Wednesday 22 November 2017

The difference between User Interface Design (UI Design) and User Experience Design (UX Design)


Whenever we hear the words UX and UI we often assume that they resemble the same thing more or less. However, it is not the truth. In actuality, both UX and UI are different terms and are involved with different industry principals. Often when asked about a UI skillset, employers often assume that the candidate may also have the technical acumen of UX design as well. Such demands are outrageous as UX and UI design, though quite similar are largely contrasting.

UX and UI design are principally different

First, let us note the most basic difference between them, the spelling; just kidding. The UI is a process of designing the visual interface between the user and the system. UI focuses more on the way a user will interact with the system. While UI is more focused on the look and the feel of the interface, the UX is all about the interaction of a user with the system. Fundamentally same on a level, UI and UX both stand apart as elements focusing on separate functionalities. UX designers are more concerned about the ease and simplicity with which users interact with the system.

Usefulness vs attractiveness

While the primary focus of a UI design to make things easy and effective for a user, it still doesn’t concern itself with the method a user might choose to interact with the system. Being able to understand the system and to actually interact with it are two separate tasks completely. UX designer performs enhanced analysis, understand user profiles, proactively search for problems that a user might experience while interacting with the system and develop solutions based on this research to improve the quality of interaction with the system. On the other hand, UI design is about looking aesthetic and stunning so to immerse the user.

User Goals and Emotional Connect

UX is focused on the making user interaction efficient, so to help a user make use of the system in the most optimal way. But what UX lacks is the emotional connect a user feels towards the system. Meanwhile, UI design is implemented to engage the user and establish a connection encaptivating the user.

First vs Second

It is a misconception that UI design is the first step towards designing and implementing a system. UX is a pivotal element and is always implemented first and then comes UI design. UX is an upcoming field which has garnered attention and popularity. It is increasingly becoming important to deploy UX design for an enrich feel and user of a system. Combining UX and UI can be more efficient and ensures the right balance of system utilization and feel. But depending on the expert and the path towards developing a system, the design ideologies may also differ.

Cross platforms vs Interface dependent

The ideology behind User Experience Design enables it to be deployed across the various products and interfaces to be used by the same target audience. The actual implementation may differ, but principally it does remain the same. That is one of the biggest advantages of UX design. On the other hand, User Interface Design is platform and interface dependent. Also, major changes are involved when you are implementing a UI design across platforms because uniqueness and creativity are the pillars driving UI design.

Even though UX and UI design are quite different, they both remain quintessential to the success of any system. Therefore, it is always preferable to use them together to elevate the look and the feel of the system.

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