The Difference Between UI and UX Design.
If you are a creative guy who likes to work and makes you feel satisfied, but still really wants to get paid, then the good news – technology is for you!
But where exactly do creative works and technological industries intersect?
UX design and UI design are two technical fields that are ideal entry points for creativity, especially those who like to participate in people-centered projects.
This guide will break down both jobs and show how each job leads to flexible, and creative technical work.
What is the difference between UX and UI?
What is the difference between UX and UI?Before going into the details of each field, it is important to clarify, although you can hear that the two terms use interchangeably -UX and UI are two different categories of work (concession, there is a large overlap). So what are we talking about when we see UX vs UI?
User Experience (UX)
UX (a technical acronym for “user experience”) is a technical field that studies the user base of digital products (such as websites and applications), tests these products on behalf of users, and applies these results to improve the experience of people with finished versions of products.
This “experience” includes how digital products “feel” as they navigate, how they use different features, the ease of use of the product, and the overall appeal that users find the product.
Far from coding heavy technology work like web development, UX work focuses more on being a good listener with creative and critical thinking skills that integrate what you’ve learned from user interviews into the overall product experience.
In UX work, “design” is just part of the work (more information about this below).
User Interface (UI)
While UX deals with the overall look of the brand and product experience, UI (technology means “user interface”) can be understood as a subset or plugin of larger UX images.
As the name implies, the UI layout takes the principle of UX and applies them specifically to the product interface (site or application menu, layout on the screen, site map, placement of forms, etc.).
Due to this approach, UI layout is more similar to traditional or flat web design work (but with some additional twists, which we will cover below).
What do UX and UI designers do?
Because the UX and UI definitions alone can be blurry, it would be helpful to see what the UX and UI designers really do (and the skills they need to do this, the ones we detail in the UX Designer Blueprint).
Research the User Experience
Research is at the heart of all UX work. Without spending time researching the product’s customer experience (and using that research to report product changes and improvements later), UX researcher usually passes through basic skills and techniques (such as the following:
Personas:
Used to model the group of users that you are creating a product. These profiles are created by researching data such as demographic information, user interview tests, and customer experience metrics (search terms used to find websites or online applications, frequently clicked links by specific customer type, time spent viewing web pages, etc.).
UX designers use these roles to determine product characteristics and UX design options based on what is most attractive to theoretical users.
Journey Mapping:
It is a technology that involves creating a user’s “journey” with a visual representation of the product. The user’s travel model is based on the same data type and metrics used for biological characters.
A typical user journey begins with the first product engagement (for example, the first time a user visits the site after finding it through a Google search or a Facebook post) and (at best) leads to a long-term customer relationship with the product.
This visual graph of the customer experience trajectory (based on) allows UX designers to identify how users interact with the product, what user needs arise in different parts of the customer journey, and the gap between the expected and actual user experience.
Design Ideation:
It is a peculiar term “brainstorming”, which is what UX designers do about their findings.
After analyzing the current user experience of the product and defining the ideal experience based on user feedback (using tools such as character maps and travel, etc.),
UX designers get into the user’s skin and start generating ideas to implement the necessary changes to the product. This brainstorming can be done with customers and stakeholders of the product and is that the designers of u. UI will perform a similar process conceived for interface design, also based on UX research data.
Information Architecture
After developing a general strategy to improve product user experience using UX research, UX and UI designers need to start developing and implementing their design – general experience design in case of UX, specialized interface design in case of UI.
This is the information architecture phase of the UX and UI design:
Navigation and Layout Best Practices:
UX and UI design, but they occupy the center when it comes to UI (all about UI is based on your navigation and layout, which in turn reflects the overall experience of the whole product). Like traditional design elements, such as color and typography, are a combination of personal preferences and design science, UX and UI have some objective best practices based on design theory.
For example, this UX Planet article offers five basic UI patterns that are considered basic and well-developed building blocks for UX UI design. Understanding these best practices and incorporating them into your own UX UI design is a key part of a UX or UI designer.
Wireframe:
It is a process of creating a visual model (wireframe) that maps the basic structure of a website or application.
These models give UX and UI designers the opportunity to draw key elements of the website, such as the brand experience strategy of the UX designer (logo, color palette, and content selection), and the UI designer page layout (sitemap, screen menu positioning, including interactive forms, etc.).
In the early stages of designing an experience or product interface, wireframes are a low-risk way of sharing design plans with customers, users, and stakeholders (rather than creating complete product iterations).
Prototype:
A richer website or application model based on a basic wireframe concept and offers users a sample version of the product with which they can interact.
Like the wired model, the prototype is lower (in terms of time) and cost than the full version of the product, but closer to the actual version for testing purposes.
Similar to wireframes, UX designers will focus on prototypes as models of the overall product user experience, while UI designers will use them to model and test efficient and attractive interface designs.
Iterative Product Testing
UX research and UX UI design modeling of all products eventually leads to the release of the finished product. However, UX design is a dynamic and continuous process, so it is important to remember that the “finished” product does not mean the “final” product. The full version of the website or application refers only to the officially published version and accessible to the public.
But UX and UI designers continue to test their product even after release. Product iteration tests usually take two forms.
Usability testing:
The UX designers observe and analyze how easy and enjoyable it is for users to perform a particular task using this particular iteration. This gives UX designers the opportunity to see firsthand how users experience the final version of the product and what can be changed later iterations.
A/B Testing:
Involves exposing test users to product iterations (version A) and versions with minor design changes (version B) and observing the versions preferred by user groups.
User preferences can be measured using a metric called “conversion rate”. App visitors who take the necessary actions during the visit (such as purchasing a product or service, registering for an email list, or subscribing to a paid member).
By comparing iteration with a variant B, UX and UI designers can see which parts of their current version of the product resonate with the user and which parts can be improved.
UX or UI-What job is right for you?
Now that you know the difference between the UX and UI layout (and how the two overlap), you might be wondering how to figure out which character works for you. One way to look at it is to consider how attractive you the “Design” aspect of UX UI.
If you come from a traditional design background, or are particularly interested in the specific work of design, specializing in UI might be a perfect choice. At the same time, if more theoretical research and UX problem solving attract you, then you may want to lean towards the UX design.
But here’s the thing: you do not have to position yourself to one or another option. By learning the general UX skills that appear in our UX designer plan, you get to work anywhere in UX UI.
In general, UX and UI definitions are rarely as clear as suggested in this article, and employers requiring UX design may be looking for UI design. If you are a general UX UI, you can find a job that suits you anywhere.
