Web design and development are often used interchangeably, but they are distinct fields with distinct skill sets and specialisations. We’ll look at the distinctions between web design and web development, as well as the similarities and differences between the two professions.
Table of Content:
What is Web Design?
The art and science of planning and laying out the structure or format of a website (or any information resource) to achieve a specific aesthetic or functional effect is known as web design. It encompasses a wide range of skills, including graphic design, information architecture, interaction design, and usability engineering, but it primarily focuses on the visual presentation of content for consumption on screens.
Web designers use colour schemes and fonts to create visually appealing and easy-to-navigate websites; tools at their disposal include Photoshop for graphics creation/editing and Shopify for incorporating digital storefronts, to name a few.
What is Web Development?
Web development is more comprehensive than web design in that it includes all aspects of creating websites, from conceptualising and defining requirements to coding them into existence. As a result, web development includes both web design and programming tasks (such as developing software).
Web development can range from the creation of a single static page of plain text to the creation of complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, and social network services. Client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development are examples of more comprehensive web development tasks.
Are they similar?
While the terms web development and web design are frequently used interchangeably, web design is technically a subset of web development. Web development is a technical process, whereas web design is a creative process.
Web designers are not always developers, and vice versa. Web designers create a website’s look and feel, whereas web developers build and maintain the site. To deliver the final product, they both collaborate with other team members such as UX designers, interaction designers, and information architects.
Both need a Good Understanding of Technology
While both web development and design necessitate some technical knowledge, the two fields are fundamentally different. Web development necessitates a deeper understanding of technology, including an understanding of how computers work and how websites are built from the ground up. Designers must understand how people use websites in order to ensure that those sites meet their needs. There are some significant differences between operating complex technical machinery and repairing it when something goes wrong (or even just being able to troubleshoot).
Creativity Allowance
In Malaysia Web design is more creative than web development in many ways; it is about creating an experience rather than just building functionality for users to interact with online content (like we see on social media platforms). Web development, on the other hand, necessitates more technical knowledge than web design — understanding how all those different platforms interact (for example, HTML5 vs Flash vs JavaScript) necessitates a much larger time/money investment.
Specialisations
Both fields have a variety of specialisations. You can be a web designer without knowing how to code, but you can’t be a web developer unless you know how to design websites and develop software (or vice versa).
Web designers primarily use graphic design to create user interface (UI) concepts and visual elements. They are more concerned with how things appear than with what they do or how they work behind the scenes. Web developers, on the other hand, focus more on front-end engineering, such as HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript frameworks like AngularJS, which allow them to create beautiful interactive websites.
Digitalfren being a Website Design Company in Malaysia, our web design and development teams are always up to date on the latest technology, so you can be confident that you’re getting sound advice from the start with your next website project.
Contact us today to learn how we can assist you and book a consultation.