
Web designing and web development are two terms that many persons tend to use interchangeable in advertisements and even in the marketplace. However, you may be surprised to know that these two terms do not mean the same thing. Actually, they refer to two different processes which are worth being clear on if you have intentions of building a website or seeking the services of professionals. Here is a synopsis of what is each term entails:
Understanding Web Designing:

The term web designing refers specifically to activities which affect that part of the website that your visitors can actually see. As a result, this area takes into consideration the look and feel of the website and even its content. This will therefore include things like the color scheme, graphics, navigation elements, the website’s information and even how the products and services are displayed. As a result of this, a web designer’s job will be more focused on designing a site that will attract customers based on its appearance and ease or means of interaction.
When designing a website designers will frequently use graphic programs such as Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw among others. Using these programs they will be able to provide the skeleton of how the website will look and feel. However, the design in its finished state does not really have codes but rather provides a graphical representation which will be used by the developer as the basis for the code.
Understanding Web Development:

Web development refers to those activities which actually affect how the website functions. These are the activities that actually make the website do things. Hence this term refers more to how the site operates and how users get what they want accomplished. Functions made available through web development include eCommerce capabilities like online payments or shopping carts, other things like online forums, logins with user names and password and so on. Actually, just about anything you want users to accomplish on your website can be made possible with a good professional developer.
Web developers are able to affect how your website functions by using web programs and coding like PHP and Java which your users are not able to see. Hence they are referred to as back-end and while a designer is mostly concerned with the appearance of the website, the developer’s main concern will be to make the website function efficiently and quickly while being very stable. Even though visitors to your website will not be able to see the actually process that was carried out by the developer, web development will still have a great impact on your visitors experience as they can greatly affect how fast or slow your visitor accesses the information they need with little or no frustration.
It should however be noted that many companies which offer both services tend to use the term web design in reference to the complete development of the website. However, clarification as to the services being offered under this heading is still necessary before signing up with any company so as to be clear as to the services with which you will be provided.