Difference between Web Designers and Web Developers

Web Design Career

A Web Designer is a person who designs web pages. Usually a designer will produce a mock-up of a page in a graphics application (for example, Adobe Photoshop or The GIMP). Once a design has been approved by a client the designer will produce an HTML template, CSS files and all of the images needed to produce the web site. These files will then be passed to a Web developer or directly to the client.

Web Design Process

• De-briefing – Client tells web designer what needs and objectives their website requires – web designer can discuss what is achievable and the given budget
• Finalisation of client requirements: the designer to reschedule a meeting with the client proposing how their objectives can be achieved – this may take several meetings
• Proposal of a sitemap or site structure – the designer comes up with what pages are required and how they will be distributed among the website
• Draft Concept and Visualisation – designer to create visual representations of the proposal and start working on the layout of the website. The web designer will need to work in close collaboration with the client in this step to better achieve the client’s needs and to meet their expectations
• Draft refinement – concepts and drafts are to be formed in a graphical program such as Photoshop – this step involves developing colour scheme and themes for the web site design
• Client approval – the client will need to approve the visual feel of the website before it is made to be functional – to make the website functional, the coding part of the website process is sometimes also done by the web designer or is often passed onto the web-developer

Designers who are able to listen to a client’s needs, refine ideas, have strong visual, able to take constructive feedback and have strong verbal communication skills will be able to better achieve a project more efficiently – resulting in both parties to be satisfied.

Web Developer Career

A web developer is a software developer or software engineer who is specifically engaged in the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over the HTTP protocol from a web server to a web browser.

Web developers are responsible in making a purely graphical website function via programming and coding.

Web site development process

• De-briefing
• Analysis of clients needs
• Specification building to address all technical aspects of the website and how these can be achieved
• Development of a prototype or demo version of a website to be approved by the client
• Content writing – may be done by the web developer or content developers to write up content for a web page
• Coding and design: this step involves turning graphical elements into functional elements. In this stage, a web developer may need to collaborate with a web designer so that the web developer understands how the design should work. Coding involves lot of testing and the time taken in this step depends on how complicated the clients needs are
• Testing out the website to ensure it is functioning the way it should and to ensure the loading time of the website is as efficient as possible
• Depending on the type of website, maintenance and updating is required for better usability and fresh content to keep user interest. Any existing bugs which were not spotted earlier are fixed in this stage. This step may include SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Do you want a web design career or a web developer job? We are currently looking for web designers and web developers to take part in large clientele projects as well as refer you to our web design referral and web developer partners – if you are interested or wish to find out more information, please apply via one of the following:

Apply as a Junior Web Designer

Apply as a Junior Web Developer