What is the difference between UX and UI design? Are they the same thing, or are they different? What are they? How do you learn it? These are some common questions we will be discussing in this blog to give you a better idea of how to distinguish the difference between the two. UX stands for the user experience design, and UI stands for the user interface.
They are both design disciplines, and they are related to one another. However, both of them vary in their nature. UX design is more analytical. Whereas, UI design is more visual and closer related to graphic design. Although both of them are similar in some ways, they are also extremely different. With that said, they both use various tools and have different approaches to creating solutions.
UX Design
UX can be easily defined as making something more enjoyable and useable between the product and the user that is using it.
UX Design Responsibilities
A large role of the UX designer is strategy and content. Content is still king. Therefore, strategizing on how that content is applied, and how it’s received and interacted best by the user plays a significant role in the UX design process. A UX designer does competitor analysis, customer analysis, and overall content structure and strategy. They also help develop the content in a way that best suits the user. UX design is a user first discipline where you’re always thinking about the user.
Another responsibility of the UX designer would be wire framing and prototyping a website application. All of those things are in the realm of user experience. A UX designer figures out what structure works the best so that a user can receive or take in that content. A good UX designer is also concerned with the execution of the product or service. Also, the feedback and analytics of the product or service.
So, the UX coordinates with UI designers to make sure everything is being implemented smoothly. A UX designer is never truly done because a product or service has a lifespan, and as it lives and breathes, people are experiencing it and interacting with it. Then, as they are interacting with it, over time, the user’s opinion might change, so a UX designer is constantly working to adapt to the user’s experience.
The Goal of the UX Designer
The goal is to connect the business’s needs to the user’s needs. If the user’s needs are to take in content, the UX designer makes sure that content is easily accessible. UX design is a complicated role; its part designer, strategy, marketer, and analytics. However, it’s still an exciting role, and it’s not just visual-based. It’s much more problem-solving and creating solutions on how to make the user experience feel good.
UI Design
UI design is more closely related to the visual arts like graphic design. When you’re a UI designer, you’re picking the colors, typography, and focusing on making the website aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, a UI designer’s purpose is to receive all of the needs and structure of the website and then take that information and put it in an attractive platform to be received by the users.
UI Design Responsibilities
The biggest responsibility is the look and feel of the product. A UI designer will do a good competitive analysis of what’s going on in the market, what’s the standard, the look and feel, and do extensive design research to make sure your product makes sense. For example, the UI designer shouldn’t be designing a children’s application, but making it look like a blog for a law firm. Then, the UI designer is going to do all of the graphics and visual design for the project. If it’s an interface for an application or website, they will be working with color palettes, typography, interactions, buttons, and other visual components.
Nowadays, UI designers also need to be thinking about animation, interactivity, and prototyping. A UI designer also adapts their designs to fit every screen, size, and resolution. Therefore, whether their website design is being viewed on a desktop, mobile device, or gaming console, the site must look good on all of those devices.
A good UI designer is responsible for interacting with the developer and making sure things look, feel, and work the way that they should. This is when the development, UX, and UI team all come together to make sure everything is what’s supposed to be. If you are looking for quality web development work, TOLS Multimedia is a great solution to consider.
The goal of a UI Designer
A UI designer is not necessarily a branding designer. Although they are closely tied to the brand of a company or product. They implement that brand through the design of the interface. Think of any brand or company, and the UI designer’s job is to make sure they are expressed through the user interface itself.
In Conclusion
Some of the principles of UX and UI design overlap, some of them have similarities, but in the end, they are both very different. UX design is more cognitive and analytical. Whereas, UI design is more visual problem-solving and aesthetically driven. Hopefully, this blog helped you differentiate and make sense of the two.
