The age old battle of web design vs. web development will most likely never end. Some people will almost always consider one or the other to be superior. In this article, a winner will not be determined. I am writing this to explain the difference between the two.

Since creating Spiral Web Consulting, Ron and I have received a consistent flow of requests from clients for design and development jobs. I have become accustomed to these terms being used interchangeably. The fact of the matter is that most people do not seem to understand the difference between web design and web development. Let me explain.

Web Design

Web design, as described by Wikipedia, “is the skill of creating presentations of content (usually hypertext or hypermedia) that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web, by way of a Web browser or other Web-enabled software like Internet television clients, microblogging clients and RSS readers.” This definition is very vague. Google’s search results are full of vague answers very similar to this one.

Web design, in my terms, is the creation of graphics, layout, and overall aesthetics of a web page. Web design is a task that can be accomplished without ever writing a single piece of XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.. I guess in the most simple terms possible, web design is the planning phase of creating a page. You need to acquire/create the proper graphics, work out a layout, create a site-map, and decide exactly how the site should look.

Web Development

Web development, as described by Wikipedia, “is a broad term for any activity related to developing a web site for the World Wide Web or an internet.” I would have to strongly disagree with this definition. In essence, they are saying that anything you ever do to a web site is web development. Web development is much more structured than that.

Web development is writing the code to reproduce a preconceived design and creating the functionality necessary for the site to operate. This process is almost entirely based in code, using XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and usually a programming language (PHP, ASP.NET, JSP, etc.). This phase follows the web design phase in the process of creating a web site.

Where Do I Stand?

The most common discussion about this topic is the question, “which is more important?” I will tell you, as a web developer myself, neither is more important. Planning a web site properly is very important, but creating that web site and making it functional is also important.

In short, web design is the look and web development is the code. How can either one of them be considered superior to the other? They are both useless without their counterparts.