For long there has been a whole lot of discussion about the core elements of website design and development. This is especially true for businesses who are looking to hire web development services, as they wonder what comes with the package of website design and development services. Well, in this blog I will try to define two crucial services involved in web design and development services and I hope that by end of the blog you’ll be in a better position to understand the working of web development and design services.
Before we go any further, let’s just simply segregate the website development into two broad phases. The first one is the website designing aspect, which is taken care of by web designers.
The second phase is the development phase, which again can be divided into two distinctive categories; front-end web development and back-end web development.
Now, the designing aspect of a website is almost completely dealt by a web designer who is responsible to create the visual and aesthetic elements of the website including images, fonts selection, theme selection, color selections, logo design etc. The designing phase has nothing to do with any coding aspect of the website, however, it is much closer related to the front-end development.
Ok, so now that we have a basic picture of different services involved in website development and designing, let’s just see more closely the two categories of web development services.
Front End Development
As can be taken by name, “front-end development” is referred to the development aspects that are mainly concerned with the visual elements of the website or elements that are meant to interact with the users. As I have said above, the front-end web development services are somewhere in the middle of designing and development aspects.
The front end developers’ work in close collaboration with the designers, however, their primary work is quite different from designers. For instance, where designers are more expert in working with Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Front-end developers are expert in certain languages including CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and jQuery.
So at the end of the day, whatever you see or interact over a website is actually created by the combination of front-end development and design services, including elements like buttons, sliders, contact forms, fonts, menus, etc.
Backend Development
This is where the actual coding work begins. The backend development is mainly comprised of three distinctive aspects; firstly the main server, a central database, and an application interface. So, essentially when you book a restaurant seat through an online portal, you have actually interacted with the front-end development of the website. However, once your information is submitted in the system, the application that processes the information, the database that stores the information and the server that informs the restaurant of the booking are all domain of backend development.
Conclusion
So, I think by now you’ll be definitely in a better position to differentiate between each of these services. The line that differentiates development and designing services is too blurred for many people who aren’t into the trade, however, you should know the difference between each of these services to be able to better manage your business website.
About the Author:
Taimoor Khan is a savvy web developer with a passion for writing about new technologies. He offers affordable web development services in Auckland and Wellington for local businesses as a freelancer. He is also associated with a web design Sydney company – Starlinks.