Web Design Vs. Web Development: Not the same.

Design and Development

The terms web design and web development are sometimes thought of as interchangeable. Allthough, the two have very different meanings. Let’s look at the differences. Know what your looking for so you know who to hire.

Web design is the front-end part of the website that you see on the screen. Web design is focused primarily on how a site looks, the visual represenstantion and how visitors who come to the site interact with it. Good web designers create websites that look great based on basic design principles blended with branding the look and feel of the business, person, or general industry the website is about. Visuals are only part of the design. Understanding usability and location of links, text and graphics is also neccessary to create a pleasent experince for your visitors or they may not return. Visitors and customers that are able to simply navigate around and find the information and products they came looking for don’t think twice about the great design the web designer created for them.

Web development is the back-end of the website, the code and programming, the nuts and bolts that powers the pages and allows for interaction with the website. Simple put a web developer focuses primarily on how a site works and functions. Experienced web developers know how to program or re-program scripts, work with various languages like HTML, CSS PHP, Javascript, etc. Further more they build and work with web forms, image galleries & slideshows, review systems, maps and much more to keep a site running effectively for the purpose it was created.

Please don’t blur the two, because you may think you talking to a designer when you may be talking to a developer and get unexpected results or become fustrated. Then again, most designers in today’s world will know some code and respect the development process. In turn most developers will understand the value of good design and create a website that functions around a particular design.
Finding a graphic-web developer, one who is both versed and experinced in creating a good design (front-end) and developing a website(back-end) around the same design he/she created is a rare and valuable find. Think of all the pieces to that go into a website that do NOT need to be communicated between two different people! That you need to communicate to only one person who understands the scope of a project from beginning to end. The time,savings, possible missed communication and collaborations are just not there to happen. If it does, that is soley between the client and the graphic-web developer. Ultimately it is one less person to have to explain anything to.

Oregon Publishing, Inc. Owner is a Graphic-Web Developer.
He also understands setting up a hosting accounts, working with domain names, integrating social media, and keeps tabs of what is going on with SEO (Search Engine Optimization

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