In order to develop a good looking and functional website we need to collaborate with both web designers and web developers. While an individual can wear the hat of both a designer and a developer there are nuances to each that differentiate one from the other. In today's article we will see the difference between a web designer and web developer. Whether you are working on a website or you wish to work in this field I hope this article gives you insight to collaborate better or for you to choose a more suitable career path.
To bring a website to life we require both a web designer and a web developer. In short, a web designer works on the user experience and how the website should look, whereas the developer turns the designer's work into a fully functional website using code. However today with the advancement of no-code tools and CMS softwares anyone can build a website but if you wish to customise it beyond the scope of these tools the help of a developer is still necessary. Please note that no code tools and CMS softwares only help reduce the dependence on a web developer and are not intended to replace web developers. In fact a lot of web developers nowadays use these tools as it helps them deliver quality output in a short span of time.
Web designer’s work on the creative part of the website alongside ensuring good user experience. Their knowledge of visual design such as colour, layouts, typography help them craft websites that adhere to the brand identity while standing out and speaking to the target audience.
After understanding the website's goals the next step involves creating a sitemap (information architecture) which covers the various pages along with the content in that page along with any sub pages and their content. This helps ensure that all the required information is covered and the navigation is clear. The primary goal of a website is to communicate the businesses goals and direct the users towards the intended action they must perform when they enter the website in a clear and concise way.
Web designers are not only responsible for the look and feel of the website but they must also work on the user experience aspect of the website. While a visually pleasing website can grab users attention, if the website is not unable and user friendly the users are going to close the website and move on. User experience helps ensure that the users find it easy to navigate the website wherein they are directed in the right way to perform the intended action through the right placement of information.
An important aspect to keep in mind while designing a website is to ensure that the design is suitable for different devices. Hence it is the web designers responsibility to ensure responsiveness and adaptability.
Popular tools used by web designers today include, figma, sketch and Adobe XD (not available for purchase, currently only supports existing users).
Web developers are the technical experts who take the vision of the web designers and turn them into a functional website using code. It is their responsibility to ensure that the website is functional across devices and browsers.
Web developers can be classified into front end, back end or full stack developers.
Front end refers to the part of the website which a user sees and interacts directly. It is the web designer's vision from a visual and user experience standpoint.
Back end refers to the server side of the website that is not visible to the user to be interacted with. It involves writing APIs, managing databases, creating libraries, and working with system components without the need of any user interfaces. The work done by back end developers is indirectly accessed by users via the front end application.
Full stack developers are website developers who can handle both the front end and the back end.
Common programming languages used by web developers include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, PHP, Ruby, jQuery, and React.
In general, while web design and web development are fields by themselves, having a fundamental knowledge of the other field is always helpful and beneficial. It is important for web designers to design websites that can be implemented. Hence having a basic knowledge of how coding works will help them design websites such that they can be implemented plus it will help them communicate with the web developers easily. Similarly web developers having basic design knowledge will help them understand the language of designers and communicate with them better. It also helps them make quick changes if the designer is occupied. Overall fundamental knowledge of the other field helps in better collaboration.
With this we come to the end of this article and I hope it was of value to you. Thank you for reading.
