Today in this blog we will try to understand the difference between User Interface and User Experience Design.
Design is a broad subject; it is not restricted to textile design, print design, interior design or graphic design.
Due to the influx of technology many new design roles have emerged in the market.
User Interface can be written as UI in short and User Experience as UX.
Both User Interface and User Experience Design are related to Information Technology products and need to operate closely together.
User Interface and User Experience Designs are evolving as future leading design roles.
UX Is User Experience Design
UX or User Experience Design is about designing the product in such a way that can give seamless experience to the people who use them.
It is about programming of the app or the product; how the app is going to function.
Professor and researcher Donald Norman coined the term “User Experience” and brought it to the forefront.
Donald Norman said that he invented the term “User Experience” because he wanted to cover all aspects of the user’s experience with the product.
UX designer solves the end-users’ problems and they communicate with the developers to make the design successful.
In our daily life we search through Websites or Apps; to make the digital websites or Apps customer friendly UX designers perform many researches and experiments.
The UX designer team finds out whether the customer’s experience with the App is smooth or confusing?
Is the customer felt arbitrary or logical while navigating the app?
Who the target customers and how to make the customers experience with the product delightful.
They program the product in such a way that it can lead the customer to its destination smoothly.
UX designer makes the user’s interaction with the app smooth by figuring out customers need and demand.
They carry out the usability test by giving various tasks to the users.
Then they make notes of the problems or issues faced by the users and use them to make changes in the design of the product.
UX designers help in the organization on the website so that people can find the information fast.
UX design focuses on interaction between human users and machines in other words they determine how the user interface will operate.
It determines the structure and functionality of the interface.
UX Is About Wireframes
UX team performs various tasks like analysis of competitors and customers, product structure and content development.
UX designer sketches out the interaction framework or wireframes after collecting user’s needs and goals.
The interaction framework set ups an overall structure for product behaviour.
Later the wireframes or interaction frameworks are translated from sketched storyboards to full –resolution screens which shows user interface at the pixel level.
UX designer works in collaboration with the user interface designer to give necessary inputs for good product design.
UX designer communicates with the developers and give suggestions regarding the design of the product.
UX design makes the lives of the users simple and helps in the growth of sales and customer retention.
They make the interaction between the active customer and the company.
UX design enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty by improving the usability.
UI Is User Interface Design
We know that UX design is about how the User Interface works and now UI design is about how User Interface looks.
UI or User Interface is all about graphic designs.
If we do research to find out which phone people like most Samsung or Apple; obviously we will get the answer Apple Phones.
Though both the brands are good but still people prefer one over the other, why?
Because in Apple phones response is consistent and immediate; they are much more intuitive.
Apple apps have consistent look and feel.
UI designer makes technology easy and intuitive for the people to use.
They work on the look of the product.
If the product or app’s look is great but is difficult to use then it means great UI and poor UX.
On the other hand if the app is very usable but looks terrible then it means great UX and poor UI.
Hence both UX and UI work closely together.
UI Design Is Graphic Design
UI is about graphical layout of an application.
User interface consists of buttons to click on, the text to read, images, text entry fields and all the items the user interacts with.
UI design also includes designing of screen layout, transitions, animations and each single micro-interaction.
In this designing artist choose from the colour schemes, variety of button shapes and decides upon width of lines and fonts used for text.
The website or the app gets the look and feel through UI design.
A UI designer works on design research, branding and graphic development, user’s guides, interactivity, animation, screen sizes and many other aspects.
UI designer is responsible for creating an attractive, guiding and responsive experience for users.
UI design visually guides the user through a product’s interface via interactive elements and through all platforms; it is completely a digital field.
UI designers deal with visual design which gives face to the brand and ensures proper communication between customer and the product.
Many companies recently are becoming dependable on web applications and mobile applications and therefore they are giving priorities to UI to improve user’s overall experiences.
Both UX And UI Work In Harmony
Therefore both UI and UX work in harmony.
Constant communications between UI and UX designers help the final user interface to look good and operate intuitively.
Both UI and UX team performs research on what users want; what they expect from applications.
If the UI team is designing a travel app then it is necessary for them to find out how other travel apps have been created in the past.
Research may indicate that customer prefer outlined icons instead of bold shapes icons.
Similarly UX team does research on the experiences and interactions that users had with every application.
Both UI and UX need to be perfectly aligned with user’s expectations to produce an excellent user experience.
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