Many people are used to mixing two terms – “web-design” and “web-programming” (or “web-development”), but, in fact, they refer to two completely different spheres of activity.
What is web-design?
The concept of “web-design” is the broadest term describing the professional skills of workers in this industry. Calling themselves “web-designers”, people often want to say that they have a fairly wide range of skills – one of which is visual design.
In this phrase particle “design” has to do with facing the client (or interface) of the web-site. In other words, web-designer is responsible for how the web-site will look like and how users will interact with it (so web-designers are sometimes called the user interface designers or UX-designers).
Good web-designers create websites to apply graphic design skills, so their work looks just fine. They also have a clear understanding of what is usability, and therefore create sites with which visitors enjoy working Their design calls for interactivity, because it’s so easy to intuitively understand. In short, designers don’t just create “beautiful sites.” They are laying the foundations of a user-friendly interface for web sites.
What is web-programming?
Web-programming is divided into two main areas: the development of the client part and development of the server part. Some of the skills required for these areas overlap, but the purpose of developers in each area are different.
The developer of the client side uses the graphical layout of the future web-site (created by him or received from a graphic designer) and translates it into programming code. The client-side developer uses HTML for website layout, CSS to control the visual styles and layout, and sometimes even Javascript. For some small, simple sites, the development of the client part is the only task facing web-programmers. More complex projects require development of the server side as well.
Good web developers must be able to program CGI and work with scripts such as PHP. They must also understand how web forms work and how different software packages and application program interfaces combine different types of software products to create solutions that can respond to specific customer requests.
