Design vs. Development: What’s the Difference?

The main difference between design and development is that designers often collaborate with stakeholders, including users, product managers, and developers whereas developers often collaborate with other developers and project managers.

Before we move to more differences, let’s first understand Design and Development:

  • Design: Design is the process of creating a plan or blueprint for a product or service.
  • Development: Development is the process of building or creating the actual product or service based on the design plan.

Now, let’s get to Design vs Development:

Major differences between Design and Development

Design Development
Design is focused on the user’s needs, aesthetics, and user experience of the product or service. Development is focused on the technical and functional aspects of the product or service.
The outcome of Design is a plan or blueprint for the product or service. The outcome of Development is a functional product or service.
Design requires skills in visual communication, user research, and problem-solving. Development requires skills in programming, testing, and implementation.
Designers use tools such as wireframes, mockups, and design software. Developers use tools such as programming languages, code editors, and testing software.
Design is typically done in the early stages of the product or service development process. Development is done after the design plan has been created.

So, these are the main differences between the entities.

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