someone with both the skills. We recommend hiring a website design and development company which has dedicated designers and developers.