The people you overheard are actually talking about UX and UI design, which are two jobs that have been around for decades, if not centuries. The tech industry has given these jobs the names “UX” and “UI” design.
“UX design” means “design for the user experience,” while “UI design” means “design for the user interface.” Both are important to a product and work well with each other. But even though they work together, their jobs are very different and focus on different parts of the process of making a product and the design field as a whole.
What is UX (user experience) design
“User Experience” is abbreviated to “UX.” Users are at the center of user experience design because “user experience” refers to the overall experience that a product provides to its target audience. We mean the responsiveness and interactivity of the user’s journey when we talk about UX.
I’m curious as to what occurs when they hit the button. Does the next page load without any hiccups? Is the flow of the website logical, or are there any snags the user may encounter?
Enhancing the quality of the user’s experience is the main focus of UX design. Nothing you do will guarantee success, no matter how much time and effort you put into your product. Problems will arise if consumers aren’t satisfied with the final product.
UX designers collaborate with marketing and product teams to identify and meet users’ deepest needs. Effective user interface design takes time and effort to perfect. User testing and user research are common steps in the UX design process. User experience design often persists long after a software product has been released. Surveys and in-depth interviews can better understand users’ opinions and needs.
This will notify you right away if your intended audience feels your UX is poor, allowing you to zero in on the areas that need fixing.
As you peruse the list of must-have competencies for UX designers, you’ll discover that the scope of this field extends far beyond conventional design expertise. Successful user experience design requires a wide range of skills.
It is the responsibility of the UX designer to balance the product’s functionality with the business’s objectives, the product’s technical limitations, and the users’ demands. Concentrating on the user’s flow and satisfaction should be given top billing.
If you’re having trouble wrapping your head around UX design, this example should assist.
Imagine you’re developing a shopping app. If you’re already selling goods online, you know how crucial a smooth checkout experience is. Your checkout flow may make sense in your head, but it may not translate well in practice.
If the “purchase” or “checkout” button isn’t in the appropriate place, for instance, the transaction won’t be completed. There is some scrolling involved before users can continue with the purchase. This small annoyance might not seem like much, but it can ruin the user experience and, in turn, conversion rates.
So, a UX designer will make a map of the user’s experience to make sure that the purchase goes smoothly.
What is UI (user interface)design
UX design is a little bit different from UI design. The process of making a user interface is a little bit more technical, so UI designers need to know a lot about information architecture and command-line interface code.
The user interface design and graphical user interface are made by UI designers. When making interfaces, UI designers still need to put the end user first, just like UX designers do. But the way the interface’s visual parts are put together is different.
During the first stage of making software, UX design usually comes first. Then, UI designers work closely with UX designers on the product’s colors, fonts, responsive design, buttons, icons, and other similar features.
A user interface designer might start with a sitemap or wireframes that show the order of the content. Then, visual design elements must be used to illustrate this hierarchy in the design.
In short, UI design is all about how a piece of software looks and feels. It makes sure that the user interface is easy to use, taking into account everything that can be seen and done on the page.
This job is all about how a user interacts with the design elements of a website or app.
Difference between UI & UX
At its most basic level, UI is made up of all the parts that make it possible for someone to use a product or service. On the other hand, UX is what the person using the product or service gets out of the whole experience.
Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen put it all in a nice way when they said:
Even though the user interface (UI) is obviously a very important part of the design, it’s important to separate the whole user experience from it. Take a website that reviews movies as an example. Even if the UI for finding a movie is perfect, the UX will be bad for a user who wants information about a small independent release if the database only has movies from the big studios.
Take Google, for example. Its famously simple interface shows that you don’t need bells and whistles to have a good time. Google knows that when a person visits the site, they are looking for one thing: information. And they need it fast.
People use “google” as a verb, which shows how well the company lives up to that experience and expectation. People can find out almost anything they’ve ever wanted to know in the blink of an eye, and few other search engines still exist today.
Now, imagine that every time you searched on Google, it took 15 seconds to get a result. You wouldn’t be able to get an answer to your question right away. Even if Google kept the same interface, your experience would be very different.
