People use the terms interchangeably when hiring, then discover mid-project that nobody owns half the work. Design decides what the site says and how it feels. Development makes it real, fast and maintainable.
What web design covers
- Information architecture: what pages exist and how they connect.
- Wireframes and user flows for the tasks people actually perform.
- Visual system: type, colour, spacing, imagery, motion.
- States: hover, focus, loading, empty and error.
- A design system so the tenth screen matches the first.
What web development covers
- Front-end implementation, responsive behaviour and accessibility.
- Back end, database, authentication and integrations.
- Performance: bundle size, images, fonts, Core Web Vitals.
- Server-rendered HTML so search engines can read the content.
- Deployment, monitoring and content management.
Where projects break
A design signed off without states, breakpoints or real content forces developers to invent decisions. A build started without a design system produces drift. The fix is a shared handover: tokens, components, and a review where both sides walk the same flow.
