A web designer is a professional who creates the visual layout, user interface, and overall aesthetic experience of websites, combining design principles with technical knowledge to build sites that are both beautiful and functional. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, web and digital interface designers earned a median annual wage of $98,090 in May 2024, with employment projected to grow 7 percent through 2034—much faster than average for all occupations.
What a Web Designer Does:
- Designs website layouts, color schemes, typography, and visual imagery
- Creates wireframes, prototypes, and mockups
- Ensures mobile responsiveness and cross-browser compatibility
- Collaborates with clients to understand business goals
- Optimizes user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design
- Establishes brand identity through visual elements
Your website is your business's 24/7 salesperson. While you sleep, it's either actively nurturing leads, answering common questions, and converting visitors into customers, or it's frustrating potential clients and sending them straight to your competitors. The critical difference between these two outcomes is almost always professional web design.
Most small business owners in areas like Lake County, IL, don't realize how much revenue they're losing to outdated, slow, or confusing websites. A visitor's first impression is formed in milliseconds. If your site looks untrustworthy or is difficult to steer on a smartphone, they won't hesitate to leave. Your site isn't just a digital brochure—it's the foundation of your online presence, your primary tool for building credibility, and your ability to compete in today's digital-first marketplace.
The numbers tell the story: demand for web designers has skyrocketed and shows no sign of slowing down. About 14,500 job openings for web developers and digital designers are projected each year through 2034. This isn't just a trend; it's a fundamental shift. Businesses now understand that a professionally designed website isn't an expense—it's a strategic investment that delivers measurable ROI through improved visibility, higher conversion rates, and increased customer trust.
I'm James Smith, and I've been building websites since 1998, designing and optimizing hundreds of sites for businesses ranging from multi-million-dollar eCommerce platforms to local contractors in Gurnee and Libertyville who needed their first professional web presence. Throughout my career as a web designer, I've seen how the right design, focused on user experience and clear business goals, transforms struggling businesses into thriving ones.
What is a Web Designer and What Do They Do?
Think of a web designer as the visual architect of the internet—the creative professional who decides how your website looks, feels, and functions. They're not just making things pretty (though that's certainly part of it). They are strategic problem-solvers, creating intuitive experiences and building digital spaces where your customers actually want to spend time and, ultimately, do business.
Here's what sets web designers apart: they blend artistic vision with user psychology and technical know-how to create websites that actually work for your business. Their process is deeply rooted in understanding human behavior online. Most of their work happens in design applications like Adobe Photoshop and Figma, where they craft everything from your color palette and font choices to the exact placement and size of every button.
You might hear the terms "web designer" and "web developer" used interchangeably, but they're actually different roles—both essential, but focused on different aspects of your website. We'll break down those differences in a moment, but first, let's look at what a web designer actually does day-to-day.
The Primary Responsibilities of a Web Designer
A web designer's day is spent making hundreds of decisions that directly affect how people perceive and interact with your business online. They're choosing where text should go, which images will resonate with your target audience, and how to strategically guide visitors from the homepage to becoming a paying customer.
Website layout and visual imagery form the foundation of their work. This goes beyond just picking nice pictures. Your web designer decides the hierarchy of information on each page, ensuring the most important messages are seen first. They select fonts that reflect your brand personality (e.g., modern and clean, or traditional and trustworthy) and create or curate images that tell your story without words. Every color, every spacing decision, every visual element serves a purpose—building trust and guiding visitors toward action.
When it comes to user interface (UI) design, your web designer focuses on the tactical elements people actually interact with. Buttons need to look clickable and provide feedback when pressed. Forms should be simple and inviting, not intimidating multi-page ordeals. Menus must be obvious, consistent across all pages, and easy to use on both a desktop and a tiny phone screen. It sounds simple, but getting these details right is what separates a frustrating, bounce-inducing website from one that feels effortless and professional.
But great web designers think beyond just the interface—they apply user experience (UX) principles to ensure your entire website makes sense from the user's perspective. They map out logical navigation paths (user flows), eliminate unnecessary steps in a process (like a checkout or contact form), and create a journey that feels natural and intuitive. When someone lands on your site, they shouldn't have to think hard about what to do next or where to find information. That's UX at work, and it's crucial for keeping visitors engaged.
Before any code is written, prototyping and wireframing help visualize how everything will come together. Wireframes are like architectural blueprints—simple, black-and-white structural outlines showing where elements will live on a page. Prototypes take it a step further, creating interactive models you can actually click through to simulate the user experience. This early testing phase is invaluable; it saves immense time and money by catching design flaws and usability problems before development starts.
None of this happens in a vacuum. Client collaboration is central to every successful project. Your web designer needs to deeply understand your business goals, your ideal customers, and what makes you different from competitors down the street. The best designers are excellent communicators who ask lots of questions, listen carefully, and act as a strategic partner to translate your vision into something tangible and effective.
Finally, creating design mockups brings everything together into high-fidelity visuals that show exactly what your finished website will look like. These detailed representations include your actual brand colors, real typography, specific imagery, and overall aesthetic. They establish your brand identity and give everyone—you, your team, and the developers—a clear, unified target to work toward.
Web Designer vs. Web Developer: Understanding the Key Differences
If you're confused about the difference between a web designer and a web developer, you're not alone. Even in the industry, these terms get mixed up. But understanding the distinction is crucial for hiring the right talent and ensuring your project's success.
Think of it this way: a web designer is like an architect and interior designer combined, while a web developer is the construction engineer and electrician. The architect designs the blueprint, layout, and aesthetic (the look and feel), while the engineer makes sure the structure is sound, the plumbing works, and the lights turn on (the functionality). You need both to build a house, but they bring different, specialized expertise to the table.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, both roles fall under the broader category of web and digital designers, but their day-to-day work and mindsets are quite different.
| Feature | Web Designer | Web Developer |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Focus | Look and feel, visual aesthetics, user journey | Code, functionality, server-side logic |
| Core Skills | Visual design, color theory, typography, UI/UX principles, design software (Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite) | Programming languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python), databases, frameworks, version control |
| Main Deliverables | Wireframes, mockups, design systems, visual assets, prototypes | Functional websites, web applications, databases, APIs, server configurations |
| Thought Process | "How should this look? How will users interact with it? What emotions should it evoke?" | "How do I make this work? What's the most efficient code? How do I optimize performance?" |
| Tools Used | Figma, Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InVision | Code editors, Git, browser developer tools, content management systems |
Web designers focus on the user-facing experience—the colors, layouts, and visual elements that make your brand recognizable and trustworthy. They think about the human side of the equation: how people interact with your site, what will capture their attention, and what will guide them toward becoming customers.
Web developers take those designs and build the actual functionality. They are the coders who write the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that makes buttons work, forms submit, and pages load quickly. They handle the technical infrastructure, databases, and server-side logic that keeps everything running smoothly behind the scenes.
In practice, there's often overlap. Many professionals have skills in both areas, especially at smaller agencies or in freelance work. Some designers know enough code to build simple sites, and some developers have a strong eye for design. But for complex projects that need both stunning visuals and sophisticated functionality, you want specialists in each role working in tandem. This collaborative process ensures that the creative vision is executed with technical excellence.
At Claremont Software, we bring both skill sets to every project—ensuring your website doesn't just look professional, but is built on a solid technical foundation that actually converts visitors into customers.