What is the difference between web design and web development?  Well that is a great question.  The difference in the web 2.0 world is a little gray.  Traditionally web design is creating the graphical layout and presentation of static information.  Web design still revolves around creating the user interface and the presentation of dynamic content.  It also requires integration with content management and database systems.

I have been building, editing and designing websites for almost 10 years.  I have created and/or worked on over a hundred sites in that time.  Many of those were static content sites. They had small components to update content in order to mimic the capabilities I have found in the DotNetNuke application framework.  Those components gave my sites the ability to add some news or images to their sites without my intervention. 

Just about every site I worked on, the client asked for the ability to add pages or edit content themselves.  Static sites require the owner to pay for any edits they desired.  That came, of course, with a cost.  That cost was not just monetary but also to the user by not having current content.

I am building websites with the DotNetNuke application framework (DNN).  This an open source development platform that separates the presentation layer from the application layer.  The design part is the presentation layer called the skin.  The web development part is the application layer.

I have a simple design philosophy – the content is the most important context of the website.  I do not over design a site to show how creative my graphic or flash skills are.  I go after a clean professional look then is easy to navigate and find what you are looking for.  I feel the site should be quick (as possible) to load. 

Flash sites are nice to look at but to not conform to proper browser and navigation standards.  They are difficult to update and cost more than they are worth in my opinion.  Flash most definitely has its advantages and uses.  I do (as many do) like sites that have some life to them.  I therefore often use flash elements throughout sites.  I just don’t make them the focus.  You can see examples of this in my portfolio.