Web Designer Vs Front-End Developer

A Web designer thinks in shapes, textures, balance, color, and symmetry.

A Front-end developer thinks in border-radius, background-image, color, float, and flexbox.

A Web designer focuses on the appearance of a website or web application. Web designers are familiar with color theory, graphic design, and information flow. Certain aspects of web design, like information flow, touch upon user experience (UX). Moreover, tools like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and other wire-framing software are in the web designer's toolkit.

Front-end development is also known as client-side development and it involves programming all the public-facing visuals and elements as part of a site’s design. Front-end developers often have to collaborate with web designers. Front-end developers should also have strong programming skills, but they are mostly focused on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They only work with elements that are visible to the users.

There are similarities too. Both the designer and front-end developer are problem-solvers. They both focus on the user’s experience and the look and style of the website. However, they take different approaches to solving the problems: one through the graphics and the other through the code.