Web designer or web developer: who you need for a business website

A web designer decides what people see and how they move through a site; a web developer builds it so it works, loads fast and can be updated. A new business site needs both skills. A fix or a new feature needs a developer, and a fresh look needs design first, then a developer.

Both skills may sit in one person or in two, so the real choice is who covers them and who owns the jobs between them. A note on where we stand: we do both as one team, through our website design and development work. The rows below hold just the same if you choose someone else.

What does a web designer do, and what does a web developer do?

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics defines each in one line. Web developers "create and maintain websites". Digital designers "develop, create, and test website or interface layout, functions, and navigation for usability". Usability means how easily people can use the site.

In the table, a content management system (CMS) is the admin screen where your team edits pages without code. A staging site is a private copy for review before launch. Technical SEO setup is the build work that helps search engines read a site, such as titles, a sitemap and redirects.

Job titles overlap, so ask about the work, not the title. A person called a web designer may also build on a site builder, and a developer may also design. The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes both jobs on one page, with one shared list of duties. A title also guarantees neither technical SEO nor accessibility. Ask to see both in a site the person has built.

Speed belongs to both roles: heavy images and effects are design choices, and how pages load is a build choice. Google's Core Web Vitals measure loading, interactivity and whether the page jumps as it loads, and apply to all web pages.

Do you need a web designer or a web developer?

You need a designer when the site must look or flow differently, a developer when it must work differently, and both for a new site. Find the job in front of you.

Should you use two specialists or one team that does both?

Both can work well, as long as someone owns the work between design and build. Hiring separately lets you choose each for their own strength, or keep a designer you already trust. The risk is the hand-off: each does their part well, and the work between them has no owner.

One person or team doing both keeps design and build under one owner. The trade-off is that you choose both skills together, so look at both in sites they have made before.

Either way, settle in writing who leads, who owns each job between design and build, and when the developer first sees the design. A problem found in a design is easier to change than one found in a built page. Choosing between a freelancer, a development company and an in-house team is a separate decision: see freelancer, development company or in-house team.

The jobs that fall between a designer and a developer

Seven jobs sit across the line between design and build. Each needs both roles, or you, so each can end up with no owner.

Copy. Pages can be built before the words exist, but they cannot go live without them. Decide who writes the copy before anyone quotes. Our guide to writing a website project brief on one page puts that decision on the brief.

Forms. A form that shows a thank-you message has not necessarily delivered anything. On WordPress, for example, the developer reference says a success signal from its mail function "does not automatically mean that the user received the email successfully". The real test is a message sent from the live form and read in the inbox it should reach.

Analytics and Search Console. Analytics counts visits and what people do on the site. Search Console is "a free service offered by Google" that shows how your site appears in Google Search. Both should sit in accounts you own.

Redirects. A redirect sends a visitor from an old page address to its new one. Google recommends server-side permanent redirects, such as 301 or 308, kept for as long as possible, generally at least a year. Setting them up is developer work, but the map of old to new addresses comes before the new structure is designed. Our website migration checklist covers the rest of a move.

Accessibility. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international standard from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C publishes separate tips for designing and for developing. The tips for designing include enough contrast between text and background. The tips for developing include making every interactive element work from a keyboard. Both lists include labels on form fields, which is why the check belongs to both roles.

How we run design and build as one team

With us, design and build sit in one written proposal that names who writes the copy, who provides images and which pages are in scope. A page plan comes before any design, and a staging site is ready from the first week. Before launch we check speed, phones, accessibility, forms, analytics, redirects, legal pages and backups, then transfer the accounts to you. How we work sets out the four steps.

Questions to ask a designer, a developer or both

These six questions show quickly whether the work between design and build has an owner.

Next step: find your row in the decision table, note who should own each job in between, and tell us about the site. We'll reply within 24 hours with a few questions or a time for a call.

Reviewed and edited by Online Scope before publishing. Something out of date? Tell us at info@onlinescope.in. How we write the Blog.