Hey everybody i’m salahtobok web developer and in this article we were going to present and clarify those differences between a web designer and web developer .

Actually both web designer and web developer are great careers to be kind of pursuing but when you are first starting out them ,you kind of don’t know maybe where you fit ,so there are some people that are kind of both and there is a lot of crossover between the two fields but i want to talk specifically the roles , the tools ,and the expectations of the two different kind of fields and which one is the best kind of fit for you .

The roles

Let’s first start by kind of defining the two fields as you read below :

Web Design : refers to both the creation of the aesthetic portion of the website and it’s usability and manage the interactivity in portion of all of the web page ,in other hand encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; interface design; authoring, including standardized code and proprietary software; user experience design; and search engine optimization. Wikipedia

Web Development : is the practice of producing and control the front core of the website or the Web Application ,and more precisely is the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet or an intranet. Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, and social network services. Wikipedia

From the definitions above you had noticed that there is some an interference within those fields ,in action the both two engine relate with each others like the car the its engine , so the two web developer and web designer have to work together and utilizing each other’s strengths and skillets to accomplish their goals .

The tools

I’m going to first start by talking about design okay so a web design or design in general the tools of the trade for designer are going to be aesthetic tools like Photoshop or Sketch interface design tools user experience tools but these would be the tools that affect the aesthetic of any sort of design whether that’s print design web design design whatever it is these are going to be the things that you can actually create things to look at okay so visual tools knowing how to use those tools and so it’s important that you know those tools it’s important that not only do you know the tools but you know some of the principles in the foundations of designs we’re talking about color and space and line and form and all of those things this is the realm of a designer but 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 at web agencies marketing agencies they do freelance and and they themselves do not code okay but knowing what code is and how it kind of interacts will help you kind of better design for the medium does that make sense like like knowing what’s possible what’s not possible so knowing you’ll have to code but knowing some ideas about code what’s possible what’s not possible what needs to be documented what needs to be explained that’s that’s a sign of a good web designer .

Web developers and and all developers work with code but web developers specifically I would say spend the majority of their time working with what’s called client-side code okay so client-side languages like HTML CSS JavaScript and there’s even some JavaScript frameworks like React or Node or Backbone working with those three 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 drip into back-end development which a lot of web developers do they would speak more server-side languages like PHP or Ruby and and on all those different server-side kind of technologies if you want to be a web developer specifically you probably need to know your HTML CSS and your JavaScript like that’s your bread and butter you need to know that and have that down like path and you probably want to have a good idea or at least some experience with server-side languages like Ruby or 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 visual it is taking the visual and making it functional remember like engine and car .

The expectations

Ok let’s talk day to day kind of like operations
The designer is going to spend a lot of time looking for inspiration making visual sense and trying to visually communicate the message of the brand or the company or the site itself they’re going to spend a majority of their time doing visual things and that can be anything from wire framing 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 .

And for web developer on their day to day they’re going to be spending time in code they’re going to 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 a silo but closely with the designers to make sure that the functionality is everything the site or the client of the project demands but it’s also on par with the styles that the designer has handed over those deliverable that are handed over need to be executed by the developer and so they’re going to be spending the majority of their time in code creating branches in github we’ll talk more about that in a different video but basically creating and making the vehicle remove per the restraints of the designer and the designer is designing things per restraint of the client or the project .

Which one is the right field for you ?

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 going to 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 is this from take it from somebody who’s done both and does if you are a person who enjoys the visual aspects of things and and remember 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 solution like I think I could make sense of that using color I feel like I could make sense of that using typography and photography and all the things then design might actually be more for you okay 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 are the kid that like to take your remote-control car apart and see how it worked you might be the person who’s a developer .
Just say maybe dabble try a little bit of both of them out and see which one suits you and then follow it 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 kind of 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 hated math and I moved over to digital design and now I do primarily interface design experience design and front-end development and that’s what I really really love to do but it took me some years to figure it out.

so which one is the right field for you

So I hope this article is really helped in some way for those of you that are just starting out try to figure out which one would be for you I think both of them are awesome careers and really excited for you to start down one of these paths both of them both of these paths whatever it is that kind of floats your boat and suits you I just hope whether you go down the path of design or down the path of like development I just hope that you enjoy yourself because this is really a career that has a lot of people to escape jobs that they hate and be part of something actually create something and make things that they really care about either way you are a maker of things and that’s huge that’s just so huge and so I surely encourage you today to be making awesome stuff be designing be developing however it is that you may make amazing things and do it in excellence if you have any questions please let me know down in the comments if you want clarification on anything I would love to answer your comments also make sure you register to webcodein and share this article .