Since you are here, you perhaps have decided to learn new skills and turned your head to the ‘Website industry.’ It seems like you are a bit confused as you just search to know more about the difference between web design and website development. It can occur to anyone as both of the terms deal with creating a new website.

First of all, Thank You so much for showing your interest in Website creation. To pace with the constant evolvement on the website, stakeholders are always seeking support from a web developer or designer like you to get the best site.

Second of all, choosing the right career path totally depends on you. It is always essential the path you really want to walk without any peer-pressure or surrounding pressure. Passion is indeed the positive and promising traits for acquiring skills.

Now, let’s jump into the topic and help you understand both of the terms carefully so that you can choose the suitable one and get started!

Web Design

Obviously, you can tell by the name of this ‘branch of website creation’ that it encompasses designing and relevant stuff. Well, you have guessed it right! Typically, website design is defined as the process of creation, with the intention of presenting the content on electronic web pages, which the end-users can access through the internet with the help of a web browser.

To understand better, web design is the outcome of a designer’s thinking and imagination which eventually takes shape as the eye-catching website design. To design a website, a designer needs to be very familiar with the mainstream site designs in order to stand out among millions of designs. A person who loves to and enjoys designing a creative website is known as the ‘Web Designer.’

Note that web designers do not have to deal with coding or programming. Instead, they are those creative minds who bring the storm to their cup of tea to bring out something new.

A perfect and qualified web designer must have certain traits. Still, among all the features, their ‘Creative thinking and imagination’ always get the most appreciation and reward them in many ways. However, there are specific rules for designing a website, such as balancing the color-contrast, taking every essential function under consideration, and include in the design and many other aspects.

To summarise, web design is the face or sculpture of a website. Without an underlying layer or web design, it becomes troublesome to create a website swiftly.

Web Development

Let’s say you have the infrastructural design of the building that you are about to build. Now, you need all the necessary tools and start working on it, starting from pilling the soil and other steps required to make it a building of your dream.

Likewise, website development is the process of creating a website following a particular design or from your creative thinking. Simplifying web design signifies the building’s infrastructural design, and website development is the process of building construction. A person involved in the building process is known as ‘Website developer.’

It is worth mentioning that website development comprises two parts. The two components of website development are (i) Front-end Development and (ii) Back-end development. Each has its own characteristics and role to play in terms of creating the perfect and functioning site.

Front–end Development

The front-end development of a website refers to creating the front or face of a website and making it worth functioning. This includes programming languages such as HTML, CSS, jQuery, Javascript, and other typical languages to build a website.

Back–end Development

Back-end development, on the other hand, comprises more critical tasks as it refers to the process of giving life to a website and make it functioning. Besides, other than making the website functioning, back-end development also deals with a site’s security, managing the CMS (content management system).

Learning and taking a firm grip on any or all the programming language(s) will make you a back-end developer.

Tips: If you are passionate and into a programming language, website development should be your first choice. Who doesn’t love to be called ‘Programmer’? Learning Back-end development will make you a recognized and hardcore programmer in your family or among your friends. However, the back-development language may seem difficult to you at first glance. Still, you can pull this off as practice makes perfect, so keep on practicing and grow as the first-class website developer.

What are the differences, actually?

To summarise the whole article in this section, it can be said that website design refers to shaping a website from creative thinking and imagination. Besides, one can design a website if he/she has proficiency in Photoshop, Illustrator, and other necessary software sets.

Website development is more complicated than web design. It deals with coding and programming languages to take shape from the design and create the building one by one. You can develop the front-end of a website by HTML, CSS, jQuery, and other fundamental programming languages. And to become a back-end website developer learning the in-depth programming language is crucial.

So the thin line between the two branches of creating a website distinguishes each other in many ways.

Which one to go for?

Actually, there is no straightforward answer to this question because it all depends on your preferences. Some are comfortable in designing and employing their creative minds to sketch something out of the box. Some love to write code on their computer and have fun.

Nevertheless, if you are pondering the earning factor, it is safe to say that ‘Web developers’ earn more than Web designers. You may ask why? It can be one of the reasons that site development deals with the more technical thing. But the most prominent reason it once you develop a site for your client, they are more likely to knock with different requirements and changes to the website. Web designer’s task done right after they deliver the designed product. Clients usually knock them if they want to bring some minor changes to design otherwise, that deal ends there! So, no matter which path you want to take, choose the right track because your passion will take you to the success swiftly.