Web design vs Web development 
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Web design vs Web
development
Have you ever thought about the process of how a web
application or a website is being created? What aspects
does this process include? And what skills are required to
build a website? 
Who actually creates websites: a web designer or a web
developer? 
In this article, we will explain to you why the words “web
design” and “web development” are not interchangeable
and tell you what tasks web designers and web developers
have to fulfill.
What is web design?
Commonly,
Under the term “web design” we
imply development of a visual
design of the page. But that is
just a part of the entire designing
process of a website, a web app
or another web instance (a web
banner for example).
Thus web design is about the look and feel of a web object.
When a person visits a website, he wants to see pleasantly-
looking pages that are convenient to use. When a page is
stylish and beautiful, but a user canʼt find the necessary
button or canʼt understand the meaning of some icons, this
design is poor.
Itʼs important to bear in mind that web design covers
various aspects. The core ones of them are UI (user
🎉 $
interface) design and UX (user experience) design. You
may go to our article about UI and UX to learn more about
the differences between them.
A web designer is responsible for creating visual mockup of
web pages and is focused on their style and usability. The
job of a web designer requires, first of all, strong creativity.
But also, this person should have excellent skills in working
with graphic design software that allows creating and
editing vector images, animation, photos, and other types
of visual content. To this software, we can refer such
programs as Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign,
CorelDRAW, etc. 
Poor web/visual design can definitely spoil the whole
impression that a user may get opening a web site. When
we take a book, the first thing that we see is its cover. And
we start judging it namely by its cover (though in real life,
itʼs better not to do so).
We have quite a similar situation when it comes to a web
site. We start judging it, looking at its design first. Only then
we proceed to analyzing its functionality.
And when it comes to the way a website works, itʼs time to
speak about web development.
What is web development?
Web development is an aspect
that covers the functionality of
your app or site. It’s about the
technical side of your product
but not about its visual
attractiveness.
Web development is divided into two parts: backend and
frontend development.
While backend ensures that the site is able to process
usersʼ requests, has a connection with a server and turns to
the database, frontend development covers the way in
which a user interacts with a website. 
Frontend developers should have experience in working
with those programming languages that can be read by
🔃 ⌨
modern browsers: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They also
use frameworks and libraries, including net core, jQuery,
Angular, React, VueJs, etc. Backend specialists work with
compiled (Java, Go, C#) and scripting (Python, Ruby on
Rails, PHP, .Net, Node.js, Perl).
However, itʼs worth mentioning that there are full-stack
developers who have knowledge in both these aspects and
can develop a website from scratch and ensure its full
functioning.
In this case, we do not speak about some extraordinary
creativity. Developers should have good coding skills and a
technical mindset.
Process of web designing and web
development
How are websites built? What steps are included in this
process?
Step 1. Information and requirements gathering. Itʼs
impossible to create a site without a clear
understanding of a clientʼs goal, site audience and
message we want to articulate to this audience. It is
vital to specify what purposes this site will serve, what
tasks it should fulfill.
Step 2. Planning. At this stage, based on the gathered
requirements, designers and developers should
identify how the site will fulfill its task, what pages it
will have, what types of content should be presented
and, in general, what work should be done. Moreover,
itʼs important to elaborate on the timeline and set
deadlines.
Step 3. Sitemapping and wireframing. Now it is
necessary to find out the relation between all the
pages, content and features that are to be built. A
sitemap helps specialists to get an understanding of
the inner structure of the site. A wireframe, in its turn,
represents how the user interface will look.
Step 4. Creation of textual and visual content.
Sometimes the style of content is fully pre-defined by
a client but it may happen so that designers need to do
it on their own. At this step, it is important not to forget
about the goals of the site and not let the creativity
prevail.
Step 5. Development. Though this stage may start
while the content is still being created, in the ideal
situation, developers should have all the elements
before starting to write code. Based on the sitemap,
developers build the hierarchy of the pages, add all the
necessary features and plugins and provide the
required functionality. 
Step 6. Testing. When everything is ready, it is
necessary to check out whether the site looks and
works the way designers and developers want it to do.
Step 7. Move to production. After successful testing,
itʼs time to launch the website i.e. move it to production
environment
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Even after the launch of the website, the work is not ended.
To ensure its perfect functioning and compliance with the
most up-to-date needs of your company and your clients,
regulate monitoring and updating are needed.
Difference between web design and web
development
As you can see, web design and web development are just
two stages in the entire process from a concept of a live
website, so itʼs better to look at/compare them like the parts
of one whole, that complement each other.  
Aesthetics vs Functionality
Web designers work on that part of a website that users
see. Developers task is to ensure that a website fulfills its
functions.
We can compare design and development with wristwatch
💻
and mechanism inside it. The watch itself may look really
stylish but without a mechanism it will be useless. And all
the gears wonʼt function without being put inside the
watch.
Appearance vs Contents
Web design is like a package for all the features that a
website can offer. Development is more about what you can
get sending requests, clicking the button and following the
links. 
They both may be compared with a box and candies inside
it.
Examples of web design and web
development
To create a good website or app, web designers and
developers work together. But can we say whose work is
more important? Before we give an answer to this question,
let us provide the following example.
You open a news portal. Itʼs clear that the first thing that you
see is its design (user interface design, to be more precise).
If the design is awful, not all visitors will even start using the
website itself.
But if you like it, great! It means that web designers have
worked hard on it. The first impression is positive and you
continue your interaction with the site. Everything functions
well, youʼve got what you wanted, all the buttons, links and
features (at least those that youʼve used) work. It means
that web developers have done an excellent job as well. Itʼs
highly possible that you will visit this site again or even
recommend it to your friends.
However, letʼs imagine that though the design is nice,
something is wrong with its functioning. Will you visit this
site once again? Who knows, but if you have an option,
youʼll probably choose another variant.
So, both these aspects have a strong impact on user
satisfaction and a general impression that a user may get.
Will a site with excellent design and poor functionality
succeed? Itʼs hardly possible. Or will a site with poor design
and good functionality attract a lot of users? The answer is
just the same.
Summary
😊
As you see, web design and web development are standing
close but they are different things. They cover different
aspects and they require different skills from specialists
doing them.
However, when it comes to websites creating, they are
integral parts of it and are useless without each other (do
not forget: just like a car and an engine).
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