Difference Between UI And UX Design

Probably, the motto of the 21st century is “the easier — the better.” One of the main criteria for choosing a digital solution, whether it’s a product or service, is its simplicity and accessibility. People don’t want to feel uneasy, because they can’t find what they are looking for — e.g. spending hours on the website just to order some food. The research shows that around half of respondents explore the website’s design before they decide to use the company’s services. Companies are aware of this, and thus, try to make their solutions user-friendly. After all, the ultimate goal of any business is satisfying customer needs.

User-friendliness is achieved thanks to well-thought-out UI/UX design. It’s not something you can do by yourself. Usually, companies that are looking to create a solid user experience turn to special agencies (like Purrweb at https://www.purrweb.com/services/ui-ux/).

Those who are not engaged in the IT field often mix UI and UX up. In general, both concepts are used in web and app design. Therefore, it is often difficult to give a clear description of each term, without using professional jargon. Still, we will try to do so in this article.

What is UX and why should you not neglect it?

UX is an abbreviation for ‘user experience.’ It determines how users interact with the product/service. It can be explained by answering a simple question — is the solution intuitive or not? User experience depends on different factors, including site structure, design, text, and responsiveness of the interface to specific actions.

A UX designer is not only a person who plans the interface, tests prototypes, and outlines technical specifications for a UI designer to meet. UX designers are also researchers. They study the patterns of user behavior to create a consistent and intuitive service, which customers will be able to use seamlessly.

What is UI and which elements does it include?

UI stands for ‘user interface’, which is basically a graphical structure of the app. It includes different elements like buttons, texts, images, input fields, and other parts of the application. Besides, it includes transitions, animations, and every micro-interaction that an app can have. To put it in other words, UI design is a rendering of the prototype that was developed based on user experience and target audience research.

A UI designer creates buttons, icons, forms, and other components, and assembles them into a harmonious working layout. They determine the color palette and the location of interface objects.

Is it convenient to click “Order”? Does the drop-down menu work correctly? Is it easy to fill out the form? Is the text readable from a smartphone? What message does the site show when a particular action is taken? — UI designer makes sure that all these issues are solved appropriately.

UX and UI design: How to implement it?

Now, you’ve probably realized that discussing the difference between these two types of design makes no sense. They are more like two different steps in the development of a digital product. It is safe to say that UX design covers a larger scope of tasks. It focuses not only on the app’s structure, but on the whole experience of users, their needs, and behavioral patterns. On the other hand, UI design is about building the product’s layout itself.

The thing is — you can’t just go with one or another option. You need UX design to determine the main points of users’ interaction with the product, what customers want to see, and where. It’s a foundation for the future product.

Some people tend to underestimate UX. They think that this is only about how a site or app works. But user experience doesn’t end there. If a client left a request but did not receive an SMS confirmation or a call from a manager, these are signs of bad UX. UX design involves learning the habits of potential customers, testing and prototyping their behavior, etc.

UI design comes after the UX stage. As already mentioned, it involves creating graphical elements of the interface: illustrations, animations, menus, sliders, buttons, fonts, etc. A user interface designer is responsible for how the product interface looks and how the user interacts with its elements. To create a good user interface, it is necessary to accurately organize the elements and maintain a common style and logic of interaction.

Conclusion

The main takeaway is that UX design and UI design are two stages of the same process. If you only apply one or the other, it will act as either a theory with no practical implementation or practice without a good theoretical basis. The importance of this combination is also proven by recent studies, which show that the UI/UX designer is one of the hottest job options in the IT market right now. Both areas are so similar and interrelated that sometimes it’s difficult to tell one from another. Thus, both of them are usually handled by a single designer. So it’s a common practice to use a slash in the job title — UI/UX designer.