What is the Difference Between Web Design and Web Development?
Currently, the limitations of web designers and web developers are not very clear. A lot of designers started to learn how to code, and developers are starting to pay close attention to design principles. Is a web designer the same as a web developer? This article explains the differences in the job description, salary, skills, tools, as well as how to make a choice between them.
What is the Difference Between Web Design and Web Development? In simple terms, web design is the word for both the usability of the websites and its aesthetic portion. Web designers work with several design applications such as Adobe Photoshop for making the layout and various other visual components of the website.
Web Developers, on the contrary, take a website design from web designers and actually develop a working website from it. They make use of HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, and various other programming languages to bring to life the design files.
What does a web designer do in a typical workday?
Generally, web designers are accountable for the design of the visual structure of websites. In their typical day, they create web designs using a number of ideas, including color collocation, spatial relations, typesetting, and user experience.
By making use of graphic design tools and prototyping software, web designers make the primary version of a website. Then the finalized design is passed to web developers for coding. Have a look at some typical activities a web designer performs in a day.
- Meeting clients to talk about what exactly they want their website to do
- Organizing a design plan
- Putting in multimedia features like video, sound, and animation
- Testing and enhancing the design and website
- Uploading the website to a server
- Choosing which branding, colors, text, and backgrounds to work with
- Laying out pages and placement of buttons, pictures, and links using the design tools
They’ll work closely with web developers and marketing experts.
What does a web developer do in a typical workday?
In regular scenarios, Web developers get the design of the website from the Web designer and then implement front-end development technology to encode these web pages. They do not actually care if the web page is visually good or not, however, they are concerned about the clean code very much. Exceptional developers are often keeping their eyes to details and emphasizing each of them. Their typical daily job duties include:
- Dealing with the client, using test sites to find out which strategies are perfect for their requirements
- Establishing the framework – or ‘architecture’ – of the site
- Taking care of the site’s appearance
- Working with user access and security
- Testing the site under construction to find and fix any problems
- Ensuring that the new site can be easily incorporated into the customer’s existing network
What technical skills should a web designer have?
You don’t always need qualifications to become a web designer, but you’ll usually need to show that you’ve got the technical skills like:
- Knowledge of graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop
- Basic knowledge of web programming languages such as HTML and CSS
- Solid training in art and design fundamentals
- Business and communication skills to work with developers and/or clients
What technical skills should a web developer have?
The skills you will have to get employment as a web developer will be different from one place or one position to another, but there are many skills which can be common to most web development jobs. Check them below.
- Understanding of website building languages like HTML and CSS and also scripting languages like Javascript
- Expertise in programming languages to get more complicated, database-driven content, such as PHP, Perl, ASP, and Java
- Basic business and communication abilities to work together with designers, marketing and others
What are the optimal personality traits for a web designer?
Web designers are generally right-brained, imaginative, creative, and artistic character. They have a great knowledge of beauty and user experience and know very well what color mixtures and design element’s location would be the easiest to use and practical. They understand the best practices of USER INTERFACE design and fundamentals of graphic design and figure out users’ desires and needs. Great web designers always keep pace with the times and monitor present-day web design trends in order to create modern solutions.
Apart from that, a good web designer should have:
- Strong creative skills
- The ability to pay attention to detail
- An ability to work towards deadlines
- Good problem-solving skills and a logical approach to work
- The ability to explain technical matters clearly
What are the optimal personality traits for a web developer?
Web developers are usually viewed as someone who makes use of the left brain to develop the coding of products. They are proficient at analytical and logical thinking. They often possess degrees in computer science, programming, and also other technological areas.
Some of the web developer personality traits include:
- Excellent problem-solving skills
- Creative skills to turn clients’ ideas into workable plans
- A good appreciation of design, usability, and interactivity
What kind of tools does a web designer use?
The appropriate web design tools can boost a designer’s workflow, helping him work wiser – instead of harder – and even more effectively. In the end, they would like to invest their strength in dealing with problems, delighting end users and putting together gorgeous designs. They don’t want to waste it on boring, recurring and soul-sapping jobs.
Below are some web design tools which are utilized every day by web designers to help them make easier processes and minimize effort and time – especially in USER INTERFACE design.
Most popular tools for web designers:
- Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Sketch
What kind of tools does a web developer use?
Web development has come quite a distance in just a couple of short years. Thanks to these unique advancements. But the best and the worst point about becoming a web developer would be that the web is consistently evolving. With the range of web development tools increasing on a regular basis, choosing the best tool to do a great job is a challenge. To assist you with that, we have mentioned some of the common tools that most web developers use.
The skills and tools they use are as follows:
Source code management tools: Git, SVN, CVS etc;
IDE: VS Code, WebStorm, Sublime, etc. All these are excellent IDE, they can choose and work with any one of them;
Front-end development technology: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and so on
Front-end framework: React, jQuery, Bootstrap and so on
What are some examples of tasks a web designer does?
Competent web designers need to be familiar with code better than graphic designers and understand design a lot better than developers. As the creator of gorgeous web pages, it is their final objective to create a website which will astonish end users. Briefly, the web designer is the person who decides how the user will see the process of browsing through the website or web application.
A web designer could work with any type of site, from education to shopping. He will generally be responsible for handling the appearance of their client’s other online services like mobile applications, digital marketing campaigns, and social media accounts.
What are some examples of tasks a web developer does?
In order to enhance with great code writing technology, it is equally essential for great web developers to develop a solid aesthetic skill. Strengthen themselves with the more serious development of understanding to realize the designer’s function prototype or visual effects chart. Basically, the developer concentrates more on how the customer should be able to get things done.
He could work for a variety of businesses and public sector organizations.
Projects he might work on could include:
- Creating a secure online shopping website
- Setting up a company website
- Developing a virtual web learning environment (VLE) for a college
What are the similarities?
You can actually become a wonderful designer or developer, but it is hard to find an individual who performs exceptionally well at both. Even so, there are some similarities.
- Most designers and developers are aware of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Designers and developers have the common objective of websites which have great functionality and convenience.
- WordPress and various other content management systems let anyone carry out both designs by choosing themes and development by adding widgets and plugins.
- Both work with content producers.
All in all, both web developers and web designers will work against a singular target – to make a website or application that excites and appeals to users. To help make the internet be a better place for users, the web designers cannot ignore the coding entirely, as well as the web developers need to understand the designer and get a better collaboration.
What is the difference in salary?
1. What’s the salary for a web designer?
As of September 30, 2018, the median income of web designers is $ 73,204, usually, it is in the range of $ 62,669 to $ 83,659. But the truth is, this will depend on numerous factors and could differ widely.
The chart above is the anticipated ratio of American web designer salary, which is less than the total annual salary. Such as, the median estimated every year salary of the web designer in the USA is usually $ 73,204, therefore 50% of those doing work as web designers in the USA are expected to be lower than $ 73,204.
2. What’s the salary for web developers?
As of September 30, 2018, the total salary for Web Developer is $ 101,962, often in the range of the US $ 92,359 to $ 116,497, based on different conditions and could differ widely.
The figure represents the predicted ratio of individuals working for web developers in the U.S., and that’s lower than the annual salary. Such as, the average annual salary estimated by the U.S. The web developer is $ 77,458, therefore 50% of the people who do the job of web developers in the U.S. are expected to be lower than $ 77,458.
Web Designer Career path and progression
With experience, they could move into design team management or expand their skills to become a web content manager.
They might work towards a move into business management.
They could also work as a freelance web designer, or set up their own web design business.
Web Developer Career path and progression
With experience, they could specialize in a particular area, like e-commerce, or move up to a more senior role like the lead programmer or project leader.
They could also move into other IT fields, like systems analysis or IT project management.
Which one is right for you?
Once you are knowledgeable about the actual differences between web development and web design, you have to decide the one that suits YOU. Of course, if you’re taking a look at these descriptions and considering, “I could do any one of these!” that is alright. All these basic explanations of the typical features of web designers and developers should help:
What does it take to be a Web Designer?
Web designers usually experience the world in an aesthetic way. One example is, when providing you with directions, they could tell you to turn right when you see the big tree.
Web designers also are inclined to depend on feeling and intuition, simply because they spend a lot of time enhancing the appearance and feel of websites. Such as, in case you asked them to write a word in the center of a page, they would most likely eyeball it.
Web designers like to think of great ideas and imagine the entire scene. Such as, if a web designer were constructing an amusement park, they will love to target initially on the overall “feel” of the amusement park, the layout, as well as the way a visitor would experience it, prior to stepping into particulars like the shapes, colors, and names of the rides.
What does it take to be a Web Developer?
Web developers usually deal with the world from a logical, scientific perspective. If they are lost, instead of trying to find a familiar landmark to guide them, they may look up at the stars or maybe drop a GPS pin.
Web developers are even inclined to look at the world as a great collection of data which can be used for several reasons. In case you asked a web developer to write a word in the center of a page, they will search for a tool to measure it in the fastest, most effective way, probably by folding the paper equally into 4 pieces or grabbing a ruler.
Web developers prefer to deal with enormous projects by taking them to step by step and paying close focus on the details. If a web developer were constructing an amusement park, he would likely focus on the details of the physics of the rides as well as the number of tourists in the park could hold, and he’d process them a single small step at a time.
And unicorns? Well, they’re a unique mixture of both!
And don’t forget, it really does not matter how you will begin learning technical skills, or what route you consider. What really matters is that you have just master technical skills. Once you have mastered all those fundamental skills that both web designers and developers require, like HTML and CSS, you’ll be a whole lot nearer to unveiling the tech career which will be ideal for you.
Conclusion
Because of platforms like WordPress as well as the entire growing desire for online presence, web designers and developers are definitely more and more in demand. Because of this, any individual figuring out to move into that field is most likely making an investment in their future.
Above, we have discussed the difference between web developer and web designer. As we have seen, on paper, both specialties are extremely much different, demand different skill sets and handle different parts of the website building process.
Subsequently, in case you are employing someone for any major role in your web project, it completely matters if you are trying to find a designer or developer. And also, most web projects require both in the long run.
Even so, if you are only starting out in your career, you do not actually have to make up your final mind and stick to it. Although it’s a wise decision to make up your mind where you can get started, we also have observed that you just do not have to stay in your specific area and can always branch out and add to your set of skills.
My personal suggestion: learn the things that interest you the most. Doing this makes the steps more pleasant while still making sure that you are investing in a significant discipline expertise. You can always head into another path later.
Then again, regardless of what you call yourself and which section of the process, you supervise, the key component is always to end up having a fabulous, functional and useful website. Which can be something everyone can agree on.
So what do you see as the primary difference between web developer and a web designer? Where on the scale do you find yourself? Tell us in the comments section down the page!