July 18, 2024 by admin

The Difference Between UX and UI Design

Sources: Lamprecht, E., Emil Lamprecht Writer for The CareerFoundry BlogEmil Lamprecht is the founder of multiple social impact (and other) companies, Emil Lamprecht Writer for The CareerFoundry Blog, Lamprecht, E., Blog, W. for T. C., & Emil Lamprecht is the founder of multiple social impact (and other) companies. (2023). UX vs. UI Design: What’s the Difference? [2024 Guide]. Retrieved from https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/the-difference-between-ux-and-ui-design-a-laymans-guide/

UX design focuses on creating a seamless and meaningful user experience by understanding user needs, researching, and designing intuitive interfaces. In contrast, UI design focuses on a product’s visual, interactive elements to create aesthetically pleasing interfaces.

1. UX vs. UI design

UX design refers to the term “user experience design”, while UI stands for “user interface design”. Both elements are crucial to a product and work closely together. But despite their professional relationship, the roles themselves are quite different, referring to very different aspects of the product development process and the design discipline.

Let’s define what each term means individually.

What is user experience (UX) design?

User experience design is a human-first approach to product design. Don Norman, a cognitive scientist and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group Design Consultancy, coined the term “user experience” in the late 1990s.

Here’s how he describes it: “User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”

Don Norman’s definition tells us that, regardless of its medium plenty of non-digital UX (and there are lots out there) UX Design encompasses any and all interactions between a potential or active customer and a company.

As a scientific process, it could be applied to anything: street lamps, cars, Ikea shelving, and so on. However, despite being a scientific term, its use since its inception has been almost entirely within digital fields; one reason for this is that the tech industry started blowing up around the time of the term’s invention.

What does UX design involve?

A UX designer thinks about how the experience makes the user feel and how easy it is for the user to accomplish their desired tasks. They also observe and conduct task analyses to see how users actually complete tasks in a user flow.

For example: How easy is the checkout process when shopping online? How easy is it for you to grip that vegetable peeler? Does your online banking app make it easy for you to manage your money?

Here’s what you need to know about UX design in a nutshell:

• User experience design is the process of developing and improving the quality of interaction between a user and all facets of a company.
• User experience design is, in theory, a non-digital (cognitive science) practice but used and defined predominantly by digital industries.
• UX design is NOT about visuals; it focuses on the overall feel of the experience.

UX tasks and responsibilities

So we now know, in abstract terms, what the role of the UX designer entails—but how does this translate into everyday tasks? Here is an example of a UX designer’s typical tasks and responsibilities.

Strategy and content:

• Competitor analysis
• Customer analysis and user research
• Product structure and strategy
• Content development

Wireframing and prototyping:

• Wireframing
• Prototyping
• Testing and iteration
• Development planning

Execution and analytics

• Coordination with UI designers
• Coordination with developers
• Tracking goals and Integration
• UX analysis and iteration

So, the UX role is complex, challenging, and multifaceted. It is part marketer, part designer, and part project manager.

In fact, the role of the UX designer varies hugely depending on the type of company they’re working in. You see that iteration of the product, as connected to analysis or testing, is indeed mentioned twice, but in reality, you would put it in between every other item on the list.

Ultimately, the aim is to connect business goals to users’ needs through a process of user and usability testing and refinement toward that which satisfies both sides of the relationship.

What is user interface (UI) design?

Despite it being an older and more practiced field, the question “What is user interface design?” is difficult to answer because of its wide variety of misinterpretations.

While user experience is a conglomeration of tasks focused on the optimization of a product for effective and enjoyable use, user interface design is its complement: the look and feel, the presentation and interactivity of a product.

But like UX, it is easily and often confused by the industries that employ UI designers—to the extent that different job posts will often refer to the profession as completely different things.

Unlike UX, user interface design is a strictly digital term.

A user interface is the point of interaction between the user and a digital device or product—like the touchscreen on your smartphone or the touchpad you use to select what kind of coffee you want from the coffee machine.

In relation to websites and apps, UI design considers the product’s look, feel, and interactivity. It’s all about making sure that a product’s user interface is as intuitive as possible, and that means carefully considering every visual, interactive element the user might encounter.

A UI designer will think about icons and buttons, typography and color schemes, spacing, imagery, and responsive design.

What does UI design involve

Like user experience design, user interface design is a multifaceted and challenging role. It is responsible for transforming a product’s development, research, content, and layout into an attractive, guiding, and responsive experience for users.

To summarize what UI design is about:

• User interface design is a purely digital practice. It considers all of a product interface’s visual and interactive elements—including buttons, icons, spacing, typography, color schemes, and responsive design.
• The goal of UI design is to guide the user visually through a product’s interface. It’s all about creating an intuitive experience that doesn’t require the user to think too much!
• UI design transfers the brand’s strengths and visual assets to a product’s interface, ensuring consistency, coherence, and aesthetically pleasing design.

UI tasks and responsibilities

The look and feel of the product:

• Customer analysis
• Design research
• Branding and graphic development
• User guides and storylines

Responsiveness and interactivity:

• UI prototyping
• Interactivity and animation
• Adaptation to all device screen sizes
• Implementation with developer

“UI designers play a crucial role in translating a brand into a product. The lines between UI and web design are blurring, with ‘UI developer’ becoming a recognized role. Let’s consider the key differences between UX and UI.”

You’ll also note the final point, which states responsibility for the “implementation” of the design with a developer. While this is generally how UI jobs have worked in the past, you should be aware that the lines are blurring, as the term “web designer” (essentially a UI designer who can code) is being replaced by the expertise of user interface designers.

While UX does not need coding, UI is a role that, as time progresses, will rely on it as part of building interactive interfaces, with “UI developer” beginning to appear as a role in companies.

Now we have a clear-cut definition of both UX and UI, let’s consider the key differences between the two.

2. Understanding their key differences

As Rahul Varshney, co-creator of Foster.fm puts it:

“User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are some of the most confused and misused terms in our field. A UI without UX is like a painter slapping paint onto a canvas without thought; while UX without UI is like the frame of a sculpture with no paper mache on it. A great product experience starts with UX followed by UI. Both are essential for the product’s success.”

It’s important to understand that UX and UI do go hand-in-hand; you can’t have one without the other. However, you don’t need to possess UI design skills to be a UX designer, and vice versa—UX and UI constitute separate roles with separate processes and tasks!

A UX designer considers the user’s entire journey to solve a particular problem, including steps, tasks, and the overall experience. They conduct extensive user research to understand target users and their needs. Then, they map out the user’s journey and create wireframes for the product. The UI designer focuses on the visual aspects of the user’s journey and makes it come to life. They ensure the product is accessible and inclusive by considering details like color combinations for contrast and readability.

Much of their work focuses on finding out what kinds of problems and pain points users come up against and how a certain product might solve them. They’ll conduct extensive user research in order to find out who the target users are and what their needs are in relation to a certain product.

They’ll then map out the user’s journey across a product, considering things like information architecture—i.e., how the content is organized and labeled across a product—and what kinds of features the user might need. Eventually, they’ll create wireframes that set out the bare-bones blueprints for the product.

With the product’s skeleton mapped out, the UI designer steps in to bring it to life. The UI designer considers all the visual aspects of the user’s journey, including all the individual screens and touchpoints that the user might encounter, such as tapping a button, scrolling down a page, or swiping through an image gallery.

While the UX designer maps out the journey, the UI designer focuses on all the details that make this journey possible. That’s not to say that UI design is all about looks; UI designers have a huge impact on whether or not a product is accessible and inclusive.

They’ll ask questions like “How can different color combinations be used to create contrast and enhance readability?” or “What color pairings cater to color blindness?”

To summarize:

• UX design is all about identifying and solving user problems; UI design is all about creating intuitive, aesthetically pleasing, interactive interfaces.
• UX design usually comes first in the product development process, followed by UI. The UX designer maps out the bare bones of the user journey, and the UI designer fills it in with visual and interactive elements.
• UX can apply to any product, service, or experience; UI is specific to digital products and experiences.

3. How do UX and UI design work together?

Designer Helga Moreno put it rather eloquently in her article The Gap Between UX And UI Design: “Something that looks great but is difficult to use is exemplary of great UI and poor UX. While something very usable that looks terrible is exemplary of great UX and poor UI.”

UX and UI go firmly hand in hand, and while there are millions of examples of great products with one and not the other, imagine how much more successful they might have been when strong in both fields.

UI design is like the icing on the UX cake. Imagine you come up with an amazing idea for an app, something that’s clearly missing from the market and could genuinely change people’s lives for the better. You hire a UX designer to conduct user research and help you figure out exactly what features your app should have and how the entire user journey should be mapped out.

Your app offers something that your target audience needs and wants; however, when they download it, they find that the text on each screen is barely legible (think the yellow text on a white background). What’s more, the buttons are too close together; they keep hitting the wrong button by mistake! This is a classic case of bad UI destroying what would have been good UX.

On the flip side, has one ever come across a really beautiful website only to find that, beyond the mind-blowing animations and on-point color scheme, it’s actually a real pain to use? Good UI can never make up for bad UX; it’s like picking up a beautifully decorated cake that actually tastes awful when one bites into it. So, when it comes to product design, UX and UI complement each other—and in today’s competitive market, getting both aspects right is an absolute must. Whether one chooses to work as a UX designer or a UI designer, it’s useful to have an understanding of both; after all, one will inevitably be working together.

So, when it comes to product design, UX and UI complement each other—and in today’s competitive market, getting both aspects right is an absolute must. Whether you choose to work as a UX designer or a UI designer, it’s useful to have an understanding of both; after all, you’ll inevitably be working together.

Why do companies often advertise UX/UI roles as one?

We’ve established that UX and UI design are two separate fields. However, many job ads ask for UX/UI designers because these fields are still relatively new and not widely understood. It’s important to look beyond the job title and pay close attention to the skills, tasks, and responsibilities listed in the job ad to determine whether it’s geared towards UX, UI, or both.

The truth is, in the grand scheme of things, UI/UX are still relatively new fields—and, as already mentioned, they tend to be specific to the tech industry. Outside the worlds of design and tech, they’re not so widely understood despite being incredibly important for business.

While the business value of good design is increasingly recognized, hiring managers and recruiters still tend to assume that UX and UI are done by the same person—hence the catch-all job ads you’ve no doubt encountered.

It’s not always a simple case of misunderstanding, though. Many companies deliberately seek out versatile designers who can cover both UX and UI or who at least understand UX or UI principles in addition to their main skillset.

So, how can you work out what’s really going on? Whether you’re looking for a UI-only role, a purely UX-focused career, or a mixture of both, it’s important to look beyond the job title and pay close attention to the skills, tasks, and responsibilities listed.

Now that you know the difference between UX and UI, you should quickly be able to determine whether a job ad is actually geared towards one or the other or deliberately targets both.

Not the Same

If you want to figure out which career path is right for you, consider the key skills required by UX vs. UI designers and the typical day-to-day tasks of each.

The skills required

This infographic highlights both UX and UI designers’ main hard, soft, and transferable skills.

Choosing between UX and UI?

If you’re keen to pursue a career in design but still aren’t sure whether to focus on UX or UI, you’ll need to spend some time thinking about where your interests lie, as well as what you’re naturally good at.

Both UX and UI design are highly collaborative, varied career paths that place you right at the cutting edge of technology and innovation. That said, there are some key differences between the nature of the work and the skills required.

Why not try out this quick flowchart to get an idea of what path might be the best fit for you?

A career in UX requires empathy, a penchant for problem-solving, and a creative and analytical approach. UX designers also need first-rate communication skills and some business know-how.

A career in UI also requires an understanding of user experience principles, but it’s much more focused on the visual, interactive aspects of design. If you’ve got a keen eye for aesthetics and like the idea of making technology beautiful, user-friendly, and accessible, you might be more suited to a career in UI. Of course, if you like the idea of a career combining both UI and UX, nothing will stop you from becoming a design all-rounder!

Becoming a UI/UX designer

Becoming a UI or UX designer requires similar approaches despite their other differences. Certain requirements and ways to boost your chances at success include:

• Developing your skills
• Having knowledge of industry tools
• Developing a portfolio
• Building your personal brand

As with most things in life, education is the best, most reliable starting point.

Sources

Lamprecht, E., Emil Lamprecht Writer for The CareerFoundry BlogEmil Lamprecht is the founder of multiple social impact (and other) companies, Emil Lamprecht Writer for The CareerFoundry Blog, Lamprecht, E., Blog, W. for T. C., & Emil Lamprecht is the founder of multiple social impact (and other) companies. (2023). UX vs. UI Design: What’s the Difference? [2024 Guide]. Retrieved from https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/the-difference-between-ux-and-ui-design-a-laymans-guide/