Naples Web Design Company
December 22 2010There is a Difference: All About Web Design and Web Development
As professional web designers, you may or may not have an idea about the process of web design. The process of web design involves careful planning, where you find out about your client’s concerns; content building, where you think of what information should be in the site and where to put it; designing, where you let your creative juices flow in an organized manner by drafting multiply layouts and applying the Apple inspired 10-3-1 rule (also known as the elimination process); and finally, developing, where you start coding and doing the back end stuff.
But did you know that web design and web development are sometimes confused with the other? This means that some people think that web designers and web developers are one and the same.
Although some web designers are knowledgeable about web developing, most actually choose to work with or hire a web developer. While design involves the look and feel of a website (what the visitor sees), development involves how the site’s operates.
There is actually a big difference between the disciplines of web design and web development. Let’s find out about these differences, shall we?
There are several distinct aspects of a web site, and these are:
- The graphics, color scheme, navigation elements, and anything that deals with the look and feel of the site.
- The information, the product, and everything that the site contains.
- The interactive features that the site provides for the visitor and requires infrastructure needed for the sites functionality.
- The program interactions, navigation, usefulness, and all those from the visitor’s perspective is all about the sites usability.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these aspects.
Look and Feel
A graphic designers has command on the overall look and feel of the website. The designer decides on what colors and fonts to use and how to layout each of the sites pages. This means that a good appreciation for aesthetics and feeling for combination and imagery projected on the site is of utmost importance.
Content
The texts found on the website, the privacy policy, the facts, the about page¾
These are all part of the content. This is where a content writer and a good copy editor comes in handy.
Functionality
Programmers create all the functions, which include all the interactive aspects, and animation, of a web site. With the use of different web programming languages that work either on a web server or a web browser, programmers are able top create better functionality on a website.
Graphics are animated through flash. Sophisticated and dynamic web pages come to life with Perl, PHP, and Java. Although these pages can work independently , they mostly need a database to create all the features we have come to expect from a website. To create a lot of cool effects such as swapping images when a mouse moves over an image, “ticker tapes,” links changing colors, and others, JavaScript is utilized. It works in the user web’s browser rather than on the web server.
Form processing, content management, and other administration programs are “backend” applications that make it possible for non-programmers to maintain control over some website data. All of these require integration into HTML codes.
Usability
Usability is the website viewed from the user’s point of view and involves mostly testing things like:
- Portraying of proper image
- User friendly navigation
- Links validity
- Browser compatibility
- Working applications
Overlap in Web Design and Web Development
Content creation and usability testing creates room for overlap and integration between web design and web development. Usually, content creation and the look and feel of the site is done by the web designer, while functionality and usability testing is the responsibility of the web developer.
Proficiency with graphic design tools like Photoshop and Picasa are needed by the web designer. Animation and layout of the site’s content are also a part of the web designer’s responsibility. However, they also need to know HTML codes so they can implement their designs. And, although site owners usually provide content for the website, a web designer still needs to be able to edit and even rewrite the content if necessary. They also do usability testing for navigation and site loading speed.
Functionality of the website, however, lies on web development programmers. The functionality must then be integrated into HTML pages on the site. Web developers also do usability testing, so they also need HTML knowledge as well.
This is why web designers and web developers usually work together. This is to assure the web owner that the web site does everything as requested.
Here’s the catch. Few companies can afford to hire separate experts in graphic design, content creation, programming, and usability testing. This is why sometimes a web designer also acts as the web developer and vice versa.
Article by TM web design company and Naples Web Design Company
Related posts:
