Knowing whether you need a web designer or web developer for your business can be confusing, especially since both help create your website. Here we take a closer look at what web design and web development are and let you know which professionals you might need for the job.
Web design relates to the visual aspects of a website or app and how its aesthetics plays into the site’s ease of use. To create an appealing and practical layout, web designers consider current design trends, plus industry standards and best practices. This framework helps guide them into making pages that are not only beautiful but elements that help visitors stay on the site for longer.
Besides the overall layout, web designers also ensure that the design elements work well on multiple platforms and devices. Their role can also include various other tasks, like creating web design style guides to maintain visual consistency on all pages and platforms.
There are three types of web designers:
Web development refers to the work of building and maintaining a website’s structure through coding or programming. Web developers take what web designers provide them with and use it to create an actual, live site where users can visit and complete tasks. They’ll also do front- and back-end work to set up the needed servers and databases and create the website elements required for functionality.
To make sure the website works and continues to work, as expected, web developers also debug websites and providing ongoing help for hosting and server problems.
There are three types of web developers:
The most significant difference between web design and web development is their purpose. At its core, web design builds a website’s visual appearance, while web development brings that website into existence and makes it functional.
Web design also focuses on creating a site’s overall layout, visual elements, and flow for the user, but it doesn’t use complex coding language to bring the design vision to life. That’s a role reserved for web development, a technical job that doesn’t create a design plan.
Web designers also tend to stick with software like Photoshop, InVision Studio, and Adobe Dreamweaver. Web developers use platforms like Python, Ruby On Rails, and GitHub.
If you’re not sure whether you need a web designer or developer for the job, here are some tasks you might need to complete on your site and who you should hire.
Hire a web designer if you need to:
Hire a web developer if you need to:
Web designers and developers often work together to create a finished website. But it’s not uncommon for freelancers in those industries to have a wide range of skills that encompasses parts of the other. Some web designers, for instance, can do front-end web development, while some web developers know how to incorporate design principles when creating functional websites. Whether you need a web designer, a web developer, or someone who does both, you can find them on Fiverr.
