Today, there are a lot of design firms and agencies that can provide you with intuitive and aesthetically-pleasing UI designs for websites and mobile applications.
If you’re thinking about having your website designed (or redesigned), you should know the major differences between designing and developing a website.
Both activities entail creating websites that are easy for users to navigate and understand, but there various fundamental differences between them.
However, they usually go hand in hand; design and development often take place simultaneously and must be performed by the same team of designers and developers to produce effective results.
In this blog, we will discuss the difference between design and development in detail so that you can have a better understanding about them.
Table of Contents
What is Web Design?
Web design includes everything that goes into designing a website. It includes Research, Wireframing, and Prototyping. It concentrates more on understanding the user experience (UX) of the audience.
If people visiting your website don’t feel comfortable, they’re not likely to stay long.
Designing websites and mobile applications are one of the most creative jobs available. It involves visual appeal, layout, typography, images, videos, and everything else that is necessary to make your site look professional and engaging.
Web design is what makes your website beautiful; it’s the imagery, colors, and layout that make your site unique.
Why is web design important?
Web design is important because it helps to improve user engagement. Users are more likely to stay on your site and consume your content if they’re able to easily navigate your website and understand what the website offers.
As such, good website design will help to increase conversion rates and ROI for your business. With a better website design, users will be more likely to stay on your site for longer and be more likely to buy from you.
A website design is a prototype to understand more about the layout, color, typography, and other features that a client is looking for in a real website.
Designing a website before development prevents most of the mistakes that might occur at the development stage.
Instead, it is always better to design everything at first, ask for client approval and further changes to be made, and continue to the development stage only if the client is completely happy with the design.
Because it is easier to make changes and edits in the designing phase than in the development phase.
Software or tools used for designing
Here is a list of the software that is used for designing websites
- Figma
- Adobe Photoshop
- Sketch
- Google web designer
- Adobe Dreamweaver
What is Web development?
Web development is the process of developing a completely working website. This can include everything from the technical aspect of the site, such as setting up a hosting account and installing the necessary software, to building a completely live website.
This is the phase in which the actual working model of the website is built. So far, in the design phase, everything designed is more like a virtual or non-existent webpage that just gives an idea of how the real website might look like.
In the development phase, all those designs take life and come into existence.
Similar to the design phase, developing a website involves a lot of software and tools. You can completely custom build your website by coding every bit and piece or you might choose website builders like Webflow or WordPress.
It depends on the overall budget of your website, the expected timeline, and the project’s complexity.
Is Hiring a Web developer necessary?
Developing a website comes with the responsibility of maintaining it, and keeping it secure and updated. If you create a site that’s filled with inaccurate information, you’re likely to quickly lose the trust of your readers.
To ensure you’re staying on top of your content, and keep your website free of malware you need to maintain your website. Without proper website maintenance, your website can be constantly broken, causing your users to lose trust in your brand.
That’s why outsourcing web development is recommended. Professional web developers who are experts in creating websites will take the burden off your plate and keep your website updated and secure.
They also save you a ton of time and make your job easier.
Website Builders for developing websites
There are multiple website builders that can help you create websites with an easy drag-and-drop method. Some of the popular website builders used for developing websites are
- Webflow
- WordPress
- Squarespace
- Shopify
- Weebly
- Wix
Depending on the scope of the project, its budget, and duration you can either choose to create your website using website builders or completely develop it from scratch.
Wrapping up
Hope this article helps you understand the difference between design and developement.
