Design
& Development

And The Difference Between The Two

There are many aspects required to create a professional grade website. Two key elements are design and development. Understanding the difference between the two is quite simple: Would you rather have a picture of television in your living room or a real TV? Suffice to say, you’d probably choose the real TV. When creating a website we need both design and development. Let’s break it down a little further.

Web Design

This is the act of planning and creating a visually appealing website. What colors will you use? How many elements will be a part of your site? Are you looking for something fun, serious or classy? That feedback will help us create the framework of what will eventually become your  website. Some basic principles include:

Balance – It’s important that the designer creates a balanced website. This means using the perfect balance between darks and lights and proportioning everything correctly.

Consistency –  No matter where you drive within the United States, federal highway signs are almost always white text (Highway Gothic) placed against a green background. No matter where you travel it’s always the same familiar signage. This type of consistency should be no different on your website. As your customer “travels” through your website, each page should be consistent and familiar to your brand.

Emphasis – These are design principles used to intentionally highlight or draw a user’s attention to a particular area of your site. Perhaps you want to advertise a new product or push a customer towards signing up for your monthly newsletter, the designer ensures these areas are carefully created to draw attention to the subject matter without becoming distracting. (For example most users will start with their mouse towards the top left of the page and gradually end up in the middle. Not dissimilar to reading)

A web designer is an artist that takes the ideas in your mind and visually creates them on a “canvas.” (The canvas being a computer)

Web Development

This is when things get a bit more complicated. When the web designer is done, the basic framework is passed along to the developer. As we touched on earlier, the designer takes the idea from your mind and puts it into an artform. The developer is the person who brings it all to life.

Let’s take your email account as a great example. You might open an email, download an attachment, reply to the recipient, archive it and click back into your inbox. All of these little functions work because code is running the background telling your computer and a distant server what those buttons should do on your command. The developer’s job is to ensure all of this works seamlessly.

Final Thoughts

You understand your business and we understand the web. We’ll listen to your unique set of requirements and then turn those into a functional, easy to use website. Our goal is to ensure your new or existing website is not only a reflection of you and your company, but something you can stand back and be proud of. (Us too!)

We’ll also teach you how to use your new website and ensure you get the most from it. That means less time emailing us and more time running your business, the way it should be.