What's The Difference Between
Web Design And Web Development?
Overview of this week's e-Newsletter
I ran into an interesting article online the other day pointing out the difference between web design and web development and though that would be a good topic of discussion for one of my newsletters. The average Internet user probably is not aware that there actually is a stark difference between web design and web development.

What's Web Design Vs Web Development
Laying out the differences of web design and web development.
To better understand each lets first define them. Web design is the act of designing and creating the graphical presentation shown on the Internet in the form of a web page or website. Web development is the coding or programming done to create complex or interactive content and functions for a website or web page.

So as you can see there is a big difference between the two. One is more artistic and the other primarily programming oriented. Although both do cross paths as design, form and function all have to be integrated to product an effective website or web page.

Next lets take a look at some examples. A web design example would be designing the graphics for car photos on a rental car website. Or designing and creating the layout for an entire website. Also doing the limited programming for making the design of a site appear how we want it is also web design - although we're getting close to what we would define as web development.

A web development example would be doing the coding and programing to create a function on a website to process and send an email form on a website. Another example would be programming an interactive calendar for a website that allows website visitors to save information to the calendar.

The possibilities of what can be created with each are almost limitless and each provides it's own rewards and challenges.

Our Own Examples!
Real examples we've designed or developed.
So now that you understand a little more about the differences, I wanted to showcase some of the web design and development work we've done.

Web Design:

• Atlanta Dentistry - This is a great example of design work we've done. Looking over the site as a whole you'll see the color scheme chosen, the shadows, cropping and enhancing of photos, and more...
  
  
• The Promo Shop Blog - This was an interesting project where the design of the blog was made to mirror the website. As you can see the design of the blog replicates the design of the main site.

Web Development:

• Google Maps Directions - Here we developed a directions application that shows a Google map and directions on you're own web page. The development of this application makes it possible to keep a visitor on your website while providing directions to your place of business.
  
  
• Interactive Running Log - We developed a running log or diary for runners to save and keep their training information. The programming behind it allows users to save & edit runs they ran, mileage, times, paces, and more. As well graphs and charts of user data where developed and we developed the ability to map and save runs.
  

Final Words
Ending comments
With all of that said you should now understand the difference between web design and web development. I'm sure that this will be some useful tid-bits to know for the next time you need web development or design work done on your website.

And as always, look for next week's newsletter where we hope to provide you with more useful tips and advice. If you have any suggestions about topics you would like to hear more about please send us an email with your thoughts.