We often come across the terms “User Experience(UX)” and “User Interface(UI)” among the people who use the app and web design software which are very crucial to a product. The impact of design is very perceptible in digital products as they are used by millions of users daily. The users create perceptions about the product at the very first interaction and it is a must-have criterion in web and mobile applications.
Before we consider the main differences between UX and UI, let’s define them individually.
WHAT IS UX DESIGN?
It is the process of creating products and experiences that help end-users get done what they have come to do effectively and efficiently. The term was introduced by Don Norman in the 90s when he was working at Apple.
Don Norman says that ‘‘User experience” encompasses all aspects of the end-users interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”
But what exactly is User Experience? The UX is how users feel as they engage with your products. It is the process of understanding the actual needs and goals of your users, locating the pain points, and finding solutions that result in a better user experience.
WHAT DOES UX DESIGNER DO?
Many companies recognized that good design is a competitive advantage and are ready to invest significant resources in creating an outstanding user experience.
In simple terms, UX designers are responsible for analyzing the target audience’s needs and ensuring the company creates products that meet end-user’s needs. It is a multidisciplinary field where UX designers are involved in different areas such as product research, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
Responsibility of a UX designer:
- Understanding users and their needs – UX design starts with extensive research to understand the target audience and their needs. Empathy is a crucial skill for UX designers that helps them understand the needs and emotions of the people they are designing.
- Design strategy – UX design strategy includes understanding the purpose of a product and mapping a logical journey.
- Analyzing the design interactions – UX designers analyze all insights used before proposing design solutions. This analysis includes how people use products, personal preferences, and their interaction habits while using UI.
- Wireframes and prototypes – UX designers create wireframes and prototypes using UX software to propose their ideas to the design team to ensure that product design is moving in the right direction.
WHAT IS UI DESIGN
A user interface is an interaction between the human and machines. It allows users to effectively operate a machine to achieve a specific goal. User interfaces are composed of input and output devices that work together so users can control the machine.
UI design is the look, feel, and interactivity of the product as intuitive as possible and carefully considering every visual element that the user might encounter.
UI design transfers the visual assets to a product’s interface making sure the design is consistent and coherent.
The three most commonly used UIs are as follows:
- Command Line Interface
- Graphic User Interface
- Voice-Enabled User Interfaces
WHAT DOES UI DESIGNER DO?
UI designers should have a visual design, graphic design, and branding design skills to create interfaces that have a good look and feel. UI designers take wireframes and user flows for individual pages created by UX designers and turns them into something aesthetically pleasing.
Responsibilities of UI designer
- Competitive analysis – Analyze and conduct a competitive analysis of the product and visual designs.
- Responsive design – UI designs must look good on any screen size and resolution.
- Good problem-solving skills – UI designers must always be able to solve a specific problem by finding proper solutions.
- Technical Knowledge – UI designers always work with UX designers and developers and hence they must have good knowledge to understand the technical feasibility.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UI & UX DESIGN
UI refers to User Interface and UX refers to User Experience, both appear to be similar but are considerably different from each other.
- UX is an approach where the user’s entire journey of using a product and service is considered, while UI is about the look and performance of the product’s interface.
- UX is all about the visual aspects and the major task are touchpoints, individual screens, and solving user issues with the app. UI is the extensive research to find the target audience, content formatting, information architecture, etc
- UX maps the user journey, and UI fills it in with visual and interactive elements.
- UX is identifying and solving user problems, whereas UI is creating intuitive and aesthetically pleasing interactive interfaces.
- UX design makes use of information about emotions, perceptions, and preferences, both before and after the use of an app. While UI design uses pieces of information like color combination, graphics, and the aesthetic appeal of the app.
SIGNIFICANCE OF COMBINING UI AND UX DESIGN APPROACHES
The app design will enhance business and get a larger user base with an effective combination of UI and UX design approaches.
- User attraction – UI and UX are the entry door for the users from which they connect with any application. Making this experience memorable is most important to retain the customer.
- Faster loading – Users prefer faster-loading apps
- Standardized elements and symbols – It helps users to operate and navigate through the app.
- Multiplatform UI design – The app should work efficiently across all screen sizes, and resolutions and should adopt Android and iOS environments.
- Iterations make a difference – Multiple iterations of UI design will increase the UX of the apps.
UI DELIVERABLES
- Visual Designs – It helps in understanding the elements in the web or mobile app designs. The effects of color, texts, images, space are given clear meaning.
- User Interface Kits – It is a highly comprehensive reference guide that contains the visual feature, elements, and front-end code.
- Style Guides – It helps to create brand conventions with existing aesthetics, which the client already prefers.
UX DELIVERABLES
- Competition in the app market – If we can measure the strengths and weaknesses of competitors then we can capture the market easily.
- Mapping user journey – Create a sketch of the user’s experience, time spent, feedback, and key performance indicators. This will help to narrow down the gap between designer and user thinking.
- User Persona – Make extensive research on demographics and apps with similar functionality to increase the chances of grabbing the market.
- Sitemap and Information Architecture – Sitemap is a visual representation of all the components present in the product. It will help to create layouts for Information Architecture that contains labels of all navigation routes and components.
CONCLUSION
UX design is more analytical, human psychology and cognitive behavior. UI design is focused on the visuals[product is aesthetically pleasing or not]. Hopefully, this article will help you clear the long-standing confusion around UI and UX.
A proper approach to UX and UI design can help you make the product shine.