Web design vs Web Development – What’s the Difference?

February 22, 2018

Written by: iNFOTYKE

Web Design Company and Web Development Company are virtually interchangeable nowadays but when it comes to technical definitions, web design and web development are different. The truth is that the two terms have fundamentally different aspects in reference to the website building process as these both require two unique skill sets. It is important to know the difference for someone who look to design and development their company’s website?

  • Design is about the visual and user experience. It’s what makes your website beautiful and easy to navigate.
  • Development is about the technical functionality. It’s what makes your website tick and connect to the outside world.

Web Design vs. Web Development

Web design is how your website looks. Web development is how your website is built.

Web design is how your website looks:

  • Colours
  • Images
  • Logos
  • Button placement
  • Link colours
  • Text styles
  • and more

Web design is the visual representation of sites usually created in some type of graphics software (Photoshop, Sketch, etc.).

Web Design vs. Web Development

Web design is primarily a focus on what a site should look like and contain, and less about how to make it happen, i.e. coding or programming. Through the use of colour, images, layout, designers bring a digital experience to life.

The styles, header, footer, and colours used on the homepage should be the same throughout the whole site. There are cases where certain elements or styles weren’t used on the homepage. In that case, a subpage design is necessary to ensure web developers know exactly what to build.

Good web design makes good user interactions, user experiences, and best practices easy. If web design is planning for these things, the development of the site will be better.

Web design vs Web Development – What’s the Difference?

Design Principles : 

  • Balance – It’s important for web designers to create a balanced layout and to ensure that all the important elements are aligned in rhythm to attract the human eye, and also make sure that they will yield the necessary output.
  • ContrastColor scheme and contrast must be well thought of and should be able to create visual harmony. It is always better to choose contrasting colours for the background and written content so that it can be easily read. Choose a darker text colour and a lighter background shade so that the result is easy for the eyes. Designers look at contrasting sizes, textures and shapes to define and draw attention to certain sections of the website.
  • Emphasis – Emphasis is highlighting certain important elements of the website layout. But do not highlight everything as if you highlight everything on the page you end up highlighting nothing. Focusing users’ attention to specific areas of the site with moderate use of visual elements can help visitors to get from one point to another without thinking of how it actually is supposed to be done. Imagine a page in a book where 80% of the content is highlighted in yellow…does anything really stand out?

Web Development

Web development is how your website is built. It requires:-

  • HTML/CSS/Javascript
  • Frameworks
  • Libraries
  • APIs
  • and more

Web development brings the design to life through code. Web developers, sometimes called programmers, take the design created and build a fully functioning website through coding. This code could be in a variety of languages, but common ones for websites are HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP. Nowadays advanced web developers choose Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress or Joomla and allow clients an easy way to maintain and update their website.

There are two major components to web development:

  • Front-end (how it looks)
  • Back-end (how it functions)

Front-end web development focuses on the display of information. Back-end web development focuses on managing information. The front-end and back-end should work together to create great user interactions and user experiences.

Through web development, a static layout can be converted into a dynamic website by using image and content sliders, buttons, and other interactive elements.

Final thoughts

Web design and web development are closely related, but they aren’t the same thing. Designers can benefit from knowing some very basic development techniques and developers can enhance their own performance with some basic design education. But ultimately the roles are distinct and there aren’t many people who offer both services in one package.

iNFOTYKE is a web design and development company in Delhi-Gurgaon having people specialising in both areas, so we can provide full-cycle services: website design and website development (both back-end and front-end).  By providing an all-in-one package, we will be able to serve our clients better as we know, happy clients are the key to business.

Web design vs Web Development – What’s the Difference?

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