When you are looking to hire someone to build your new website or hire someone to work on client sites, it is important to know what you are looking for before you sign a contract. This has caused some relative frustration for me in the past so I thought I attempt to clarify the difference. Before I get into it, just understand that there isn’t a definitive black and white and it will really depend on your needs. Conversely, most web designers and developers have a multitude of different skill sets.
I thought of this analogy to make things a little clearer. I’m going to explain this in terms of building a house. Web developers are your foundation, framing, HVAC, electrical, plumbing and web designers are your interior and exterior finishes.
Web Developers
Web developers are programmers for the web. A developer is going to be able to build the structure of your house with databases and custom code and functions (Like HVAC, Electrical, and plumbing work) that web designers often cannot create. developers are the creators of all the internal functioning parts. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, a web developer is necessary to create interactivity and functionality for your users.
Check out this talented developer: Terrence Eisenhower
Web Designers
Web designers are more about the look of the site and what your visitors will see. (I consider myself a web designer.) Web Designers are going to take care of the way that the house looks. We are putting in the tile, paint, siding (not literally. haha!) and other finishes to make the house usable and enjoyable to live in. With the use of content management systems like WordPress, it makes it possible for a web designer like myself to reach into the web developers world and use a prebuilt structure to create more interactive experiences for your visitors. However, web designers are limited to what is already built and available by a developer.
The Best of Both Worlds
If you have the budget, and your project is based on user profiles, transactions, and interactions – you should hire both. You are going to get all the custom functionality and design. A good design and development team is going to work in harmony to make sure that your site looks and functions perfectly.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that people don’t care about how your site looks.
It takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave.
https://www.sweor.com/firstimpressions