People often get confused with both the terms, UI and UX. So, first, let’s figure out what they mean.
User Experience encompasses standard human-computer interaction which includes how users perceive the products/services of a company. Whereas, User Interface is how the user-interfaces are designed for machines and software.
In simpler words, UX explains how all the work is done, and UI is the virtual representation of the work.
User Interface Design (UI) V/s User Experience (UX)
What Is UX?
UX covers all the interactions between a user and a company. UX design helps conduct researches to understand the market gaps, and competition to provide solutions to overcome such obstacles.
The aim is to provide improved user experience by creating a product/service according to the user’s requirements or by upgrading the existing one.
UX is determined by how comfortable the interaction could be carried out with the user-interface. The experience could be puzzling or simple depending upon the people who design them.
UX designers determine the structure of the interface and its functionality.
To help understand whether the UX of a product is right you can check the following features-
- Usability- UX could be based on what type of users attracted to the website/application. The functionality offered to the customers. What did the customers check out most on your website? How did they like the experience? Did the customers found what they were looking for or not? How much time-consuming was it? By answering such questions, you can make the user’s experience better.
- Simplicity- UX designers, should make sure that the user experience should be as much simplified as possible. And one should keep upgrading their websites/applications for simpler experiences.
- Credibility- If users don’t believe in you, they will never come to you. So, always find out ways to earn users’ trust to convert them into potential customers.
- Compatibility- To attract customers, compatibility is the key. Applications’ appearance and functionality should always be on point. If the application or designs are not stable, it might end up with customer loss.
- Accessibility- By making your website/application accessible to all, it will help gain more traffic to your website. You are providing the customers with the satisfaction of transparency. They could track their projects/designs movements and coordinate if they require any changes.
User Experience Design focuses on how and in what ways could the customers be satisfied in all the aspects.
What Is Ui?
In simple words, a User interface is what customers may use to interact with digital products/services. It could be screens, keyboards, pages, visual elements like buttons, icons, etc. UI essentially defines the personality of a brand.
UI primarily works as a front-end developer, you manage all the complexity of tasks, and workflows and visually represent them to your users. UI designers work to serve the graphical interface of the application consisting of everything like images, text, animations, and more.
Designing of the website is done by remembering that the interface should appear attractively, the theme used should match the personality of the application, and it should be visually simulated.
UI designer’s work is not limited to computer interfaces. With the advancement in technology, they can work with mobile phones, augmented reality, wearable technologies, and even screenless interfaces like voice, gestures, and light.
Designing UI is a very challenging role as it is multi-faced. Designers’ responsibilities are huge like they must keep track of the product’s development, research about the latest trends, the content, and the layout to display to attract customers.
With the multi-screen alternative in mobile phones, responsive design has become an integral part of UI designs. UI designers enhance the interfaces for different devices, so the product is tempting to both the computer and mobile users.
Things To Keep In Mind For Creating Great Ui Designs
- The eye catches the more prominent, or boldest texts first. So, you better create witty quotations to fascinate the customers.
- The positioning and spacing of the texts or figures should be implemented accurately.
- Make your website/application with attention to every detail.
Let’s Check Out The Differences Between Ui And Ux Designs.
UI and UX designs work side by side, but their roles are different under the product design. UX is a process, which is taken out for better interactions between the users and the products, and UI is a deliverable, which represents the look and feel of a brand.
- DISTINCT FOCUS
Both UI and UX designers have a distinct use for prototyping. For UI designers, their prototype should be a high-fidelity model, whereas, for UX designers, their focus is on the logic behind the prototype. UI designers focus more on the front-end, and UX designers focus on the backend of the interface.
UI is all about colors, typography, and layout, whereas UX focuses on wireframes, website mapping, and maintaining personas.
- IMPLEMENTATION
UX designs are implemented first in the product development process. After UX, UI designs come. UX designers map the user’s journey, and then UI designers finish it with the visual and interactive elements.
- RESEARCH
UX design is concerned explicitly with the user’s expectations. All the past experiences and interactions users had with other applications could help fulfill their aspirations. UX is based on the data and the user’s emotion and research.
UI designers should keep the aesthetic of the interface unique and intriguing to fulfill customer’s needs. UI is based on the trending designs in the market and the brand’s guidelines.
- COLORS
UI designers use all the colors available. UX designers use only three colors in the prototype design, i.e. black, white, and grey. This difference can be seen in the designing of the interface and on the icons being used.
- SKILLSETS
The skillsets required for both the designing’s are different. It would be best if you had both UI and UX designers to make it work.
- TOOLS
For UI designers, designing images is the priority. Hence, they use tools like Flinto, and Principle, which are bounded to Sketch. Some designers use InVision too.
UX designers will favor a wireframe as it saves time and helps make the design more efficient. Hence, they use tools like Mockplus, which is easy to operate, Balsamiq with sketch style, and Axure with extensive functions.
What Is Ux/Ui Designer’s Work?
We already saw what UX and UI designs are, what their differences are. Not let’s see what day-to-day responsibilities their designers handle.
Ux Designer
- Strategy and Content- UX designers do thorough research about both its customer and its competitors’ product and compare the results. They strategize the customer’s product and do content development based on it.
- Wireframing and Prototyping- Product development progresses with the creation of wireframes and prototypes and testing them after.
- Execution and Analytics- Integration and analysis are done by coordinating with UI designers and developers.
Ui Designer
- Aesthetics of the product- Customer’s requirements analysis and trendy designs researches are done. Therefore, branding and graphical development of the product is carried out helped by user guidelines.
- Responsiveness and interactivity- UI prototyping is carried out alongside the interactivity and animations. Many devices adaptability is considered and ends with implementing the product.
Conclusion
Even though UI and UX designs have different roles, they work together to provide a delightful website navigation experience. UI and UX design operate hand in hand to complement the features and detailing of the website. The aim is to draw the user’s mind to your products/services.
The communications and collaborations between UI and UX designers will help ensure that the final user-interface created will look good and operates efficiently.
Let’s wrap up the article, by concluding that UI is a map that guides us to reach a point and UX is the feeling of finally arriving at that particular point after spending so much time and effort.
