Web Designer Vs Web Developer – What Is The Difference?
In the technology industry, there are many interchangeable terms that are used on a daily basis and some of the can be new or unfamiliar to us. We might mix up a word or two now and then and usually it is quite harmless. But it’s when we use terms that sound like they should mean the same thing, but are completely different, that we run into confusion.
Take, for instance, web developer and web designer. They do sound like it could be the very same position, conceptually at least. But that is where the similarities end and the confusion sets in. Just looking at the two terms and we can see that one, the web designer, focuses on the visual or aesthetic aspect of the site, and the other, the web developer, focuses on the invisible design, or the coding side of the website. But is there more of a difference than that? Let’s take a look:
What Is A Web Designer?
A web designer is someone who designs the visual layout of a website. Everything from conceptual design and colour collocation, to typesetting, spatial relations and user experience are all part of a web designer’s job. Using tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, UXPin and Mockplus, a web designer gets the website ready for the web developer to code.
What Is A Web Developer?
Using front end development techniques, web developers encode the pages given to them by web designers. A WordPress Developer focuses on clean code, not aesthetics, and are much more detail oriented. Web developers use a wide range of tools to do their job. These tools can include:
Source Code Management Tools: SVN, CVS and Git.
IDE: WebStorm, Notepad++, Sublime and VS Code.
Front-End Development Technology: HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
Front-End Framework: jQuery, React, Bootstrap and more.
Back-End Technology: PHP, .Net and more.
Back-End Framework: WordPress, CakePHP, Laravel and more.
The way these two roles interact in the design of a website is crucial. With web designers being more creative and artistic, and web developers more analytical, it almost seems that the two would never be able to work together effectively. But they must if they are to create a usable website, and that can often mean understanding many of the aspects of each other’s jobs.
If you are in need of a new website for your small to medium or enterprise level business, choose a Dorset web design professional that has specialists in both web design and web development and that can create a custom tailored site to your needs. If you try to save money by hiring a single freelancer, or worse – your mate Dave who’s good with computers, you won’t get the job that your business deserves.
Contact Dorset Tech
To learn more about the difference between web development and web design, contact Dorset Tech and let a website professional assist you and answer any questions you might have.
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