Locaweb Blog

The confusion between web design and web development is as common and as old as the world wide web. In great part, it stems from the fact that in the beginning of the web there really was no distinction – people who fulfilled one role fulfilled the other as well. This can be observed up to this day in markets where the web is at an earlier stage of development, and even in advanced markets among individuals who are starting to work with the web, be it as web professionals or as commercial users.

In general, people tend to either think that web designers are “people who make sites”, and don’t know there’s such a thing as web developers. Those that have learned a little bit more about the subject usually go a bit further and think that web designers are the ones who do the visual website design, and web developers are the “grease monkeys” that complete the less visible, drier tasks of programming the website and making it work the way the web designers imagined. Both those visions are limited, in my opinion, though the second one has become somewhat common and is largely accepted as true.

The way I see it, web design is a subset of a larger process that is web development. Web development encompasses understanding what the website owner needs, designing the website’s layout and user interaction, programming, positioning the website in search engines such as Google, setting up applications such as e-mail and e-commerce for the customer, etc. Web design is the part of this process concerned with the information organization, visual design, and overall user experience. Purists will point out that each of these functions could be performed by a different specialist, which is true, but the combination of them is what can probably be most accurately name web design.

This is a subject that usually causes heated discussions, and in my opinion these discussions don’t lead anywhere. The important thing to watch out for when you choose someone to create your website, you should be on the lookout and make sure that the company or person who is going to be creating it has the necessary skills to do a good job in all aspects, and not just the visual design. It doesn’t matter what label they introduce themselves with; you should always try to see their previous work and if possible talk to some of the owners of the websites they created.