UI vs. UX Design; what’s the difference?

User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are two terms that are widely used in the tech space. When using a website, app, or other electronic devices, UI refers to the displays, buttons, toggles, icons, and other visual elements that you look at and get information.

The complete experience you have with the system, be it a website or a machine that you use, including the path, the steps, the actions required, the feedbacks – is called the UX.

Although UI can influence UX and vice and versa, the two are distinct, as are the designers’ roles.

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Let’s dive deeper to understand more!

What is UX design?

A consumer’s experience with products, systems, or services is referred to as user experience (UX). UX design is about understanding people‘s intent when using a product/ a system/ an app or a website – what they should feel, what they need to understand and what action they should take to go to the next step.

The ease with which each part or aspect of a product or service may interact and lead the user to achieve their task successfully determines whether it is a good or bad user experience design.

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UX designers must know their target audience and what they require from the product they’re building. Most of the time, personas are created as UX designers gain this understanding. Personas allow designers to see a target user’s aims, aspirations, and constraints. These insights enable them to propose design ideas that are matching with their users’ habits and expectations.

What is UI design?

The graphical/ visual layout of an application/ object is known as the user interface (UI). It includes the buttons that users press, the text they read, the graphics, sliders, text entry boxes, and all other objects/ controls the user interacts with. This comprises everything from the screen layout, the buttons, physical keypads or slot to insert your credit card, pen drives, or any other device, to the transitions and interface animations to every micro-interaction. The goal of UI is to guide you through your task and make sure that you will not misunderstand the function of each control/ button and how to take the next step.

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Here are the key differences between the two.

• User experience (UX) is concerned with the product’s purpose and functionality and aims at making your time spent on the app/product efficient, happy, and memorable; the focus is on “What to achieve,” whereas the UI is focusing on “what to make” – to achieve it.
• UX design enhances the quality of interaction between a user and all aspects of a product. In contrast, UI design focuses on the product’s strength and aesthetic assets to a product’s interface. UX is about experiences, UI is about the visual elements enhancing the experience.
• UX design is focused on the path and steps that affect the user’s journey to achieve a specific task. On the other hand, UI design is a process that mainly focused on how the particular product’s surfaces look and function. UX focus on interactions, when UI focuses on tools.
• UX design includes research, testing, development, content, and prototyping to create the best path for the user to solve a problem. In contrast, UI refers to the process of visually leading a user through a product’s interface using interactive elements on all platforms. UX is making the system credible, UI is making it understandable and desirable.

By now, you might have a good understanding of the subtle differences between UI and UX design.

It’s easier to see why both are vital aspects of product and website design. UI and UX are deeply interlinked into each other; evolving one will benefit the other.

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The best products/apps/websites are usually a combination of exceptional UX and UI, but getting both requires two different sets of skills.  That’s why most of the big design teams got UI designers and UX designers separately.  But if, as a fresher, you want to get into this industry, you can’t anymore be only UI or only UX.

You will have to master one of the two and be deeply aware of the second. Only then will you be able to collaborate efficiently and create a masterpiece that would delight your users.

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So, be sure to look for a course covering both sides of this digital creation: UX and UI by proposing a complete understanding of the world of Interaction Design to you. Only then, you will become one of the most desirable designers in this field.