Question of the Week: What’s the Difference between A Web Designer and Web Developer?

Let’s turn to the 1970's to illustrate the answer to this. 

Think of a web designer as an architect - like Mike Brady from The Brady Bunch. And consider the web developer a construction worker - like the construction worker from The Village People.

Can you dig it?

Web Designers Are Responsible for How the Pages Will Look

They decide where the images will go, how the buttons will be placed, what the color scheme will be, and other stuff like that. It's like how Mike Brady drafts a building plan before handing it over to a construction firm.

Once Mike has handed over the building plan, then the Village People construction guy (and the firm that employs him) do the job of building the structure itself. In other words:

Web Developers Write the Needed Codes to “Build” the Website 

They take the design and make it work. 

Of course, there are those who can code and design at the same time. It would be like Mike Brady plunking on a hard hat and welding steel joists right alongside the construction worker and his other village friends (except the cowboy, who prefers the open range to the confines of a building).

So let’s move back to the 21st century and break it down a little more.

What Are the Skills and Tools of a Web Designer?

The web designer governs not just the visual aesthetics, but the overall usability of the website. They must be able to answer the hard questions like:

• Do the user interface and experience work? 
• Does the information flow?
• Are dancing robots effective design elements?

Here are some of the skills and tools that distinguish the web designer from the web developer:

Graphic design

Logo design

Layout/format

Branding

Wireframes, mock-ups, and storyboards

Color palettes

Typography

Placing call-to-action buttons

Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator) or other design software

This list is far from exhaustive. But in a nutshell, web designers are concerned with what the user actually sees on a screen, and not so much about the mechanisms beneath the surface that make it all work. 

They use their expertise of color, images, typography and layout, to bring the miracle of life to the digital experience. That’s some powerful stuff.

So Then What Are the Skills and Tools of a Web Developer?

Back in the day, web development was essentially about

writing to the back-end and possessing a whimsical lack of concern about the look of things. But that day has passed.

Web development is currently divided into three segments - front-end, back-end and full stack.

Front-End Development 

This is all about creating the layout of a website. It’s the component that users not only see, but also with which they interact. Development on this level uses:

• HTML/CSS/Javascript (predominantly)
• Bootstrap 
• Angular.js.

Back-End Development 

This development concerns itself with the functional part of a website. Its what makes the website work. Back-end developers don’t have set  languages in which to code and are able to choose those they prefer. By languages we don’t mean French/English/Italian, but rather PHP/Java/Python/Perl. 

Some of the frameworks include:

• Ruby On Rails
• Django
• Node.js. 

Bored yet? If not, there’s more. Because back-end development is also responsible for interacting with the Database. This requires its own set of exciting and exhilarating languages like AJAX/MySql/MongoDB.

Moving on.

Full Stack Development

Despite the girly calendar sound of it, this is essentially a combination of front-end and back-end development performed by someone who is able to work comfortably with both. So that means s/he can use all of the above frameworks and languages and is probably going to be the life of the office holiday party this year.

So that's it. You're now clear on the differences and may continue on with your day.

Enough said.