What Are the Differences Between Web Developers and Web Designers?

Todays projects need a lot of dynamism, creativity and technical backups due to competition and rapid technology growth. While some websites can be created by a single person, some may need a full team of 8-10 members. Websites are not created with one single technology; website creation is like a cake with various layers or levels. For each level is a different person specialized in that area. If we talk about SEO professionals or content creators or graphics designers, people know they are different, what their work is all about, but with website developers and website designers, people get confused and think both of them are the same. While work of both is totally different but it is interlinked, website designers and website developers are both different professionals, with different skills and different job roles. Their area of expertise is different. For example, website developers work on the back-end and website designers work on the user side. Let us understand in detail how both are different from each other.

Who is a Web Designer?

As the name suggests, web designers are responsible for the designing of the website which includes all visual things that the customers will see. Web designers are the creative ones here as the designing process takes a lot of time in understanding which layout is good for the business and will attract customers too or the user experience, the color, font size, etc.

Web designer’s work also includes the proper understanding of customer psychology as the ultimate users of the website is going to be the customer. Other important areas include a good sense and understanding of colors, typesetting, fonts, patterns of designs, creation of user interface which is engaging and much more. The interface can be different from site to site. It can be a layout depicting by just a picture or the full-fledged coding with CSS, HTML or JavaScript. This is the job where creativity is more important than qualification.

The tools used by Web Designers are:

• Adobe
• Sketch
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Canva

What is the Job Description of a Web Designer?

• User interface which is the most important part of a website is taken care by the web designers. Other than that, over all performance of the website and the whole visual part is responsibility of the web designers;
• The whole designing of graphics for product catalog, prototyping design, page design;
• The whole part of advertising design is also the responsibility of web designers.

So, we can say that in the whole process of website creation which involves the look of the website as well as the speed of it is the part of website designer. A web designer gather all information of the company, its products and place it in the website to create an impression on the customers.

Through various tools, web designers create the part which is called the initial version of the website, and then pass it to the web developers. Who are website developers? Find out.

Who is a Web Developer?

The whole technical part that is coding is being taken care by the website developer. Other than technical skills website developers possess good analytical skills as well as logical skills. When it comes to website development, there are two types, one being the front-end development and the other being the back-end development. The role of a front-end website developer is to look after the User Interface and User Experience which is similar to the work of a web designer. The major difference between the website designer and website developer is in the back-end part. The work of a web developer mostly revolves around the functionality part of the website. The technical skills includes languages like Python, PHP, Java etc.

When the developers receive the design of the website by the designers, they encode the pages. The work of a web developer is providing a clean code with focus on each part. The job of a web developer is not to look whether the website looks good or not but to make sure that it is coded right.

The tools used by a Web Developer are:

• HTML
• JavaScript
• CSS
• React
• Bootstrap

What is the Job Description of a Web Developer?

• A web developer is responsible for all the coding, layout and functionality of the website.
• Working with server-side framework and server architecture.
• Maintenance, growth and testing once the website is complete.

Front-end web development is the top choice of people who want to make career in website development because of the scope and opportunities available.

Difference between Web Developer and Web Designer

• While a web designer’s complete focus is on the feel and look of a website, a developer’s complete focus is on inner workings and functionality.
• Designers should be expert in languages like CSS, JavaScript, HTML and the Developers should be expert in languages such as Java, Python, PHP, Rails, Ruby, etc.
• Designing takes the creative part of the brain which is the right brain while development takes the logical and reasoning side of the brain which is the left brain.
• Designers work with design and User Interface and the developers work with solutions that need logic.
• As the work of web developer is more complex, it requires more qualifications and understanding of computer science than that of a web designer. The languages used in designing can be easily learned. Designers just have to be creative with their work.

Who are Full Stack Developers?

Now we know who web designers are and who are web developers and what are their differences. But what if a person can handle both parts of a building process? The website designing and front-end and back-end website development? Then we can say that such programmers are the Full Stack Developers. As these programmers are skilled for both areas, they alone can create the entire website or application without any help as they have an in-depth knowledge of front-end as well as back-end. With the rising competition, the demand of full stack developers is growing as these programmers work dynamically and understand the full procedure of website building.