What Is the Difference Between UX and UI

What Is the Difference Between UX and UI

Author: Bridget

26 October, 2022

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People often use the terms user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) interchangeably, but they actually refer to two distinct aspects of the design process. UX design is all about how a user works with a product, while UI design is about how the product looks and feels.


Although there are some overlaps, UI/UX design are each very different.


This blog post will look more closely at the main differences between UI and UX.

 

What Is UX UI Design?

What is User Interface (UI) Design?


UI is an acronym that stands for User Interface in product design. The user interface of an application (whether web app, mobile app, desktop app, or an ordinary website) refers to its physical looks. It includes everything the user interacts with, like the buttons they click on, the text they read, the images, sliders, text entry fields, and everything else. This includes the screen's details structure, navigation, how each component moves or reacts when touched, and other physical design details. Any kind of animation, interaction, or visual element must be designed.


UI designers are in charge of achieving this desired outcome. They make decisions about how the application will look. They have to decide on color schemes, button shapes, line widths, and text fonts. UI designers decide how an app's user interface looks and feels.


UI designers are graphic designers who care about how things look. It's up to them to ensure the app's interface is appealing to look at and has a theme that fits the app's purpose and/or personality.

 

What is User Experience Design (UX Design)?
 

UX is an acronym that stands for User experience. User experience is an important consideration for every product developer because the ease-of-use of your application will greatly influence how users will feel about it. Is navigation through your application smooth and are the features easy to use, or are they clumsy and hard to figure out? Does using the app make people feel like they're getting the tasks they set out to do done quickly and well, or does it feel like a struggle?


While UI designers determine how each element on the user interface work together to ensure optimal performance, UX designers ensure the design offers optimal user satisfaction. This means UX designers are also concerned with an app's user interface, just like the UI designers, which is why people get confused about the differences between the two. In most product development teams, the same set of people take care of both UI and UX designs of a product.

 

Differences Between UI and UX


We can liken the difference between UI and UX to the job description of an architect and an interior designer in a building project. The UI designer is the architect who thinks about how a product looks and how it is structured. On the other hand, the UX designer is the interior designer who is in charge of how the product's interface feels and works for the user.
So, to sum up the main differences between UX and UI, let's consider the following:
 

  • UX is concerned with how the user feels about the whole product and the impression it leaves on the user. It is the result of a product or service being clear, easy to understand, and simple to use. UI is concerned with one very specific part of the experience: the design of the interfaces people use to interact with the product. 
  • UX is more about solving problems than designs and meeting the needs and desires of users, while UI is more about designing the product’s interface. 


Another great way to differentiate between UI/UX design is to look at how the job description of UI & UX developers varies. 


UX Developer Job Descriptions


The tasks, responsibilities, and requirements listed below are often part of a UX designer's job description: 

 

  • Dig deep into customer needs and user behavior; run and analyze user research and usability tests to make sure all designs meet business and user needs.
  • Evaluate and create user experience based on data and insights. 
  • Design deliverables, such as storyboards, user flows, wireframes, and prototypes, should be made to show how users will interact with the product.
  • Work with partner teams to get feedback, make changes, and put together design solutions.
  • Keep up with what competitors are doing and what the market trends are like.
     

UI Designer Job Descriptions


UI designer job descriptions tend to focus more on visual and interactive design skills than UX designer job descriptions.
Tasks and responsibilities of a UI designer include:

 

  • Play a key role in letting the brand's creativity shine through on many different products and platforms.
  • Collect and assess user needs with the help of UX designers, product managers, and engineers
  • Design the parts and pieces of the graphic user interface.
  • Make original designs for graphics (i.e., images and sketches).
  • Create navigation buttons and search fields.
  • Use storyboards, process flows, and sitemaps to show how design ideas work.
  • Make mock-ups and user interfaces prototypes showing how sites will look and work.
  • Change the layout based on what people say.
  • Help make and keep up a UI style guide.

 

Conclusion
The skills needed for UI design and UX design are quite, but they are both dependent on each other. A beautiful design can not save an interface that is hard to use, and a great user experience can be ruined by a bad visual interface design that makes the app unpleasant to use. To make a great user interface and experience, both the UI and UX designs need to work perfectly and match-up with what users expect. And when all of these things come together, the results can be amazing. If you need a professional freelance UI & UX developer for your business, visit our site to get the best freelancers.  

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