Which one is right for you in 2021?  Web Design VS Web Development

What's the difference between a web designer and a web developer and which one would be a better fit for you lets figure out what's up everybody I'mJesse Showalter and today we're gonna figure out those differences between a web designer and a web developer and it's a great career to be kind of pursuing but when you're first starting out you kind of don't know maybe where you fit.

So there are some people that are kind of both and there is a lot of crossover between the two fields but I want to talk specifically about the roles the tools and the expectations of the two different kinds of fields and then which one is the best kind of fit for you let's first start by kind of defining the two fields will start with web design.

                                                             

 I'm going to use a car analogy a web designer would be the person who kind of designs the aesthetics of the car what the car looks like on the exterior on the interior how it feels all of that stuff the experience the aesthetic that's a web designer the web developer would be responsible for all of the internal kind of components like the engine and the transmission  and all the other parts of the car that you don't even realize you're using when you're using it, that's the web developer makes its function makes it more makes it go.

 But just like an engine is useless without the car and the car itself is useless without the engine the two have to go together inevitably they're gonna go together they're either gonna be the same person a web designer and developer or they're gonna be working in the same team and they're gonna utilizing each other's strengths and skillsets accomplish their goal I'm gonna first start by talking about design okay so a web design or design, in general, the tools of the trade for the designer are going to be aesthetic tools like photoshop or sketch interface design tools user experience tools.

 But these would be the tools that have the aesthetic of any sort of design whether that's print design web design product design whatever it is these are going to be the things that you can actually create things to look at okay so visual tools knowing how to use those tools and so it's important that you know those tools it's important that not only do you know the tools but you knowsome of the principles and the foundations of design so we're talking about color and space and line and form and all of those things this is the realm of a designer. 

                                                               

 But yes also web designers now web designers don't need to know how to code you can be I know plenty of designers that are purely designers and they work at web agencies marketing agencies they do freelance and they themselves do not code okay but knowing what code is and how it kind of interacts will help you kind of better design for the medium does that make sense like knowing what's possible and what's not possible.

So knowing you do have to code but knowing some ideas about code what's possible what's not possible what needs to be documented what needs to be explained that's the signs of a good web designer web developers and all developers work with code the web developers specifically I would say spend the majority of their time working with what's called client-side code okay so client-side languages like HTMLCSS JavaScript.

There are even some javascript frameworks like react or node or backbone working with those three that's the bread and butter of a web developer now a developer in general, learns and speaks coding languages so if you kind of drip into back-end development which a lot of web developers do they would speak more server-side languages like PHP or Ruby and on all those different server-side kind of technologies.

                                                                   

If you want to be a web developer specifically you probably need to know your HTML and CSS and your JavaScript like that's your bread and butter you need to know that and have that like Pat and you probably want to have a good idea or at least some experience with server-side languages like Ruby or PHP or whatever so that's kind of the realm of a web developer you spend all of your time in a text editor in a code editor

But that is the realm of a web developer it is not visual it is taking the visual and making it functional remember like engine and car ok let's talk day to day kind of like operations the designer is gonna spend a lot of time looking for inspiration making visual sense and trying to visually communicate the message of the brand or the company.

 The site itself they're gonna spend the majority of their time doing visual things and that can be anything from wireframing to mood boarding to creating brands and logos and websites and animations and all that kind of stuff you're doing everything and anything that is visual for a web developer on their day. 

                                                                         

Today they're going to be spending time in code they're gonna be receiving the visuals and the documentation from the web designer and they should be working in tandem they should be working closely not in a silo but closely with the designers to make sure that the functionality is everything that the site or the client or the project demands.

But it's also on par with the styles that the designer has handed over those deliverables, that are handed over the need to be executed by the developer and so they're gonna be spending the majority of their time incode creating branches in GitHub we'll talk more about that in the different video but basically creating and making the vehicle move per the restraints of the designer.

The designer is designing things/restraints of the client or the project so which one is the    right field for you should you start pursuing design should you start pursuing development should you start pursuing both I'm going to give you a couple of opinions of mine on how to kind of decide where to go from here.

So which one is going to be for you my opinion is this from stick it from somebody who's done both and does both if you are a person who enjoys the visual aspects of things and remember design is problem-solving it's just it's not just making pretty things but if your somebody who likes to express your problem-solving through visual modes of solution like III thinks I could make sense of that using the color.

                                                                       

 I feel like I could make sense of that using typography and photography and all those things then design might actually be more for you okay somebody who likes to make sense of problems that way if you are a person who likes to do puzzles face down.

If you're a person who likes to analyze things and if you were the kid that liked to take your remote-control car apart and see how it worked you might be the person who's a developer just say maybe dabble try a little bit of both of them out and see which one suits you and then follow it. 

Here's I think the good news is none of this is final because these things are so closely related in the creative or tech kind of world you have the ability to change your mind you have the ability to kind of flex and decide where you want to be where you want your kind of space to be I started out doing thinking I want to do nothing.

But print design and package design and I realized very quickly I hated math and I moved over to digital design and now I do primarily interface design experience design and front-end development and that's what I really really love to do but it took me some years to figure it out. 

                                                             

So I hope this video has really helped in some way for those of you that are just starting out trying to figure out which one would be for you I think both of them are awesome careers and we're really really excited for you to start down one of these paths both those of both of these paths whatever it is that that kind of floats your boat and suits you. 

I just hope whether you godown the path of the design or down the path of like development I just hope that you enjoy yourself because this is really a career that has a lot of people to escape jobs that they hate and be part of something and actually creates something and makes things that they really care about either way you are a maker of things and that's huge that's just so huge.

So I just really want to encourage you today to be making awesome stuff be designing be developing however it is that you make amazing things and do it in excellence if you have any questions please let me know down in the comments.

If you want clarification on anything would love to answer your comments also make sure you follow  this site and like this blog  and when a new blog comes out hope you guys are having a great weekend after reading my next blog.


Thanks for Reading.