UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) design are two essential elements in creating a successful digital product. Although they may sound similar, they are distinct disciplines with different focuses and goals.
In my day-to-day as a UI/UX designer, it’s common for me to do research on the user persona, target audience, business objectives, and even competitor analysis, I’d also brainstorm on what to prioritize in a design, come up with better strategies to help users achieve certain goals easily, and execute the UI design process as well. But what is the difference between UI and UX you may ask?
What is UI Design?
UI design also known as “User Interface” design is all about making a digital product look good. It’s the designer’s job to make sure the layout, buttons, icons, typography, and color schemes look pleasing consistent, and easy to use.
Here’s what UI design typically looks like:
You’d work on either Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, or any other software to create how the product should look like. It could be an app or a website.
What is UX design?
On the other hand, UX, also known as “User Experience” design is all about making a digital product easy to use. This includes research, strategy and testing (through user interviews, surveys, or even A/B tests but I’ll explain more about this in another post) to make sure the product is meeting the needs and wants of the user. It’s the designer’s job to make sure the product is easy to navigate and understand.
Here’s what UX design typically looks like:
When you’re a UX designer, you tend to spend more time writing. It’s usually a much less sexy process that involves creating flow charts for user journeys, sitemaps, and such to understand the users, what they need, how they feel, and how they would interact with the product. Making sure users would want to continuously use the product and that users perform the actions that businesses want them to take with ease such as adding items to the cart, signing up for a newsletter, or reading more articles.
In simpler terms, UI is the “look” of a product and UX is the “feel” of it. Both are important for making a great digital product, but they’re different.
It’s important to note that UI and UX design should work together seamlessly.
A product that is visually stunning but difficult to use will ultimately be a failure, and a product that is easy to use but unattractive will not be as successful.
In short, UI is all about the looks and UX is all about the user experience, both should be in harmony to make a successful digital product.
