Web Design vs. Web Development?

If you ventured into the online world and wanted to have a website designed, then you’ve most likely heard about web design and web development. Is there a difference between the two, and how do these influence the online world? In order to find out the answer to this question, let’s understand first what web design and web development are all about and how they can help us on a daily basis.

Web design

Web design pertains to the visual side of the website. It’s mostly focused on the looks of the website rather than its functionality, and it also places a major emphasis when it comes to the way that the customers interact with the web design as well.

In order to create a good web design you need to integrate the principles of web design, such as having a good balance, contrast and rhythm in order to obtain the best outcome.

Web design is also focused on usability and easy navigation, because this is what generates conversions and makes the website profitable, but at the same time helps with SEO and ranking as well.

Moreover, web design pertains mostly to graphics and the usage of design software, as this is what helps create the web design as a whole and which brings the website to life in its entirety. While the design is combined with code, there are many situations in which the designer will not create the code on his own. Instead, he will focus on other concepts, more specifically color, special relationships, user experience as well as audience and typography as a whole.

Web Development

While web design pertains mostly to the visual side of any website, web development is that portion that relates specifically to the operational side, also known as the back-end of the website. It’s a job that involves a lot of coding, programming and interactions. While the web design is focused mostly on the esthetics, web developers are more careful with the overall functionality.

A good web developer will know how to create and implement scripts on a website, how to program CGI, PHP but also have a good understanding about web forms and how they work, unlike the web designers that are more focused on graphics as a whole.

In the end, both the web design and the web development must work together in order to provide a professionally looking, fully functional website for any business. If a site is to be successful, it needs to have a good web design for user experience and good web development so it functions properly. Sure, the line does tend to get blurry because many developers are doing design and the other way around, but one thing is certain, both for them are a necessity for the modern web, as without them no website would exist.