Difference Between Web Design and Web Development

What if you’re working on a tech project and, as a startup owner, you constantly juggling tight deadlines, you decide to skip the design phase to save time? You tell your development team to dive straight into writing code and building the product.

The result? The pages get developed, but the user experience feels clunky, visuals look inconsistent, and the overall website falls short of your expectations.

That’s because design is like a blueprint — a clear map that guides developers on what to build and how it should feel. Skipping or rushing through design often leads to costly delays and rework. But once a solid design system is in place, development becomes much smoother and more efficient.

In this blog, we’ll explore how web design differs from web development and why both are essential. Plus, as a bonus, we’ll help you decide which should come first: web design or development.

What is Web Development?  

Web development refers to the coding and technical work that brings a business idea to life on the web. It focuses on building the functional aspects of a website or web application, ensuring that everything works smoothly behind the scenes.

It is divided into two categories namely the front-end and back-end. The former is the client side of the app and determines how the design mock-ups could be displayed for maximum impact. The latter, on the other hand, also called the server side of an app, looks after data management within the database and supplies that data to the front-end developers.   

Front-end developers have a lot of roles and responsibilities that overlap with that of web designers. These developers use tools and technologies such as HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Git, and GitHub, and frameworks like AngularJS, ReactJS, etc.   

While back-end developers make use of tools and technologies such as programming languages for custom software development like PHP, Python, Java, C#, restful APIs, database management systems like MySQL, MongoDB, etc.

Popular Web Development Tools You Should Know

Here are some widely used web development tools that developers rely on to build, optimize, and manage modern websites and applications:

1) Chrome DevTools

Chrome DevTools is built directly into the Chrome browser. It allows web developers to diagnose and troubleshoot web development issues by inspecting how websites perform internally.

With Chrome DevTools, you can:

1. Analyze errors and debug JavaScript issues
2. Monitor application storage and memory usage
3. Optimize website performance
4. Test website responsiveness across different device sizes and screen resolutions

2) Visual Studio Code (VS Code)

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is one of the most popular and lightweight code editors available, perfect for web developers working on multiple projects simultaneously.

What sets VS Code apart?

1. A vast ecosystem of extensions, such as GitHub Copilot, which offers AI-powered coding suggestions to speed up development and reduce errors
2. Integrated terminal and debugging tools
3. Customizable interface tailored to individual workflows

3) Git & GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket

Git is the industry-standard version control system that tracks changes to your codebase, making it easier for multiple developers to collaborate effectively.

Key benefits:

1. Maintains a detailed history of code changes, complete with timestamps
2. Simplifies collaboration by enabling teams to branch, merge, and revert code seamlessly
3. Platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket host Git repositories and offer additional features such as issue tracking, code reviews, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines

4) React

React.js is a powerful JavaScript library used to build interactive user interfaces, particularly for single-page applications (SPAs).

Why React is popular:

1. Utilizes a virtual DOM to optimize rendering by updating only changed elements instead of reloading entire pages
2. Enables creation of reusable UI components, speeding up development and maintaining consistency
3. Backed by a large ecosystem with tools like Redux for effective state management

5) Webpack

Webpack is a module bundler for JavaScript applications that compiles, bundles, and optimizes assets including JavaScript files, CSS, and images.

Key features include:

1. Bundling multiple modules into optimized files ready for production deployment
2. Hot Module Replacement (HMR) for faster development cycles without full page reloads
3. Code splitting to improve load times by delivering only the necessary code chunks

6) Node.js + npm/yarn

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that enables server-side JavaScript execution, making full-stack JavaScript development possible.

npm and yarn are popular package managers that -

1. Manage project dependencies and libraries
2. Automate installation, updating, and version control of packages

Together, these tools form the backbone of modern JavaScript development workflows, powering popular frameworks and build tools.

Read this blog – Top 9 reasons to use React in web development

What is Web Designing?  

Web designing is the process of creating the visual layout, structure, and user interface of a website or web application. It focuses on the visuals, aesthetics, and usability, covering elements such as layout, color schemes, typography, responsiveness, images, and other aspects of UI/UX design.

The primary goals of web designing are to make a web product visually appealing and functionally intuitive. UI/UX designers ensure that the website or web application provides a seamless and positive user experience.

Web designers often use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create mock-ups or prototypes. These helps communicate design ideas to web developers or refine the user interface of a web application.

What Tools Do Web Designers Use?

Web designers spend their day in and day out on these tools that help them create, prototype, and publish websites efficiently. Here are some popular web design tools you should know about:

1. Figma, Sketch and Framer (for design and prototypes)
2. HTML Designing: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Material UI (for frontend Designing and Design Library)
3. Webflow, WordPress, Wix (for no-code/low-code platform)

A) Design and Prototyping

1) Figma

Figma is the go-to tool for web designers to create beautiful designs and wireframes. You can take the suggestions from stakeholders (designers, coders) in real-time. It's about rapid prototyping and quick changes until you're satisfied with the website.

Designers can use different plugins inside this tool to avoid switching between different tools.

Some of these plugins include Screw, Unsplash, and beautiful shadow, and every plugin serves a different purpose.

Figma offers a free tier for individuals working on personal projects and basic design work. The best part? Designers who need unlimited designs and advanced features can choose from paid plans: Professional, Organization, or Enterprise.

2) Sketch

It's a prototyping tool meant for MAC users to create high-fidelity mock-ups.

This allows you to frame your ideas in a better way, collaborate with others and has an integration with a huge variety of plugins so designers can focus on creating engaging and high-quality designs on the go.

That’s why designing with Sketch is easier as compared to other web design tools.

Mac Users can start its 30-day free trial, but its standard subscription for small teams and solo designers starts with a pricing range of $10/editor monthly.

3) Framer

Framer allows designers to create interactive prototypes and publish the website on the go. But this functionality is not present in Figma currently.

Framer, a no-code website builder, allows designers like you to do everything in one place, like design the website, develop it and make it live.

You can use Framer for free, but you need a paid plan to add a custom domain and access additional features.

B) Frontend Designing and Design Library

1) Material UI

Material UI design is another web design tool that provides out-of-the-box ideas for designers to take inspiration for their design system.

Let's say a designer wants to design a call-to-action button, and then he takes an inspiration from this web design tool for creating a text button, outlined or a contained button.

Not only does this tool give variations on how the designers can design buttons or user interfaces, but it also provides exact code to developers to bring this design live.

2) HTML, CSS and Javascript

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the foundational tools for frontend web design. They provide the basic structure, styles, and interactive behaviour for every website.

Let’s say a designer wants to build a call-to-action section on a webpage. They can use HTML to structure the content, CSS to style the section, and JavaScript to make it interactive (for example, adding hover effects or animations).

Not only do these tools give flexibility in crafting custom layouts, but they also help developers build responsive and accessible websites that work seamlessly across devices and browsers

3) No-code/low-code websites

Webflow, WordPress, and Wix are popular no-code/low-code platforms that allow designers and non-developers to build and publish websites without writing much (or any) code.

They offer intuitive visual editors, pre-built components, and easy-to-use content management systems, making it simpler to create professional websites quickly.

Let’s say a designer wants to create a landing page for a product. Instead of writing complex HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, they can use these tools to drag and drop sections, customize styles, and publish the page — all in a visual interface.

Not only do these platforms offer flexibility in design, but they also handle backend complexities like hosting, SEO optimization, and responsive behaviour, so designers can focus on the creative part.

Web Development vs. Web Design

Although web development and web designing are parts of a web development process and work in tandem with each other, they are completely different functional phases.   

The key differences between web development and web designing are as follows:   

• Web developers focus on the functionality aspect of the web app while web designers decide the appearance and usability of the product.   
• Web designers conceptualize the idea and appearance of a web product as per business requirements. A mock-up defining the visual, UI/UX elements is created thereafter. While web developers check the financial and technical viability of the mock-ups before programming and coding the product. They translate the designer’s wireframes and mock-ups into code using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.  
• Web developers need to be technically sound, while web designers need not have technical skills. Some technical knowledge may help them to design the apps better, however, it’s not a necessity. Their role requires a little bit of research and analysis and creative thinking.   
• Web development includes three profiles: front-end, back-end, and full-stack developers. While web designing involves profiles for UI, UX, and visual/graphic designers.   
• The tools and technologies used by web developers include back-end programming languages, frameworks, issue-tracking platforms such as GitHub and Jira, CMSs, etc. While web designers typically make use of design editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, CMS such as WordPress or Joomla!, and website builder like Elementor, in addition to wireframing and prototyping tools.  
• Web development resources are costlier than web designing resources. However, the global demand and opportunities for both web design and development specialists are plenty high due to digitalization. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the web development field will increase by 13% between 2018 and 2028 — much faster than the national average for all jobs. 

Quick Comparison of Designer vs Developer

The table below gives the differences between web development and web designing:

Also Read: AI revolutionizing the world of web development

Which Should Come First For a Startup: Design or Development?

Whether you want to launch a basic website or a fully featured web application, it's important to adopt the design-first approach.

Design is the first step that comes before development, and it starts with clarifying your vision and seeing how users will interact with the product, how the layout will look and what functionalities need to be present.

Most startups skip the designing phase first and then focus all their efforts on coding. This sounds GOOD initially to save their time, but you’d be surprised to see the results.

They keep on rebuilding features, adjusting their layouts and developing a product that confuses users.

However, going with a design-first approach saves the developer's time.

A design-first approach keeps the end-users at the focal point, and clear visual guides help developers to create products that customers love sticking with.

While web design and web development should be closely tied to each other, focusing on user experience and user interface aspects should not be ignored. That results in the development of a scalable product that not only looks good to users but also works functionally well.

Without a strong design, development becomes guesswork. It's like creating a functional website that lacks a user’s journey.

Consider the development as the engine that brings design to life. The most beloved design-first startups, such as Notion, Airbnb and Stripe, all started with designing and empathy in mind before writing code.

But the scenario can be different when the startup focuses on functionality and technical performance; then, the development-first approach would be more beneficial.

For instance – a tech startup offering a complex SaaS product can prioritize first development to ensure that the platform is robust before investing in design.

Note – The decision between choosing web design or development first depends on the goals of a startup. If the startup's goal is to create a user-friendly interface, then starting with web design is a good option.

Best Cases When You Should Go With The Design First Approach

1. Building consumer-facing apps such as ecommerce applications, data visualization or social media platforms.
2. Creating a content-heavy site such as a new site or blogging site. In that case, you need to focus on the aesthetics of a website.
3. Developing MVP, especially when you want to get feedback.

Website Designer or Developer: Which Expert Does Your Project Need?

Hire Web Designer when:

• During the planning stage.
• Map out the visual direction of the product.
• Map out user journeys and create a usable, intuitive user interface that makes your product not just usable but also enjoyable.

Hire Web Developers When:

1. Designs are finalized
2. You have a clear blueprint of what to create

But bringing developers early is like adding a bunch of product features that don't align with the final vision. For simple projects, you can go up with hiring a full-stack developer who has designing skills as well.

But for complex projects, you need to bring designers and developers down the road to ensure that there should be a smooth transition from design to development.

Note: Early collaboration between design and development is a MUST HAVE. But design always leads the way.

Cost Breakdown: Web Design vs Web Development

Typically, web development costs more than web design due to its technical complexity. That's because development involves building something that's beyond the static site.

It’s due to factors such as coding, backend infrastructure and database integration to make the website fully functional and interactive.

While design involves branding, user experience flows and front-end and backend implementation.

Generally, web development accounts for 60-80% of the overall budget, and web designing makes up the remainder.

The final cost of web design and development depends on various factors such as-

1. Complexity of website
2. Location of development team
3. Website maintenance costs
4. Customization features

How Can BigOhTech Help You With Web Design & Development?

Although web design and web development have conceptual differences—with distinct roles and responsibilities requiring both technical and creative expertise: BigOhTech bridges the gap seamlessly.

Our in-house design and development teams collaborate closely to ensure that every website or web application is not only visually appealing but also highly functional, user-friendly, and optimized for performance.

We specialize in offering end-to-end web design and development services, including:

1. Custom Web Development
2. Responsive Design
3. SEO-Friendly Development
4. E-commerce Solutions
5. CMS Development
6. Website Maintenance & Support

As a web design and web development company, our in-house teams at BigOhTech build responsive, SEO-friendly, and custom websites that enhance your brand visibility, generate more leads, and ultimately boost your sales.

For example, We worked with HCL concerts and developed an OTT music platform that allows users to listen to their favorite Indian classical music based on their consumption history and preferences. Our web developers implemented a recommendation engine that suggests songs tailored to each listener’s tastes. In addition, we redesigned their entire application without disrupting the existing user experience.

Result? Personalized song recommendations increased the user base by 2.5 times.

So, why wait? Get your stunning custom website/app today!