What’s the difference between a web designer and a web developer and which one would be a better fit for you? let’s figure it out.
Today we’re gonna figure out those differences between a web designer and web developer and it’s a great career to be kind of pursuing but when you’re first starting out you kind of don’t know well maybe where you fit and so there are some people that are kind of both and there’s a lot of crossover between the 2 fields but I want to talk specifically about the roles the tools and the expectations of the 2 different kinds of field and then which one is the best fit for you.
let’s first start by kind of defining the two fields. we’ll start with web design I’m gonna start with the car analogy a web designer would be the person who kind of design the statistic of the car what the car looks like what the car looks like on the exterior on the interior how it feels all of that stuff experience yes that’s the web designer. a web developer would be responsible for all of that internal kind of components like the engine and the transmission that and and and all the other parts of the car that you don’t even realize you’re using when you’re using it that’s the web developer makes function makes it move makes it go. but just like an engine is useless without the car the car itself is useless without the engine it but two have to go together inevitably they’re gonna go together they’re either going to be the same person web designer or developer or they’re gonna be working in the same team and they’re going to utilizing each others strength and skill sets to accomplish that goal.
I’m gonna the first start by talking about design. web design or design, in general, the tools of the trade for a designer are going to be aesthetic tools like Photoshop or sketch interface design tools user experience tools but these would be the tools perfect. static of any sort of design but that’s print design web design product designed.
Whatever it is using the things you can actually create things to look out okay so visual tools. knowing how to use those tools and so it’s important you know those tools it’s important that not only do you know the tools but you know some other principles in the foundations of designs. we’re talking about color and space in line and form and all of those things this is the realm of a designer but yes also web designers. now web designers don’t need to know how to code you can be I know plenty of designers that are purely designers and they work out web agencies marketing agencies are they do freelance and they themselves do not code okay but knowing. What code is and how can it interacts will help you kind of better designed for the mediums that makes sense like like knowing what’s possible what’s not possible so knowing you’ll have to code it but knowing some ideas about what’s possible what’s not possible what needs to be documented what needs to be explained that’s the that’s the sign of a good web designer.
web developers and all developers work with code web developer specifically I would see spend the majority of their time working with what’s called client-side code. so client side languages like HTML CSS Javascript and there are even some Javascript frameworks like react or node what backbone working with those 3 that’s the bread and butter of a web developer. now a developer in general learns and speaks coding languages so if you kind of drift into back in development which a lot of web developers so they would speak more server-side languages like PHP or ruby and and and all those different server-side kind of technology. if you wanna be a web developer specifically you probably need to know your HTML CSS and Javascript that’s your bread and butter. you need to know that they have that down Pat and you probably want to have a good idea or at least some experience with server-side languages like Ruby or PHP or whatever so that’s kind of the realm of a web developer. you spent all of your time in a text editor in a code editor but that is the realm of a web developer. it is not the usual it is taking the visual and making it functional remember like engine and car.
Let’s talk date today kind of like operations a designer is going to spend a lot of time looking for inspiration making visual sense and try to visually communicate the message of the brand or company or the site itself they’re gonna spend the majority of their time doing visual things and and that could be anything from wireframing to mood boarding to creating brands and logos and websites and animations and all that kind of stuff you’re doing everything and anything that is visual . for web developer on their date today they’re gonna be spending time in code. they’re gonna be receiving the visuals and the documentation from the web designer and they should be working in tandem they should be working closely not in the silo but closely with the designers to make sure that the functionality is everything site where the client or the project demands but also on par with the styles of that the designers handed over those deliverables are handed over need to be executed by the developer. so they could be spending the majority of their time in code me creating branches in GitHub talk more about that different article but basically creating and making the vehicle moved. The restraints of the designer and the designer are just finding her restraints of the client or the project.
so which one is the right field for you should you start pursuing design? should you start pursuing development? should you start pursuing both? I’m gonna give you a couple opinions of mine on how to kind of decide where to go from here. so which one is going to be for you my opinion that this first take it from somebody who’s done both and does both. If you are a person who enjoys the visual aspects of things and remembers design is problem-solving it’s just it’s not just making pretty things. but if you’re somebody who likes to express your problem solving through visual modes of a solution like I think I could make sense of that using color act like I could make sense of that using typography photography all those things in the design might actually be more for you.
somebody who likes to make sense of problems that way. if you are a person who likes to do puzzles face down if you’re a person who likes to analyze things and if you were a kid that likes to take a remote control car park and see how it worked you might be the person who’s said a developer. Just say you. Maybe there’ll try a little bit of both of them out and see which one suits you and then follow and here I think the good news is none of this is final because these things are so closely related in the creative or tech world you have the ability to change your mind you have the ability to kind of flex and decide where you want to be where you want your kind of space to be I started out doing thinking I want to do nothing but print design and package design and I realized very quickly I hate it when I moved over to digital design and now I do primarily interface design experience design and front-end developing. that’s what I really really love to do but it took me some years to figure it out so I hope this video is really helped in some way for those of you that are just starting out chirped you’re out which one would be for you I think both of them are awesome careers and will really really excited for you to start down one of these out both of them both of these paths whatever it is that that kind of floats your boat and suits you I just hope whether you go down the path of designer down the path of like development I just hope that you enjoy yourself because this is really a career that has a lot a lot of people do skate jobs they hate and be part of something actually create something and make things that they really care about either way you are maker of things that’s huge that’s just so huge.
I just wanted to encourage you today making awesome stuff designing be developing however it is that you make amazing things and do it in excellence.
