Differences between web development and web designing are highly confusing for many. The two fields, although co-related, have stark differences and lead to different career fields. To help you clear a bit of the confusion, we will explain the two concepts here. We will first define web development and web designing, followed by the main differences between the two.
What is Web Development?
Websites are the most common information sources. These are created through Web Development by companies and individuals for online business, digital marketing, brand building, and sharing information.
Web Development is the process of creating a website through coding using computer languages. It includes the use of advanced technology to create a new set of web pages.
Web Development focuses on the structural, behavioral, and functional layers of a website. The structure of a website has already been explained in a previous post.
Web Developer
A developer is someone who can create fully functional and responsive websites through coding. These tech geniuses are masters of computer languages including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
What is a Web Designing?
Web designing, in contrast to web development, focuses on the aesthetics of a website. It aims at improving the UI and UX of a website.
Web designing requires significant knowledge of designing principles and graphic tools. Tools such as Figma, Canva, and Adobe XT, etc are the battlegrounds of web designers.
Web Designer
A web designer is someone who works with UI/UX designs. Web designers need to know graphic tools, global design trends, and web designing principles.
Differences between Web Development and Web Designing
As promised we are now diving into the 5 main differences between Web Development and Web Designing. Knowledge of these points will help you choose a suitable career path.
1. Aesthetics vs Functionality of a Website
A website has two aspects; aesthetics and functionality.
Web development focuses on the functionality of a website with all the codes and technical stuff.
Web designing, on the other hand, focuses on making the website more eye-catching and visually pleasing.
Let’s take the example of a “Contact Us” button on a website. How the button looks, its position and its color are determined by a web designer. While the page it takes you to after clicking is set by a web developer.
2. Types vs no types
A vague heading, I know. What it is hinting at is that web developers can have specialties or types, such as
- Frontend Developers
- Backend Developers
- Fullstack Developers
Contrastingly a Web Designer is a web designer. Web Designing is a sub-field of Graphic Designing and does not have categories.
3. Organic field vs a mix of skills
As a career choice web development is focused on coding through computer languages. Web development is a pure field and does not require the knowledge of other supporting fields.
Web designing, in this sense, is a mix of skills. It requires a bit of Graphic Designing, Digital Marketing, and Content Writing. Being familiar with the field of psychology helps web designers a lot.
4. Graphic Software vs Computer languages
A fact already established above is the use of computer languages by web developers. These languages include HTML, CSS, C++, JavaScript, and many more.A web designer focuses more on graphic tools such as Figma, Canva, etc.
5. Development vs Designing
As cliche as it sounds, the two fields differ in their primary roles and requirements.
A web designer envisions and designs a website or web page. The said design is then passed on to the web developer.
The web developer is responsible for bringing the design to life, not literally though. The web developer follows all the technical processes and makes the website functional.
Conclusion
The differences between web development and web designing are numerous. For instance, web development requires computer languages, while web designing uses graphic tools. The five main differences between web development and web designing have been explained above. Based on these differences where do you think your expertise lies?