Understanding Key Differences between Web Design and Web Development
The Internet has undergone through a massive transformation from the simply-written text-linked pages to interactive websites including eCommerce, e-travel, e-banking, animations, images, and much more. With the rapid innovations making their way out to digital world, things are changing fast in the arena of web design and development too.
As it has become more important than ever to develop and maintain a website for your business, you must draw some of your attention towards web designing and development. Though both of them are often used interchangeably, both the concepts are quite different from each other. And to help you on the same, we are here to discuss on what is difference between web design and web development. Let’s get started!
Website designing
Web designing can be defined as the process of designing, conceptualizing, and organizing the content which you are intending to upload online for your business. Though it was primarily involved with the way your website appears, nowadays it is considered to be much beyond of that while focussing on content marketing and management as well. Following here is a list of the key elements of website designing, which basically determine how the website will look like.
Visual elements include:
• Typography
• Written copy
• Colours
• Fonts
• Layout
• Spacing
• Shapes
• Icons
• Image
• Videos
• Mock-ups
On the contrary, the functional elements include:
• Speed
• Navigation
• Site structure
• User interaction
• Animation
The ultimate objective of website designers is to design a site that appears to be great. With detailed understanding on the user-friendliness and web usability, they try to promote user interactivity by designing a stunning website layout.
Website development
When it comes to web development, you need to mainly focus on both front-end development and back-end development. Though a web developer, typically known as full-stack developer is expected to have relevant skills to work on these both these areas, it is always important for you as the client to hire a specialist. Though front-end development mainly takes visual design or appearance of the website into consideration by using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, back-end development mainly involves advanced programming and interactions by mostly working on codes and deploying different technologies including PHP, software tools, and other CMS platforms. Some of the other popular frameworks being used for web development are Angular, Laravel, Vue, React, CodeIgniter, and much more. There are basically seven types of web development, which include:
• Static web development
• Dynamic CMS development
• WordPress development
• eCommerce store development
• Website application development
• HTML website development
• Advanced web, cloud and SAAS based development
When it comes to listing down the elements of web development, following here is a detailed overview provided.
• Audience information including: Background, Proclivities, and Interests
• Purpose statement
• Objective statement
• Domain information including: Use, Principles, and Mechanics
• Web specification
• Web presentation
Key areas of differences in between web designing and development
Though both web designers and web developers share the same kind of skills, they are certainly about to have relevant competencies in their own areas. As website designing typically emphasises on the aesthetics, designers are likely to have a higher level of knowledge on the aspects that make a website look appealing, interactive, and logical for the users. They must be proficient enough with the various design applications including JavaScript, Adobe Dreamweaver, and other scripting frameworks used for different front-end applications. Moreover, they need to ensure that the design layout they create fits the brand, colour schemes, and logos of the business perfectly.
On the contrary, web developers are the ones responsible for building your website’s functional aspects while considering all the aesthetic parameters being mentioned by the web designers. With progressive programming skills, they try to give life to the product being envisioned by web designers. They also need to have a strong grip over the various software languages including Python, Structured Query Language (SQL), machine learning, Java server development, database tools and server architecture, development of APIs to interact with objects, and agile system analysis.
Now that you have gained a clear overview on both the concepts including the areas of differences, let us help you get a closer look on some of the intrinsic factors you should always consider while designing and developing a website. The top 5 strategic factors to look for are:
• Visual: When it comes to the visual of your website, you need to focus on its look and feel which includes various details such as general layout, fonts, images, and texts. The primary goal of on-screen visuals is making the website attractive for users while making them engaged to it.
• Content: Needless to say; that content is always the king. When it comes to promoting your brand, content provides you the scope to deliver the right information people were being searching for and learn more about the business.
• Navigation: This is another essential factor, which you must take into consideration that helps you connect with the relevant and deliver an ultimate one-of-a-kind user experience to your visitors. This in turn, allows people to explore and interact more with your website.
• User-friendliness: Website usability or user friendliness focusses on embracing accessibility of the information throughout all the web pages of the site. Testing the entire website iteratively is considered to be the best way to optimise the website’s usability as recommended by experts.
• Intuitiveness: Offering a natural flow to your website visitors while browsing through your website is the main objective of creating an intuitive design. It allows users to pass through a chain of interactions smoothly without facing any disturbance or confusion en route.
The bottom line
Though the dynamics of web designing and web development are different from each other, both the concepts are equally important when it comes to building an official website for your business. Having a clear idea on what is difference between web design and web development will ultimately help you to understand the importance of both the concepts for gaining a strong online presence and expand your customer reach as well.
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