Do You Need a Designer or a Developer?

Most times you need both. We usually get tagged in posts like “Looking for recommendations on a web designer,” or “I need to make a website. Know any web designers?” and well, you get the point. When we get the opportunity to talk with the potential client, 9.9 times out of 10, they need a web designer AND developer. What’s the difference? My favorite analogy of getting a website live is to building a home.

What’s a web designer?

You know Joanna Gaines, the famous interior designer from Fixer Upper on HGTV? If so, you know she designs homes. She puts thought into how the house is going to look & feel when someone enters. She plans out the paint color, the furniture, and the walls in order to create her notorious open-concept living areas. She doesn’t build the homes…she designs them, right?A web designer is going to set the tone of your website. Your designer will select a color palette, typography, and imagery that coordinates with your branding. Then the layout, including placement of images and text, will be determined all while prioritizing your message and vision for your business. Designers typically work in programs like Photoshop, Illustrator & Sketch and their deliverables are likely to be jpg or pdf format. This is basic web design.

Now, what is a developer?

Remember Joanna’s husband and business partner, Chip? Chip & the crew begin to build what Joanna designed. Whether that is a new front elevation, tearing down or adding a new wall, or putting down a wood floor, in order for Joanna’s designs to become reality, it needs to be built.A developer builds your website to make it usable and interactive to your customers. The developer uses HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Laravel, React, Ruby on Rails and the list keeps going of the languages that can be used to build a website. Great developers can code in many different languages. And the best of developers will take the design files and make it a reality for clients. Developers typically work in a text editor, terminal, GitHub and much more.You likely need both. Getting started? Then you need a web designer AND developer. Already have a website, but it needs an update? Don’t be confused by the words “website redesign” to think you only need a designer. You, too, will need both. A redesign only becomes reality once it’s developed.

Why Gulf Coast Pixel?

We not only design and develop, but we specialize in User Experience (UX) design and writing appropriate, lean code. UX considers human-centered design. As UX designers, we research your competition and your clients then create an experience based on industry best practices and audience demographics. We not only use creative thinking, but also critical thinking to establish the site’s flow & functionality based on user patterns. Gulf Coast Pixel’s developers are skilled in many different languages. We choose the best language to suit our clients’ individual and unique needs. We make all efforts to keep your code lean for quick load time while keeping the integrity of functionalities. Not all code is created equal, and neither are developers.Do your research. Be informed. And know you can always schedule a free consultation with us.