Making a website is easy, right?

“If you took our Content Management System’s code and printed it... then taped each page, edge to edge length wise… it would be well over 2 miles in length!”

You can learn more about different types of code here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_lines_of_code.

A friend of mine recently said, “Making a website is pretty easy, right? Don’t you just drag some images on a page, type your content then put it up on a server…?”

So now, at this point, I find it necessary to write this article, based on the misunderstanding of how a website is either designed or developed. In actuality, most of the time, what you see is only the tip of the iceberg – or the funnel cloud (tornado) of a thunder storm super-cell traveling across tornado alley. In other words, what you see is usually about 10% - 20% percent of what the actual project entails.

First, let’s talk about the difference between “Website Design” and “Website Development.”

Website Design

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_design

If you take a quick look on Wikipedia, you will see that they describe Website Design as:

“Web design is the skill of creating presentations of content (usually hypertext or hypermedia) that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web, by way of a Web browser or other Web-enabled software like Internet television clients, microblogging clients and RSS readers.

The intent of web design is to create a web site—a collection of electronic files that reside on a web server/servers and present content and interactive features/interfaces to the end user in form of Web pages once requested. Such elements as text, bit-mapped images (GIFs, JPEGs), and forms can be placed on the page using HTML/XHTML/XML tags. Displaying more complex media (vector graphics, animations, videos, and sounds) requires plug-ins such as Flash, QuickTime, Java run-time environment, etc. Plug-ins are also embedded into web page by using HTML/XHTML tags.”

Website Development

And for Website Development, Wikipedia states:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_development

“Website development requires an evolving explanation, as it is a product of numerous contributions by individuals, corporations, and technologies. It uses aspects of Web design that is one example of a Web application that are components of Web development, all affected by changes made to the Internet. These collaborated efforts are constantly modifying elements of developmental aspects. The process encompasses the combination of chronology while simultaneously adapting and incorporating the changing applications of contributions.

The creation of a website includes a base platform that exits from various computer languages that can range from HTML, XML, ASP, and PHP. These languages may support programs or software such as JavaScript, CGI, FLASH, RSS, or ZEND OPTIMIZER, that increase the level of dynamic capabilities within a given website. The technical aspects also include degrees of creativity pertaining to the applications of technologies and content. The integration of the produced document (website) with hosting and an assigned IP (IP address) results in accessibility.”

Simply put: Website Design is more focused on the visual aspect of the website. Website Development is focused on the programming of the website. Together, they make up the actual website.

Now you also have what is called “static” websites and “dynamic” websites. Static websites are pretty much what my friend was referring to: a website with some images and some content. However, a dynamic website, which is much more common today, involves all aspects of website design and website development. There’s what you see: the content, including text and graphics, usually served from a database of some type, like Microsoft’s SQL Server. And there is a LOT of programming logic for handling the many facets of that website.

In conclusion, yes… sometimes a website is nothing more than nicely laid out images and some text; however, this is hardly the case anymore. Most websites involve much more, utilizing Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), “tableless” (meaning less code and faster load times) web pages, and much more.

I could go on and on regarding this subject, but if there is one thing that I would want you to learn from this article, it is this: it really isn’t always, “What you see is what you get...” Most of the time with a website, especially if there is a Content Management System in place; there very well may be over two (2) miles of code running that website.