Everything You Need to Know About Web Design and Development
Web design and development are two essential components of your online business. With the excessive use of smartphones and tablets, the present era needs a spectacular online presence for a business to succeed. To achieve that success you need to understand these concepts better so that you invest in them the right way.
Here’s a small guide for you to understand what Website development and Website design comprise and how they are different from each other.
What is Website development?
Web development or web application development refers to the process of building a website or application for the web or intranet. It deals with the overall functionality of the website. Strong coding and programming skills are required to develop a website.
What is Web design?
Web design is the overall look and feel of the website when on the internet. The display that viewers see when they visit our website. It emphasises the design aspect of the website.
Now that we have got the definition for the terms, let’s dive into further details.
To run a successful business in the current times, we must be equipped with the right tools to fare well in the game. A website in many ways is the face of your business and the first point of contact for any online customer. As the internet is a strong medium of marketing, especially for businesses it is highly advised that you have an elegant, attractive, and robust website that can engage the audience and at the same time get you sales.
This dire need for digital existence has given rise to many web design and development companies. The expertise and guidance from these professionals can help you get through your website creation smoothly. So, first, when you think of building a website for your business, several things need to be considered. For instance, you would like to know how much time would it take to code and design your website, the amount of money that needs to be invested in it, the kind of expertise you require, whether you would outsource or develop it in-house, and the like.
For web design and development there are these 7 essential stages that need to be followed.
Research and Discover
To begin with, you need to gather all the required information you need to feed on to develop a robust website or web application development. The most important task is to get a clear picture of what your website’s purpose is, who is your target audience and what you want to achieve through your website. The functionalities of your website vary based on its purpose hence, you must be sure of what you want out of this venture and invest only in technologies that you require and avoid any future hassle.
Planning
In the planning stage, strategies are formulated based on the information gathered previously. The content, design, technology, and marketing strategies have to be put in place. With the insights in hand, a proper structure and features are planned out for your website. Many providers of web development services have a team assigned exclusively to charting an action plan for your website. They brainstorm and develop a sitemap and wireframe of your website which is the founding base of your site as all your requirements will be clearly mentioned and graphically presented.
With the right planning, you will be ready to work on the right content structure, design, and coding language based on the purpose of your website.
Designing
In the web design stage, UI/UX designers play a crucial role. They design the layout for your website and give it a creative touch. Layout involves designing a rough look-alike of your website, mostly graphic sketches so that the client can have a better understanding of how the website would look in terms of design, colour, content placement, and the overall structure of the site.
The wireframe drafted in the previous stage will be now transformed into tabs, a menu, typography, dashboards, and colour themes. Based on the target audience report, the site layout will include features for a better user experience without disturbing or deviating from your website’s main goal and purpose.
Content Creation
No amount of design can replace the effect of good content. As content is the key element that keeps your audience engaged throughout your website, the main aim of this stage is to create a communication channel through the user interface.
Content creation involves writing relevant information or insights about your business in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand manner that is also attractive. Adding CTAs and creating eye-catching headlines are all part of the content creation stage. As this phase also interlinks with your business’ branding and marketing efforts it helps you to put forth your website or web applications purpose through content.
Coding and Development
The development phase involves processes to build the website. Both the client-ed and the server-end are developed in this stage making it the most time-consuming phase in the entire process.
Front-end Development
Front-end development refers to coding the website’s layout accessible to the audience. It includes the web design, colour themes, typography, buttons, and all other interactive elements that a user would access while visiting the website. Web developers make use of web frameworks and development tools to create a user-friendly website. In the present scenarios, most sites prefer mobile-friend;y designs as the websites also have a mobile counterpart.
Back-end Development
This phase refers to the actual creation of the website. While the front end mainly focuses on the design and visual elements of the website or Web application, the back end focuses on providing the instructions to make those visual elements perform the required functions. The back-end development also involves the creation of a database, writing application logic, and integrating client-side and server-side functions.
Testing and Quality Check
Once the website is ready, the QA team conducts various testing such as unit testing, stress testing, integration testing, and load testing to ensure a bug-free output. The team rigorously repeats these tests to check the functionality, compatibility, usability, and performance of the website. Assuring that the functions in the website or web application work well on all platforms and all devices is crucial.
Launch and Maintenance
After the QA team gives a green signal, the website is all set to go live on the web server. But the work is not done here. Web design and development is a continuous process, constant feedback from live users lets us better understand the scope for improvement. Accordingly, modifications are made and executed. To keep the website up and functioning, it is crucial to perform regular maintenance and provide appropriate updates.
Every stage in the web design and development process is crucial and essential therefore, adequate attention must be given to every detail at each stage. Though coding is the key element of any software development project, you must not overlook the other aspects such as design, content, or QA team analysis. As they help your audience have an engaging user experience and convert potential leads into customers.
