Careers: Web Designer

What Web Designers & Developers Do

Web designers & developers create and maintain websites. They are also responsible for the site’s technical aspects, such as its performance and capacity, which are measures of a website’s speed and how much traffic the site can handle. In addition, web developers may create content for the site. Digital designers develop, create, and test website or interface layout, functions, and navigation for usability. They are responsible for the look and functionality of the website or interface.

Duties

Web designers & developers typically do the following:

• Meet with clients or management to discuss the needs, design, and functionality of a website or interface
• Create and test applications, interfaces, and navigation menus for a website
• Write code for the website, using programming languages such as HTML or XML
• Work with other team members to determine what information the site will contain
• Work with graphics and other designers to determine the website’s layout
• Integrate graphics, audio, and video into the website
• Monitor website traffic
• Create prototypes and mockups of websites or applications
• Design and develop graphics

When creating a website, developers and designers have to make their client’s vision a reality. They build particular types of websites, such as ecommerce, news, or gaming sites, to fit clients’ needs. Different types of websites require different applications. For example, a gaming site should be able to handle advanced graphics, whereas an ecommerce site would need a payment-processing application. The developer decides which applications and designs will best fit the site, and the designer focuses on the look and usability of these elements across browsers or devices.

Some developers and designers handle all aspects of a website’s construction, and others specialize in a certain aspect of it. The following are examples of types of specialized web developers or digital designers:

Back-end web developers are responsible for the overall technical construction of the website. They create the basic framework of the site and ensure that it functions as expected. Back-end web developers also establish procedures for allowing others to add new pages to the website and meet with management to discuss major changes to the site.

Front-end web developers create the technical features for a website’s look. They develop the site’s layout and integrate graphics, applications (such as a retail checkout tool), and other content. They also write webdesign programs in a variety of computer languages, such as HTML or JavaScript.

Web and digital interface designers are responsible for creating the look and feel of a website or interface with regard to photos, color, font type and size, graphics, and layout. They also are responsible for the functionality, usability, and compatibility of the website or interface.

Webmasters maintain and update websites. They ensure that websites operate correctly, and they test for errors such as broken links. Many webmasters respond to user comments as well.

Pay

The median annual wage for web designers and developers was $98,090 in May 2024. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $47,840, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $192,180.

The median annual wage for web developers was $90,930 in May 2024. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $48,560, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $162,870.

In May 2024, the median annual wages for web and digital interface designers in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:

In May 2024, the median annual wages for web developers in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:

Most web developers and web designers work full time.