“What is the difference between User Experience Design and User Interface Design?” is a question that has been doing rounds since a very long time. People are always confused between the two and do not really understand the difference between the two. They have both been conceived at very different time gaps hence people are often unable to differentiate between the two. User Interface as a concept has been around since longer than User Experience.
User Interface which is widely known as UI and User Experience which is widely known as UX are two completely different concepts which have a completely different set of work models. Yet, they overlap each other and are interdependent on each other. These terms overlap each other and are parallelly aligned to each other, however, they cannot be interchanged and cannot compensate for each other under any circumstances.
With time the popularity of UX and UI is growing. More and more people are understanding the importance of good User Experience Design and a good User Interface Design.
In this article, we will learn the difference between User Experience and User Interface and their benefit.
What is User Experience Design?
The overall experience an individual has with a product or service of a brand is known as User Experience. This includes everything from easy navigation to a simplified check out process and even smooth and user-friendly journeys. Simplifying the interactions users have with a website or mobile app is the main goal of a good UX design.
User Experience basically involves conducting researches to understand the pain-points users have while they interact with the digital assets of a particular company. Competitor analysis and prototyping are also a part of a User Experience Design.
How soon a customer can check out and make a payment, how easy is it for users to complete certain tasks on a website or application, how user-friendly the navigation is etc. are all taken care of with a good UX design in place.
What is User Interface Design?
User Interface Design takes care of the look and feel of websites and applications. It refers to how appealing a website or application is to the target audience. Graphics, images, GIFs, typography etc. are all a part of the User Interface Design.
User Interface Design focuses on the aesthetics of a website or application. This includes the colour palette, widgets, button size and style etc. A good User Interface Design ensures that the entire layout is neat and clean. It is noticed that too much cluttering puts the audience off.
UI designers aim at giving websites/applications a makeover. They transform the way a digital asset looks visually. Too many elements on the screen tend to distract the audience. So, it is very important for UI designers to create fresh, clean and soothing UI designs to keep the audience engaged to a particular website or application.
How is User Experience different from User Interface?
User Experience and User Interface are both very critical and important factors that determines how the final product will do in the market. They are both of equal importance to any company. The ultimate goal of UX is to provide smooth and easy to use solutions to users. UI on the other hand has much to do with the aesthetics of a digital asset. UI takes care of the look and feel while UX takes care of solving user problems with simplified solutions.
Key points:
User Experience Design is the process of improving and developing the quality and ease of interactions between a user and the digital assets of a company.
User Interface Design considers all the visual, interactive elements of a product interface which include buttons, icons, spacing, typography, color schemes, and responsive design.
To give you a better understanding of the difference between UX and UI and how they are both equally responsible to make a website or application a hit among users, let’s consider this example, think about a house. The height of the roof, placement of doors and exit points, placement of where the bedrooms and washrooms should be for easy access, where should the garage and the lawn be placed etc. are all a part of the UX. On the other hand, the colour of the walls, the design of the roof, the tiles used etc. are all considered to be the UI.
Key responsibilities of UX designers
Creating content strategy
Creating wireframes and prototypes
Understanding user needs and creating journeys accordingly
Key responsibilities of UI designers
Implementation of UI design with developers
Maintaining uniformity among different elements used
Following brand guidelines for UI elements
Benefits of a good User Experience Design
When users can seamlessly carry on their activity and complete their tasks easily they tend to build a sense of fondness for the brand.
With simplified journeys, users prefer coming back to the website or application and thus become repeated customers.
Increase in brand loyalty and word of mouth referrals is observed with websites/applications that have easy navigation and functionality.
Benefits of a good User Interface Design
It is a human tendency to like things that are visually appealing. Users tend to stay longer on websites/applications that look good to the eyes.
Creative GIFs and animations tend to catch the user's attention. Catchy images also tend to linger in the user's memory for long which keeps them connected with the brand.
Users like fresh and new visual elements. So, whenever a new element is added users tend to notice it and acknowledge it. Thus increasing brand engagement, brand recognition and brand acknowledgment.
User Experience designers and User Interface designers need to work in sync with each other to maintain a balance and ensure that there is consistency in the final product. Building a storyline requires UX and UI designers to brainstorm together. One is incomplete without the other.
Also, if there are certain aspects that UX cannot take care of, UI can fill in the void and ensure that the final product is not hampered. If UX design is the skeleton, then, UI design brings life to that skeleton. UI design is like the icing on the cake. However, we need to understand that if the cake tastes bad then the icing is of no use at all. So both, User Experience and User Interface need to fulfil their individual roles and cater to problems in their own way to create end products that users like.
In conclusion
What we have covered in this article is just the tip of the iceberg. If we dig deeper we will get a better understanding of both User Experience Design and User Interface Design and how they differ from each other.
UX and UI both serve the same business goals. They both co-exist and parallelly work together to make any brand a hit among their target audience. They both require a different set of thinking process and strengths.
If you have any opinion about how UX and UI differ from each other and how they both add value to any product or service in their own unique way please write to us at info@techved.com and we will surely get an understanding of your side of the story.
