Web Designer and Web Developer

A web designer is responsible for the design, look and feel of a website. They decide how each page should be arranged, which colours and fonts suit the audience, and how visitors will move from one page to another. For example, a designer planning a youth theatre group’s ticket site might place the next performance at the top, use bold show photographs and make the booking button easy to find. The designer does not write the website code; that is the developer’s job.

The designer works with a web developer so the design can be built. The developer writes the code that makes the website work: links open the right pages, forms accept details and content appears correctly. A designer may also work with other specialists to make the site easy to use. This can include testing page layouts with visitors and checking that key tasks, such as booking a ticket, are simple to complete.

Developer specialisms

Some web developers specialise in browser-side code, which runs on the visitor’s device and handles what they see and do. On the theatre site, this could show or hide the seat map when a ticket type is chosen. Others specialise in server-side code, which processes user requests on the server. Here it could save a booking and send a confirmation email.

Working together

Both roles contribute before a website is published. The designer produces and refines the design as pages are built, while the developer builds and tests the code. They check each other’s work so the finished site matches the intended look and still works properly for visitors.