It has been said that designers work on front-end (what users interact with) and developers with back-end (writing code to make the site function). While this is a known approach, we think this is not that simple. Both of them need to be familiar with languages and code. The point relies on what the purpose of programming is and what would be the final result.
Web Designers
Web designers and software developers respond to different skills. The requirements of education and experience are different and so are the opportunities they offer.
Web designers tend to experience the world in a visual way. Also, they are used to following their intuition and feelings, since they spend a lot of time developing the look and feel of websites. Web designers love to come up with big ideas and imagine the whole picture. They love to focus first on the overall “vibe” of the site theme and details like the colors, shapes, etc.
Web Developers
Web developers tend to approach the world from a logical, scientific point of view. Web developers also tend to see the world as a huge collection of data that can be used for different purposes. Generally, they like to handle big projects by taking them one step at a time and paying close attention to the details.
Some people assume that - because development involves higher level programming - it will be harder to learn than to design. Others can see designing as more difficult as they think that it requires more creativity. In fact, when you start from scratch, any new skill can be a challenge.
So we invite you to analyze yourself and explore what would fit best for you.
Also, consider these aspects…
Competition between tons of pages with bright colors and beautiful designs is increasing, and there are experts looking for how to make them more attractive to people. That is when _usability _and customer experience come into the scene.
Usability studies how to create a website in which users can interact in an easy, comfortable and intuitive way.
Customer experience
The focus should be making people landing on your site and choosing what you have to offer. So, paying attention to quality and usefulness of the contents, quality of service and support, and of the overall design of the final product would be the key success factors.
Challenges
Some of the current challenges are:
-
Responsive design: “Your web page should look good, and be easy to use, regardless of the device.” We are now in the age when people prefer mobile devices than personal PCs to navigate websites. Responsive Web Design is about using CSS and HTML to resize, hide, shrink, enlarge, or move the content to make it look good on any screen.
-
Search engines and SEO: websites should be also indexable.
-
The need of continuous updates: Covering information demand and customer expectations increase the frequency of updating web contents or improving functionality. Developers have to be agile in making changes to update a website.