Web design vs web development?
Overview
Web design is the visual and structural work: layout, typography, colour, imagery, user experience. Web development is the technical work: turning the design into a functioning site that works in a browser, on devices, and at scale. Modern tools collapse the two, which eliminates the handoff problems that broke traditional projects.
Context
Traditionally these were separate disciplines done by separate people, with files handed from designer to developer at the end of the design phase. The handoff was where projects broke. Designers would deliver mockups that developers would interpret differently, fidelity would drop, decisions would get made by whoever was closest to the code, and the final site rarely matched what was approved. Modern tools like Framer collapse the two: the designer builds the live site directly, without a separate development phase. What you approve is what ships. For more complex sites with custom functionality, development still requires coding work, but the boundary is much narrower than it used to be, and the handoff problem is mostly gone.
Takeaway
Look for studios that combine design and development in one workflow. Handoff is where projects break.
Next
What is responsive web design?
[Work with us]
Ready to talk about your project?
Tell us what you're working on. We'll let you know if we're the right fit.