Web Design or Web Development

[dvduval]

I personally deal with web design for applications all the time. For example, a customer needs a design for an ecommerce application, directory, forum, blog, cms, etc. Most applications these days have templating systems and/or instructions on integrating the design with the templates.

I got in a discussion with someone that felt that integrating design with applications was web development, not web design.

In my point of view, the word "design" in and of itself is artwork, but not integration. But when you place the term "web" before it, you now are talking about using HTML at the very least, right?

So I'm curious, do you feel that "web design" by definition includes integration with web applications? And also, do you do this type of work often?

[lin robinson]

I don't see why this distinction would be made.

How is this different from automobile design? You have a driveline, suspension/frame, bodywork, windows, cockpit. All are designed, all function together integrally.

[bumfluff]

"Web design" is simply the act of designing a website. That can cover any-and-everything from site layout and information hierarchy through to the look and style - but it's not just artwork. "Web development" is more the coding side, making a design into a working model.

In real world terms, there's a lot of overlap. Most website designers will do the integration/development as well (to some degree, anyway). "Website designer" has become quite a generic term for a number of website creation skills.

4p

::edit::

And also, do you do this type of work often?

A fair bit. More and more clients are going for CMS systems as they prefer the convenience of being able to make changes when they like.

[markie]

A web design is a skin you integrate with a web system or application, so web design is the look of the site.

Web development refers to the process, whether that is a simple html/css site with no other code or a full-fledged white-label system with half a million pages and 50 million users. The whole thing is development (a process) not design (to make something look a certain way).

So you are a web designer whose role is part of a process of web development. the two terms are not synonymous but part of the same semantic structure to describe what you do.

We are all web developers, whether we design, script, do systems architecture, frameworks, OO programming, object relational mapping, we are all developers, but only the person who makes it look a certain way to the user is the designer (or a member of the design team).


This throws a few random thoughts for me (not an attempt to be prescriptive just chewing-the-fat-)

<rant>
To my mind there is a fundemental problem that we encounter in the industry today. In that increasingly (and this has been the case for ten years or so) people -laymen and some in the industry- see "designers" as "coders" when this is not the case. Although HTML, CSS are code based systems, they are for the most part just a series of linear instructions for the markup and layout of text. This is the realm of a designer in the first part, the visual display that the user interacts with, it is his title and something he should strive to be good at.
A designer may have the ability and knowledge to start using some levels of script (javascript, PHP, Rails -intentional dig-) and will integrate them into his designs providing the hooks to server based code and function, and this is where we encounter some initial problems. As we pass from the skin of a site to the functionality we often encounter a range of badly coded sites.
This is because we have designers using many systems without fully understanding the implications of their actions. They often do not understand load balancing, processor prioritisation, memory allocation (those are just system problems), there is also a whole range of differing issues between distros/server OS and the specific language or script in use, and if the site uses a database then we enter a whole new world where some level of object relations and object mapping must be understood. Such as the usage of primary keys and foreign keys for example.
They are in fact just doing simple scripting, they often are still not coding the entire functionality but using command scripts to interact with other modules. Now, we can introduce a high degree of complexity by this process and in fact can enter the realms of full OO programming, but what is common is that designers with loose grounding in OO skills are unleashed upon complex systems with little or no formal training. Even worse they do it on an occasinal basis so do not keep up to date with their code. Code works best when it is constantly re-worked, using new development process and triage to keep it trim and functional. As hardware systems develop so should the software that runs on them. There is almost always new libraries, or a better way of achieving your goal with less code and less excess functionality, which is why a scripter should do just that, and leave the design to the designer.
Some of the reason we have sites that lag, or produce odd effects, or are open to abuse from hackers and malicious code are because we have a jack-of-all-trades running the entire show. Now, I am not suggesting that the designer -shouldn't do any functional work- but I am suggesting that if they do use complex systems, and they do not work exclusively within these areas, they seek to collaborate with people who do.

- Hmmm, I have more thoughts on this but no time to go with them yet -
</rant>

[Shane McManus]

Usually "design" refers to the front end and "development" refers to the backend.

[Arleigh]

Web Design simply refers to the overall appearance of the site while web development refers to the process which involves coding or programming languages...

[TWD-Tony]

To my mind a designer is an artist - who takes a blank canvas and turns it into a design concept. If the site is basic HTML or simple scripting (like basic PHP etc) then the designer may well have the skills to implement this too...

A developer on the other hand is not a "coder" but deals with the functionality of the website, the user experience (navigation etc), SEO (which should be built into the website whilst it is being built and not thought about afterwards), legal requirements, and a whole host of other stuff...

A web developer should be able to call on the skills of other people (designers, coders etc) to accomplish his / her goal of creating the best website for their client.

[silklink]

Hi

I think it's quite simple:
Design - the act of sytematically planning something, normally in words and images, to achieve something. Could be a web site, boat, building, car, ect.
Development - the act of developing - bringing something, like a design, into being.

From a web point of view, your client comes to you and says 'I want this, that and the other'. Your initial steps are to sketch out a design, which includes ideas, technical bits, colours, accessibility, and so on. Your next step is to bring that lot together and make it happen - develop it. You may choose a template if that meets your design criteria, but that is still in the development domain.

So, if you do these things, you are both a designer and developer. That means you get double the pay for both jobs, right?

Regards
Paul

[Schelly]

Originally Posted by silklink

So, if you do these things, you are both a designer and developer. That means you get double the pay for both jobs, right?

LOL Wouldn't that be nice!

In our business model we have a guy who plays in Photoshop all day. When I say it that way, don't take offense - we have utmost respect for his work! We all call our daily efforts "playing" because that's what it feels like. Who was it that said if you enjoy what you do for a living, you never work a day in your life? Well anyway... he plays in Photoshop, the account person plays on the phones and in meetings getting new clients, and I play in code and deployment. We are a web development team. We call the guy playing with pixels in Photoshop the "designer" and they call me a developer (among other things).

I think it's really up to the individual but that's how we do it.