Differences between web development and web design

Web design refers to the presentation of the website - the fonts, colors and images you see, as well as the overall theme of the website. Some people refer to it as "web publishing"

Web development refers to the "invisible" parts of the website - the programming behind the webpages (hence the name "web programming")

Thanks to user-friendly webpage editors like Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage Express, it has become increasingly easy for a user to design his or her own webpages. However there are numerous pitfalls when doing this - thus it is always better to obtain the services of a professional

Web development, on the other hand is a form of programming which requires skills that are typically learnt during a university degree in computer science - skills which most users do not posess

However, web design and development complement each other - one without the other is little short of useless.