Hiring the correct personnel to develop your website can seem daunting if you do not have the proper terminology. You are not the only one who has experienced this issue. If you’re the type of person who likes to save some money and would prefer not to be confused during the web design process, this will help you distinguish between website programmers and designers to help you hire the correct personnel.
The Role and Work Process of a Web Designer
Fundamentally, web design refers to the appearance, the colors, logos, and overall visual representation of a web page. There are also skilled designers who are aware of the UX, the buttons that attract click, and the elements that will make the user stay on the page.
Web Designers are strictly visual, or graphical employees. Thus, they are the ones to work on the seemingly endless sketches and drawings. It is important to note that web designers are not the ones that will implement the design. If you are familiar with the construction sector, the web designers would be the ones who do the design, or Architecture.
Web design is a sector that employs a lot of instinct and guesswork. However, a designer may be a skilled web designer, but a web designer may not necessarily be a designer. The best web designers are skilled in the challenging task that is web design and work to ensure that the design is optimally functional across all platforms.
So Where Do Website Programmers Come In?
Website programmers implement designs by writing code specific to the project. They translate information from layouts to web pages. They code the logic and functionality of the website. For example, they would determine the logic of how a contact form sends data or how items are added to a shopping cart.
There are two areas of coding to consider, and that is front-end and back-end coding. Front-end coding deals with the interface, while back-end coding deals with the server, databases, and application logic. Full-stack coding deals with both the front-end and back-end coding, but it may not always be needed in terms of what you are building.
Website programmers are all very similar in that they are all problem solvers at their core. The nature of the work is debugging and reading documentation to figure out why things are not working. It is very painstaking and detail-oriented, and the best programmers actually take pride in writing code that is clean and maintainable.
Can One Person Do Both?
Yes, there are those that design and code, these are often industry “unicorns,” and for smaller projects, they may be all that is required. The downside to hiring someone to do it all is that the resulting design and code may be lackluster and mediocre. A design and a code specialist may achieve a better result.
Which One Do You Actually Need?
That is better judged based on the specifics of the project. If there is brand identity and visual guidelines, or a design that you are satisfied with, or if you are working off a design average, what you likely need is a website programmer to build it up. If you are starting with no documented visual guidelines, a designer should likely come first.
Most projects will require both. A design agency will have both in-house; a freelancer will likely employ one and subcontract the other. These are both valid approaches to work.
A Few Practical Things Worth Knowing Before You Hire
Always ask to see previous work; a portfolio speaks much more than a sales pitch. Be specific about what you want to know: did this person do both, or did one do the design and the other do the programming? And to what extent?
Website programmers with good communication skills are worth a lot, especially when they manage to describe what they are building without making their audience feel dumb. Technically brilliant programmers who lack communication skills are worth less. Websites are rarely one-off projects, and the good relationship you build with your programmer is almost as important as their skillset.
In short, designers and programmers are both important to building a website. Sometime you might need a designer, but when it comes to website programmers, you might discover that is the first building block you need.