As a business owner, when you’re considering building a website, you’re likely to come across the terms “web designer” and “web developer”. While these terms may seem like the same thing, they actually refer to two very different roles in website creation.

Think of it like building a smartphone. Just like how there are teams that come up with ideas, draw mockups, and market research, there are also teams that physically create the phones, from engineering the hardware and software to bringing it to life.

Similarly, when building a website, designers and developers play different but equally important roles. In this blog post, we’ll break down the differences between these two roles, what each does, and when you might need to hire one over the other.

So, what exactly does a web designer do?

Their primary goal is to make your website both visually stunning and user-friendly.

They accomplish this by carefully thinking about the intended end users or website visitors.

Building the site’s layout, creating elements that they know the audience will enjoy, and ensuring that all pages are mobile-responsive. It’s far more than just pretty graphic design.

Before working on a website, a designer will meet with clients to discuss the type of site they want to create and the features they want to offer.

Then, using this information, they will create an interface and user experience that is engaging and easy to follow.

To ensure their user interface and design are effective, designers should conduct tests to ensure everything looks, feels and works as it should. Designers focus always on the end user.

They also stay up-to-date with the latest website trends and technologies, ensuring they are creating a modern and unique site experience.

Web designers are responsible for the look and feel of the site, while the web developer manages the site’s overall structure and functionality.

Website designers normally fall into three main specialist subject areas

UX Designer: UX designers create amazing experiences for users by designing layouts and interfaces based on user feedback and data gathered from your target audience.

UI Designer: UI designers focus on individual interactions and elements on your web pages to determine how users will perceive them when navigating through content.

Visual Designer: Visual designers ensure that your site is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use, striking a balance between design and functionality. They solve design problems and position the website to reflect the brand appropriately.

What about web developers?

Their job involves a lot of technical work and experience with complex coding techniques and advanced programming languages.

Unlike web designers who focus mainly on the look and feel, web developers are mainly responsible for bringing the website to life, based on what the web designer gives them. 

Their web development is about coding and configuring the front end, user-facing features, as well as back end servers and databases that support the front end.

Once the site is launched, a web developer’s job doesn’t end.

They conduct post-launch tests and provide ongoing support for websites after they go live.

Developers also conduct regular site maintenance, as well as correct any bugs that might have been overlooked during the development process.

In short, web developers are responsible for executing the vision created by web designers, ensuring that your website operates as intended and provides a great user experience for all who visit it.

Web developers also have specialist areas

Backend Developer: Backend developers work on the functionality to make a website work. This includes a lot of technical expertise. Their job is to ensure the website works.

Frontend Developer: Frontend developers code everything that the user sees when using a site. They often collaborate with designers when building different features of the site.

Full-Stack Developer: Full-stack developers are skilled in both frontend and backend development, effectively a Swiss army knife in web development. They are skilled enough to work on most areas of a website

Do I need both a web designer and web developer to build my website then?

It depends!

There are quite a lot of different skill sets in what both the designer and developers bring to the table. 

However, depending on the complexity of the job, both web designers and developers can pretty much handle most website builds quite easily on their own. As long as they are able to be a visual designer, and understand CSS, javascript and HTML. 

The difference between a web designer and a back-end developer is very minimal on most projects, as long as the developer has a design eye and the web designer the ability to build a functional website, you’ll be fine in whoever you choose. 

When to hire a web designer or developer

While having both a web developer and a web designer can be beneficial for building a website, it’s not always necessary to hire both as mentioned earlier. 

Depending on your website’s goals and complexity, you may only need a web designer to update the visual side of the site or bring in some new features. 

For a basic website, a designer can test usability and provide feedback on layout and design. 

However, for complex websites that work with external systems, and apps or need complex coding then a clear choice would be to use a web developers’ skills. 

Just make sure the website is planned well to begin with. You don’t need the technical jargon to instruct either a designer or developer, just a clear roadmap of how you want the site to look and work.

Summary:

We hope this post has helped you understand what the differences are. The biggest thing you can take from this is that complex website design projects will probably require a developer. These tend to be larger projects that can be anything like e-commerce website design, a site that needs to work with complex third-party integrations or anything super custom.

However, for most of you that are either looking at a website design for a startup or even a business that currently has a website that needs to improve it, a skill web designer will do a great job!