Time to time I have to explain the difference between web design and web development to clients, peers, recruiters and even potential employers. While the answer is readily available to anyone with the question and a search engine, most folks don't even know to ask it. Now that I have fully launched Arora Designs and am face-to-face with many of my own clientele, I find that I am forced to answer this question yet again. 

Web design refers to the process of designing a website or template that includes all of the graphic and visual elements you see on any given website. Web designers are also sometimes called "front end developers". The design can be created using a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or many other graphics-oriented programs available on the market today. The design provides the framework for the look and feel of a website and communicates information and branding visually. Layout, navigation, visual hierarchy, color scheme, depth, dimension and tone are all terms well known to a good, professional web designer. 

It is important to remember that many web designers are actual designers, wheras not many designers are actually web designers. Why? Because some coding is required in order to call oneself a web designer. Firstly, you have to know how to implement or manipulate HTML. More acturally, XHTML. Secondly, you must know CSS. The "web 2.0" look that I mentioned in my last blog post completely relies on this advent. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the revolutionary industry standard at this point, and should be required when it comes to designing websites. 

Beyond innovative and award-winning graphics, XHTML and CSS, we start to venture into developer land. This is where we start to see Javascript, AJAX, Flash (designer/developers combos in their own right) and even a minimal understanding of PHP and MySQL. This is the gray area between designing and developing. Personally, I am comfortable with Javascript and a little AJAX and Flash. I have a small understanding of what PHP and MySQL are capable of, but beyond that, I'm worthless in the database area. (Probably because the concept of manipulating databases bores me to tears).

Web development is typically used to described the programming required to construct the "back end" of a website. The back end is the area of the site that isn't seen by visitors, but which does the work required in order to present the right information in the correct format to the visitors. Web development is used to describe any database-driven web designs using dynamic scripting languages like PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, Coldfusion and sometimes Java and AJAX. Web development also covers database design and development using MySQL. 

As you can see, these are two completely different areas of expertise. It is the difference between Architecture and Construction, Art and Physics. You might find someone out there that can do it all, but watch out: they might just be much better at one than they are at the other.