I get asked this question one way or another all the time. Either its someone actually trying to understand the difference (and there is a huge difference) or by people I am introducing myself to when they ask me what I do for a living. In the later sense they usually respond with “Oh so you know how to build web pages.” This doesn’t bother me, but I’m still a little dumbfounded with the prevalence of obvious web applications like facebook, myspace, and twitter in peoples lives.
We’re all guilty of this though, right? I have a friend who is a plumber and he had to explain the difference between commercial and residential plumbing to me, and even within those branches of plumbing there are specialties but we won’t go into those today.
I was explaining the difference to my girlfriend the other night. I was a bit intoxicated so I came up with an over the top analogy of the Sistine Chapel. The way I broke it down was you can liken the architect and the builders to web developers and Michelangelo and the painters as the web designer. So the web developer gives a website functionality. Its the web developer that enables you to submit your latest tweet, update your facebook status, and add all those images to myspace. Its the web designer who makes it look good. Now I over simplified the web designers job, they need to know a lot about how users view a page, how to catch a users eye, and web designers are usually damn good in PhotoShop (which has gotten pretty complex).
Another example is the engine and drivetrain in an automobile (web developers) versus the body, interior, and paint job (web designer). These two analogies are fairly accurate. Thoughts?
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Well said, I have often had to help someone distinguish between the two. “I” am the one the makes it go, “they” are the ones that make you like it..
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Thanks for supplying some interesting information on the topic from your expertise.
I am saving your website and might definitely check back often.