Web Design and Web Development, What’s the Difference?

If you’re looking into a new website, are you supposed to hire a “web designer”? Maybe a “web developer”? What does it actually take to build a website? Building a website requires many different skill sets, including Strategy, Content Development, Design, Development, and User Experience.

Let’s talk for a moment around the differences between web design and web development.

Web Design

Web design generally refers to the visual elements of the site, font styles, color options and how it’s laid out to optimize the user’s experience. The initial design is created in an application such as Adobe XD, Sketch or another web specific application. The design includes concepts for desktop, tablet, and mobile versions of the website. Mobile versions are equally as important as desktop versions, and, depending on your business, your mobile visitors may account for most of the traffic on your site.

Agencies design sites in various ways, but OTM starts with a mobile-first approach and works up to the desktop version of the website. The logic for a mobile-first approach is to “add to the site” as more real estate (screen size) becomes available instead of “taking away” as you lose real estate (screen size).

Some considerations for reviewing a website design are:

Brand/Identity
Customer engagement
Accessibility and other compliance requirements

Web Development

Web development is the actual building and coding of the website. A developer will take the design file and start coding it into a theme. A theme handles the layout of images, text, fonts, colors and other styling elements on the page.

Web development is also centered around having a content management system (CMS). No one wants a website that requires a developer to constantly update! While there are many content management systems, currently WordPress accounts for 60% of the CMS market and 30% of all websites are powered by WordPress.

When choosing a content management system, you should consider:

Is the platform widely adopted by developers?
Is it easy to use by your staff?
Will it scale and integrate with future needs?

What’s the difference?

If you’re into analogies, you can think of web design as the blueprint for your new home and web development as the general contractor who follows the blueprint to build the house.

While some individuals may be able to be both a designer and developer, to be an expert in the craft, OTM and most agencies have dedicated designers and dedicated developers.

Back to All Insights

Brittany Mathisen

2023-09-27

OTM has been a wonderful marketing partner for the last four years. We have shifted marketing plans over time and they are very open and explained all the details as we moved forward with new plans. They have done everything from help design and update offices, managed social media, planning marketing events, and many more things. The Hear for Holidays Event that we do each year is one of my favorite events that we work on together. Rachel and the whole OTM team have brought my marketing vision to life and I love everything they have done for my business. I look forward to what the future holds as we continue to work together.

Yvonne Myers

2023-07-30

I worked with Old Town Media (OTM) on a quick grant project that had a 6-week timeline. They were very thoughtful about whether they could meet the grant expectations and needs before accepting the work. The team at OTM then completed extensive research and facilitated focus groups to ensure the product they created met the needs of the end-users. They met all of the grant deadlines and far exceeded our expectations of the portal they created for us! I would not hesitate to use their services again and highly recommend them to others looking for a professional, high quality, and FUN team to work with.

Julie Dokoupil

2023-07-18

OTM is a locally owned firm that I have worked with for over 13 years. They are an amazing team of people who know and understand current marketing technology and strategies. My husband and I are starting a new business and they have helped us out even with small details to get our business going.

TunDesign

2023-06-20

I have seen a significant increase in community engagement which has helped bolster our brand presence, exceeding the expectations of the entire team. Carrie and her team provides consistent communication through slack and emails which has led to an effective and trusted partnership. Truly appreciate how hard-working, agile, and driven everyone on the team is. Thanks again for eveything your team has done for our company.

David Haase

2023-06-07

OTM has done a fantastic job bringing the Fort Collins Peach Festival back to the public! OTM is dealing with several volunteers on a committee and keeping everyone informed, best in business advice and a platform that will serve us for years. We didn't know what we needed and were presented with choices and educated about each before implementation. Kerrie and Brianna have done great work for us! Dave Haase Committee Chair Fort Collins Peach Festival

Dana Sednek

2023-03-15

Using their Path to Growth Model, OTM not only gave me a path forward, but they helped me clarify my strategy, direction, and actions for how to set and launch my business. I was able to launch quickly and I see the flywheel ahead that is necessary to accelerate customer intake and revenue building. Thrilled with the outcome!!!

Liza Adams

2023-01-13

As the Head of Marketing at Encompass Technologies, I considered Old Town Media an extension of our marketing team. OTM worked closely with us on rebranding and repositioning, multiple industry-first product launches, key industry events, and integrated demand generation campaigns while we grew our marketing team and acquired new companies. With the help of OTM, we grew our pipeline and bested industry benchmarks for Software as a Service (SaaS) sales and marketing efficiency metrics. We came to rely on OTM for tactical execution to augment our team but where they added the most value was in our rebranding strategy and market positioning efforts. OTM played an integral role in conducting research and deeply understanding our market dynamics, ideal customer profile, customer challenges, competitive landscape, products and innovation, key differentiators, vision, and mission. This was no easy feat with a highly complex ecosystem, multiple segments, wide variety of audiences, and a broad array of products. Armed with market insights, OTM helped us develop a compelling brand, an inspirational story reflecting our vision and strategy, a unique and defensible market position, and messaging that was relevant to our target audiences. I appreciated that the team was respectful and empathetic, intently curious, insightful with their observations and recommendations, and candid with their feedback. OTM set realistic expectations about deliverables/scope, level of effort, roles, timeline, and cost. The team was responsive, highly collaborative, and open to suggestions. OTM plugged our expertise and resource gaps which allowed us to break the compromise between doing good work and doing it quickly. On top of that, they were fun to work with. OTM was truly a partner of the business.

Eric Dengler

2023-01-11

Great team! Small company service. Big firm power and expertise.

zach fulton

2023-01-06

Simply put, OTM is a well oiled machine! Thanks for all you do

Web Design and Web Development, What’s the Difference?

Web Design

Web Development

What’s the difference?

Growing a business
is hard and finding the
right partner matters.

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