The short version

A designer decides what goes where, what it says, and how it feels. A developer builds functionality that does not exist yet. Most small businesses need the first one, and think they need the second.

If your job is a site that explains what you do and brings in enquiries, that is design work. If your job is a booking system tied into your stock and your accounting software, that is development.

Where people get it wrong

Owners often hire a developer for a simple business site because it sounds more serious. What they get back works perfectly and persuades nobody, because nobody was ever paid to think about the wording or the order of the page.

The reverse happens too. Somebody hires a pure visual designer for a project that genuinely needed custom functionality, and it stalls halfway through.

What I do

I sit on the design side, and I build. That means I make the decisions about structure and wording, then put the site together in Framer so you get one person accountable for both. For anything genuinely custom I will tell you straight and bring in the right person.

How to work out which you need

Write down what the site has to do. If every line is about explaining, showing and getting in touch, you want a designer. If any line involves calculating, syncing or logging in, you need development in the mix.

Bring that list to a first call. It takes five minutes to sort out and it saves hiring the wrong person twice.