If you are looking to build a website from scratch or you want to update your current site, you need to understand what the differences are between web design and web development.
Web design and construction are two entirely different aspects of building an effective online site. However, Web design and web development are related to each other enough that people often get confused. Depending on the requirements, you can either consult a web design expert or a web development expert.
In this article, you will know what is required for what, and you can choose accordingly.
Web Security
Before proceeding over this topic, let us take a few minutes to understand the importance of website security for your e-commerce business or any blogging website.
The website cybersecurity is the most crucial investment you should never neglect. Being a robust cybersecurity platform, an SSL certificate can help you here for your website security because security is now an essential part of your website.
For example, SSL certificate’s choice depends upon the website’s requirement, like if you invest in multi-domain wildcard SSL certificates, you are saving a lot of time, budget, and energy in managing the multiple SSL certificates for all the relevant websites.
So, once you are done with installing a security check for the website, let us get into the topic.
What is web design?
As the word suggests, Web design refers to the original appearance of the website and the layout of all the pages to make your website attractive. Note that a web designer will not build the site. Instead, they will use content editing tools to create the homepages, landing pages, and internal pages. For a lot of web-based builders like Shopify or WordPress have brilliant front end editors to help build a perfect website.
Web designers are essentially graphic designers with a specialization in website design. Hiring a web designer can be crucial for the development of your online appearance.
What is web development?
Web development comes under the front-end development, which the web designer has designed. So, the web design is the shell of the website, and the web developer will make it function with required coding.
Furthermore, the web developer will write the corresponding action code for the CTA’s that the web designer has implemented on the home page or landing page.
This way, the same thing goes hand in hand. Every design element on the website will be having code making it clickable & functional. The primary job of the web developer is to bring the website to life.
Often, the web developers work with the CMS and Joomla to properly make the code and prototypes using the languages CSS, PHP, and HTML.
Web design vs. web development recap
You might have understood that web design and web development are two different aspects that a website should have. Both go in parallel lines and cannot underestimate the importance of either.
The web designer decides on the appearance of the website while the web developer makes the website functional. Both are very crucial to give life to your website. If you want to build a new website or update the existing site, you need to hunt for a web designer and a web developer. So, you can look at the table below and have more ideas about this topic.
If you are building the website from scratch:
|
New Website Needs |
Should Hire |
| to create a wireframe of your already existing web design ideas | Web Designer |
| to help you understand if the functionality you are looking for is possible or not | Web Developer |
| to build a design from a web designer. | Web Developer |
| to explain the key differences between CMS and HTML | Web Developer |
| to help you pick the right and attractive colors for your website | Web Designer |
| to help you how the website and the landing pages should look | Web Designer |
| to help you decide the correct fonts and sizes for the new website | Web Designer |
Below is the example of modifying the existing website you wish to change accordingly:
|
existing website |
Should hire… |
| If you want to switch from a CMS to HTML or vice versa | Web Developer |
| Updates about your brands, discount sales, and ongoing sales | Web Designer |
| To update page navigation or to build a new button or navigation. | Web Developer |
| Improvising a page on the website, adding a new design or the color to the website. | Web Designer |
| If a page is no longer available, constructing a redirect page. | Web Developer |
| use your CMS | Web Developer |
| Dealing with the server issues | Web Developer |
Final Words:
Be it a small size, medium-size, or a large-sized company; every company nowadays needs a website to reach out to its target audience and establish its brand.
However, the arguments of web designers versus web developers are always happening and cannot be avoided. Especially for small startups or brands where budgeting is one of the biggest issues. It comes down to a decision of cost vs benefit for the business.
We all should see that both Web designers and web developers are always playing a commendable role in bringing out the best in a website that attracts the visitors, which eventually turn into customers.
Well, like mustard and ketchup on a hot dog that tastes amazing, you need both to get the best user experience and the output. So when building the website from scratch, you will need a foundation to start with, hiring both a web designer & web developer will be essential if you don’t plan on building it yourself.