There’s plenty of confusing terminology when it comes to websites. There’s even confusion about what to call a person who makes websites. Heck, I’m even confused about what I should call myself. Here’s a little guide to help you understand what these titles mean.
Web Designer
A web designer is someone who designs websites. Usually they have a background in graphic design or advertising, and prefer to create websites using visual design software like Dreamweaver and Photoshop. In my experience people who call themselves web designers tend to focus most on how a website looks rather than how well it works or how useful it is to your customers.
Web Developer
A web developer is more technically inclined than a web designer. They tend to know at least one programming or scripting language and are comfortable creating web pages by writing HTML code. Their emphasis is more on how a site works than how it looks. Often a web developer works strictly as a programmer, creating web applications rather than web sites.
Web Engineer
A web engineer straddles the fields. Web engineering encompasses the visually oriented web design field and the pragmatic field of web development. Web engineers are big-picture web professionals. They design interfaces, write code, manage projects, and implement web systems. Like a web developer they tend to be proficient with custom programming, and like a web designer they are fluent with visual design and multimedia authoring.
Basically web engineering is a multidisciplinary approach to creating web sites and applications. It’s the process of putting all these disparate elements that make up a website into one coherent, functional, and profitable whole.
I am a Web Engineer. I use elegant design and custom development to make a useful and attractive website, but my job is not done when you have a finished website. I engineer a web presence. The website is just a destination, getting traffic to that destination and converting that traffic into sales is what makes a website successful. Very few small businesses leverage the potentials of internet marketing. A few simple solutions can be all you need to set yourself ahead of the pack.
My web development and design work began in 1995. I have twelve years of in-the-trenches experience with the world of small business, and the knowledge, understanding, and intuition to give your business or venture a successful presence on the internet.