Do you need a Web Designer or a Web Developer? These two professional titles are often interchanged and based on your needs, you may benefit by reading this article. Some companies, like IADesign, can cover the spectrum between design and development. IADesign can easily fill the gap and merge the creative elements with the technical elements of a web development project.

However, some smaller, less diverse web companies are probably either heavily creative or heavily technical. This poses many problems, because if your project is database driven and will generally require some back-end programming, the web designer will most likely sub contract the programming portion to a third party. This will ultimately result in communication problems as the designer will try to communicate the clients requirements, and the programmer will never speak to the client. Also, if the designer is outsourcing your project to India, Russia or even China, you can certainly expect communication problems. As if that’s not enough… you can also expect a sizable cost difference. Both the sub contract programmer and the designer are going to want to charge high fees. On the other hand, if the web designer you hire is more of a developer than a designer, then your web site’s design will probably be sub par at best. Most programmers are not very good designers.

So how do you know if you need a designer or a programmer? First a plug for my company: Save yourself a lot of problems and give us a call. As I stated before, IADesign can handle the creative and the technical aspects of your project in-house. We will also consult with you and let you know what the technical requirements are and what the development challenges will be (if any). We’re a bunch of really creative nerds!

Alright, enough with the shameless plug and back to the question. The bottom line is if your web project requires a database, is e-commerce, or is going to receive and process user input, you need a programmer or true web developer. But, if your web site is more of a brochure style site, then a web designer is your best bet. Also, when you are interviewing web companies for your project, be sure to inquire of your new web site’s compliance. It is very important that your website meet W3C Markup Validation standards, and that your website is designed for optimal search engine indexing. As they say: “Content is king”.

The key to hiring a company to build your web project is to know your requirements, and to relay those requirements (creative and technical) to the potential web company. Armed with this information, most companies will quickly know if they are capable of meeting your design and/or development needs.

I hope this helps. Have a good one!

Web Developer:
“A Web developer can also be a Web designer, but a Web developer typically has more database, CGI, and engineering experience. He or she develops the interface between the front and back end of a website.”