Web developers design and create websites. They are responsible for the look of the site. 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.
Duties
Web developers typically do the following:
Meet with clients or management to discuss the needs and design of a website
Create and test applications for a website
Write code for websites, 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
When creating a website, developers 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 may require different applications to work right. For example, a gaming site should be able to handle advanced graphics, whereas an ecommerce site needs a payment-processing application. The developer decides which applications and designs will best fit the site.
Some developers 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:
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 works 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 are responsible for how a website looks. They create the site's layout and integrate graphics, applications (such as a retail checkout tool), and other content. They also write web-design programs in a variety of computer languages, such as HTML or JavaScript.
Webmasters maintain websites and keep them updated. They ensure that websites operate correctly, and they test for errors such as broken links. Many webmasters respond to user comments as well.