Website Design vs. Website Development: What’s the Difference?
Who do you hire to make your website great? A web designer or a web developer? That’s the million dollar question. What the heck are you going to type into the google search bar to find the company that’s going to build your priceless website design?
If you’re not sure, read on my friend. This post is for you.
What is Website Design?
Website design refers to the format of your website when a user looks at it: the visual, aesthetic look that people will see when they land on your .com. It’s the fonts, the colors, the images, the layout, etc. Good website design is visually pleasing to the eye, logically formatted and easy to use. It’s built with the user and the brand top-of-mind.
Website designers, those are the peeps responsible for making your website design look real, real good. And there's more to great design than just making things look pretty. Real designers are problem solvers above all.
What is Website Development?
Website development is all the good behind the scenes that makes your website work. It’s the functional part of the website. The part that no one sees but is just as glorious as the website design of the site. Website developers use a whole different slew of languages to craft a working website. They speak code, CSS, HTML, javascript, etc.
Without web developers, the links wouldn’t click, the pages wouldn’t load, and actions wouldn’t function on the page.
Both are real, real important to success.
It’s important to not only work with a solid web developer, but to make sure that a web designer is also throwing their hat in the project. The good-looking website design that the user interacts with, and the clean code tucked away behind the scenes work together to make a website not just look good, but work smoothly, too.
The brains of these two skilled professionals have the power to create something so much greater than just a good website. The brain of one of these professionals is sure to leave a big half of the website whole wanting more, and we will warn you that it is very, very rare to find these two skill sets in one individual.
Both the website designer and website developer should work with the same goal in mind, and both should communicate regularly throughout the project.
If you’re getting suspicious that the designer and developer of your site were secretly working against each other, or maybe you just had one or the other present during the creation of your site, it might be time to give Nice Branding Agency a shout and let the pros get to work.
But Wait, There’s More.
You may, or may not, have heard the term "user experience" lately. It’s kind of a big deal, and it’s uber important. P.S. If you don’t know what Uber is, click the link, because we just upped your cool game by at least 10% and got you a ride.
User experience (UX) refers to the way visitors use your site. How easy is it for them to find what they need? It’s about building your site with the user in mind. Good UX designers understand what their visitors want out of a website and design as such.
Good UX starts during the strategy and web design phases, and then the web developer puts the finishing touches on it through items like fast load speed; therefore, both website design and website development contribute to the user experience.
Wait, so you’re telling me there’s strategy in a website, too? Yes, baby, and finding someone who’s got it all isn’t easy.
Luckily for you, our multi-talented crew at Nice Branding Agency is composed of various Nice girls skilled in strategy and UX, well-versed in web design, and proficient in website development. Looking for the proof? Check out the website design and development project we did for our clients at AP2.
If you’re looking for a website that’s all together brilliant, give Nice Branding Agency a call to get started.
