Website Design or Website Development . What do you need? What is the Difference? You just know you need a website?
When people know they need a website and they start to look for someone to help them with that process, the most common thing people start to search for is Website Designers. If fact my own parents will tell you I am a web designer. As someone who has always considered themselves a developer first it's a little strange.
So whats the difference and does it matter? At the Core of it, a Website Designer is someone who is creating a visual sketch of what a website will look like. A developer is taking that design and turning it into a functioning website. However with modern advances in web technology, new tools have emerged to allow designers to fully build websites, and developers to design them.
Ok, ok I know you just want a website that looks nice and works. Arguably the best way to have a website built is to hire a Website Designer, and then hand that design off to a Website Developer to have that vision brought to life. This is what we do at Mountain Air Web the majority of the time. We develop designs that marketing firms and design agencies send us to bring to life.
The problem is that this type of website build, is often out of the reach of a small to medium businesses budget. So, what other options do you have for creating a website. You have two choices; you can choose a web designer that does web development or you can choose a web developer that does web design. I'm going to try and convince you that the second option is a much better idea.
Here are a few things to consider. Website design changes with the seasons, styles come and go. The chances are you will want a new look for your website in a year or two, just ask a friend that has had a website designed for them 2 or 3 years ago. Does it still look cutting edge and something they are proud of? You are going to be much better off if your website code is well built and functioning well when this time comes so that you can easily give your website a quick facelift to get up with the styles of today. NO you should not have to rebuild your entire website every time you want a new look! It's also a lot easier to contract out design of elements than the development of a custom feature.