Web design v/s Product design

Posted on: Thursday, May 29th, 2008

Many people think of web design as being very close to graphic design or even just another aspect of the profession. If you have a look in your local Yellow Pages, you may come across several web designers who offer their services along with logo design and business cards among others. However, web design cannot be considered as a branch of graphic design. It is rather closer to product design.

Magazines ads, brochures, signs and logos among others all differ from web sites. A simple fact is that people do not have to use them. Practically, every designer has to make sure that his product looks attractive. On the other hand, product designers have to ensure that their products are user friendly and have attributes that will attract consumers. For example, a mobile phone that does not look good will be rejected by most of the consumers. In web design, a good looking page may not necessarily mean everything. Emphasis has rather to be put upon the usability features of the web design. As such, it’s not credible having a good looking web site that cannot be accessed and navigated easily.

Moreover, web sites have to be easy to use and contain features that most people would like. As said before, being attractive is important but it is not the most important aspect. Also, graphic design does not only deal with making things look pretty. There is a lot more to it than that. The main difference between graphic design and web design is that the items made by graphic designers can only be looked at and read. As for web design, various pages can be accessed, forms can be filled, credit card details can be entered and many more things can be done. Nonetheless, graphic designers may have sufficient skills to become good web design professionals.

Normally, a web design company operates with several professionals working on specific fields. Most web design companies hire graphic designers, programmers and copywriters to perform their web design tasks. So, the core web design process includes planning of all the work that has to be done, market research about the target audience and coding. Probably the most important part of a web site is its backend. As the term mentions, it can be considered as the spinal cord of the web site. Without the backend the web site would not work. As a matter of fact, the backend consists of codes that make all the work when the buy now button, for example, is clicked. Powerful web design tools such as Microsoft FrontPage may be used to create and edit codes.

On the other end, graphic designers as well play an important role in web design. They give a definite shape and look to the web site. They also choose the appropriate colours that would gel with each other. In other words, they create an environment for the web site. Additionally, graphic designers also create flash items and banner ads among others. Thus in web design, both the graphic design and the product design have significant importance.

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