Web Design compared to Web Development; what’s the difference?

People often get confused between the terms of web designing and web development and consider them to be the same things most of the times. However, there is a major difference among the two where web designing involves creating a blueprint of how the website is going to look and involves a designing process whereas development involves the use of programming languages to build the actual structure of the website so that it can be accessed online. Read this article to learn about the difference between these two and the role and capabilities of an individual who is involved in the same.

Web designers have the task of considering the website objectives of the client where they need to consider the website hierarchy and achieve the required design through a specific process. The designers then need to create wireframes and move to the design stage. The web designers can use several design principles where you can be assured of a pleasing layout where you can offer an amazing user experience throughout.

 

Design Principles Used by the Website Designers

Balance: Web designers should be able to create a layout that is balanced. Moreover, it would be essential to create a design that is a combination of heavy and light elements at the same time. It would be better that you create a correct proportion of the respective elements in order to achieve a website design that is balanced.

Contrast: Contrasting colors are used as complementary elements in the color wheel. Designers should take a look at the contrasting size, textures as well as shapes that draw attention on the website and use these elements in equal proportion.

Emphasis: Emphasis is used as a highlight element in the website layout. Make sure that you follow the design principles and use important elements of the website in the right proportion. However, make sure that you emphasize the right elements on the page instead of everything otherwise you might end up emphasizing nothing.

Consistency: It is also referred to as repetition. Consistency is one of the crucial principles of web design with the help of which you can experience clean and consistent navigation. Moreover, it helps in providing a better user experience to all the visitors on the website.

Unity: Unity builds the relationship between the website layout and its entire composition. By grouping elements into different categories, you can ensure about the visual appearance of your website.

 

Some of the main roles of a web designer involve the following:

Designers need to use software tools including Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, or Frame so as to build the final layout design of the website

  • The designer must possess skills in graphic and logo designing
  • One must have knowledge about user experience where they can identify the simplest approach to implement a function. You should also be able to design the layout, images, buttons along with the format of the website.
  • Web designers should update themselves with the latest trends in design. Moreover, they should maintain consistency in the design and understand the functioning of the giant web companies that are making a mark in this field. They should be able to make the website navigation easy for the clients and provide an appealing appearance to it.
  • Web designers need to have a clear idea about the branding of the website, use of right color palettes, along with typography and readability of the website.

 

Development Tactics Used by the Developers

The main task of the website developers is to take the design and break it down into different components which are then assembled to build a website. The developers also need to use programming languages such as PHP which can be used to develop the various website pages.

Advanced level of web developers can choose to use Content Management System such as WordPress or Joomla which can streamline the website development and allow easy maintenance of the website.

Back-end developers, on the other hand, help in controlling the server data and convert the request into useful information. Back-end development is essential for websites that contain dynamic data which might include form submission or saving an article on the page. If you want to save information on the website, then you might require a database connection. You can use the database connection by initiating a direct connection from the server. Database queries are usually written in SQL and MySQL programming languages.

The full-stack developers, on the other hand, have a good knowledge of the different development areas.  These developers can build the website from scratch by looking at the design and creating a mark-up design and handling the back-end process and manage the database queries.  The full-stack developers combine the knowledge of website design and user experience and use it to develop the website. They make sure to use the best techniques and strategies so that the website can be developed in the most efficient way.

 

Some of the major roles of the web developer involve the following:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

  • Build an actual interface using which a user happens to interact with the website. Developers can build the interface using languages such as HTML, CSS, and JS.
  • Front-end developers can make use of the elements such as Javascript libraries, preprocessors used for styling, and other frameworks that can help in making the development process faster.
  • Front-end developers can implement the markup design that can be used by the back-end developers so as to use it in the dynamic website and submit the required data in the database.
  • Back-end developers can use PHP and MySQL to develop the framework of the website.

There are several web development tools and frameworks that can be used for the website to ensure that it works efficiently. The frameworks can be chosen according to the requirements of the client and how they wish to use the website.

Well, these were some of the major differences between website designing and web development that you should be aware of and avoid getting confused between the two. These two roles are completely different in nature and require different skills to ensure that the website turns to be useful for consumers.