Web Design and Web Development: Are They the Same?

Website building has become more important than ever before for businesses, thanks to more and more people getting access to the internet. Two of the core elements that are necessary for the website building process are website design and website development. Over the last decade, many people have been left confused by how these two terms are used. 

As many agencies use them interchangeably, it can be hard for laymen to understand the differences between the two terms. For example, if you have plans of starting your Ecommerce website, you may be wondering if you should hire an agency for Ecommerce website design in India or web development. However, the fact is that there are several differences and we will be going through each one of them in detail. 

The Basic Difference

At the core, web developers and designers deal with two distinct elements of a website. While web designers focus on the visual side of things to ensure that the website looks fantastic, web developers write the code that brings the work of the designers to life. In simple terms, it can be said that website development is not possible without website design. It is only when the developers have the design available that they can start to do their coding work. 

Roles and Responsibilities

In this section, we will be taking a look at the roles and responsibilities of the developers and designers working in a web design and development company in India.  

Let’s start by talking about the role played by web designers: 

• Consulting and Following Up with Clients: Web designers have to first talk in detail with clients to know what they have in mind. After the consultation, designers have to use their creativity to come up with design elements that incorporate the client’s ideas as well. Following up is also an important part of a web designer’s job. 
• Establishing Brand Identity and a Common Theme across All Pages: One of the major duties of a web designer is to establish brand identity through the use of graphics, fonts, themes, and colours. It is also vital for designers to maintain a common theme across all the pages of a website, as this ensures that the entire website is presented to viewers and end-users as one cohesive unit. 
• Making Web Pages Richer with Features: A website that looks good is okay, but a website that looks good and has a variety of features and functionalities has more chances of being successful. It is the job of the designers to incorporate additional features such as videos and links to different social media pages into the website. 

Now let’s take a look at the role of the developers in the best website development company in India:

• Using Coding Languages to Bring the Design to Life: Once the work of the web designers is done and dusted, it becomes the work of the web developers to use coding languages such as PHP, CSS, HTML, and JavaScript to ‘write’ the website to give life to the website design. 
• Making Websites Trouble-Free: There’s a lot of trial and error work involved in website development as creating a website that looks good and is fast and responsive can take time. The developers must figure out what the existing loopholes are on a website and to fix them so that the final product is something that impresses not just the client, but the target audience as well. 
• Monitoring Traffic: Once the website goes live, it is up to the developers to monitor website traffic to understand how well the website is able to fare in terms of engagement with users. If the engagement is low, developers can make further changes to the website. 

So now that you know how designers and developers work differently on various elements of a website, you should be able to hire a web development or website design agency in India depending on your needs.