Web design and web development: the terms sound similar, and they’re thrown around in the digital marketing world more often than almost any others. For marketers who operate outside agency life, it can be difficult to fully understand the difference between the terms. Even marketers who eat, sleep, and breathe digital marketing may be a little fuzzy on where the line between these somewhat fluid services should be drawn.
Despite the confusion and seemingly overlapping terms, there are definite differences between the disciplines of web design and web development. In order to optimize your website and set your brand up for success, it’s important to know which to utilize—and when.
Web Design Versus Web Development
Web designers speak to the visual aspects of your website after conducting targeted research. Dictating everything from the typography used in blog postings to your color scheme and page layout, web designers are the cartographers of the digital world. Their ultimate goal is to create the optimal design to increase conversion rates, and they do that by mapping out every website detail with precision. After designers have finalized their visual plans, web developers step in with the crucial task of bringing those design ideas to life.
Knowledgeable in computer coding and complex systems like Javascript, HTML, CSS, Python, and more, developers build websites that function across platforms and with search engines. Their work ensures that every button clicks and all the videos play accurately when visitors navigate to your site. Although design is a huge factor in the success of your website, if that design is poorly developed, your customers will be so busy frustratedly waiting for webpages to load that they’ll miss the awesome graphics your designer spent weeks perfecting. And, more than likely, they’ll leave your site before it gets a chance.
Take a closer look at your website with its development in mind. In addition to making sure the site functions correctly, consider this: 4.4 billion people worldwide accessed the internet in the past month alone. In order to cash in on this incredible potential, your website can’t just be passable, it must be exceptional—and its development is a key part of its creation. At Snap, we work to keep these four principles in mind with every site we design and develop.
Well-Developed Websites Don’t Happen By Chance
Every web build is based upon a set of steps that ensures no crucial part of the development process is skipped over. Every business approaches this process differently. At Snap, we’ve fine-tuned the website building process, distilling it into five simple steps. If your team is attempting a build and doesn’t have a set development to follow, use ours!
Discovery
This initial phase may take the longest of the five, as it’s when you’ll conduct all your research. What are the goals of this site? What consumer demographic will be your most relevant site visitor? What kind of information will visitors be seeking when they visit your site? Once you’ve answered these types of questions and refined your website strategy, you’ll be ready to start mapping out the infrastructure of your site.
Information Architecture
In the second phase, it’s time to start examining the aesthetic and technical components of your site to find the best functionality for your users. Consider UX and UI best practices to ensure that your upcoming designs will offer the best chance for increased ROI and a higher conversion rate.
Web Design
We’ve already hit on this third phase, which involves designing a sitemap that details the relationships between each webpage. This design aids developers in coding a responsive, human-centered design that meets and exceeds user expectations.
Web Development
Once you’ve hammered out the details, it’s time to build your site. Having talented developers behind your site ensures that you have more than the optimal look and feel for your website—you’ll have function, too.
Launch
After putting in all that work, tackling this last phase can be daunting. Take a deep breath, and hit publish!
Bad Web Development Can Tank Your ROI
In a digital space in which your money depends on how fast a page loads or if your buttons malfunction, web performance and development matter more than ever. People are impatient. If the functionality of your site is poor, consumers will close out the page and find a more reliable site with a simple click of their mouse. Take advantage of tools like Pingdom or Pagespeed Insights by Google to check your website speed and find areas that could use a functionality refresh.
SEO Matters To Developers, Too
When developing a site, it’s easy to forget the power of the consumer in our marketing world, where the search engine is king. To optimize your site for both search engines and consumers, have your designers and developers work with SEO strategists to incorporate XML sitemaps, keywords, and on-page tags to your content. By developing a well-rounded site for both people and search engines, you ensure that your site is optimized to its max.
Trust Your Web Development to Snap
Not 100 percent confident in your current web development? Let us help! Snap’s ace developers have the tools and experience to optimize your site’s functionality, boosting conversion rates in the process. We can’t wait to work with you to build something incredible.