In the early twenty-first century, the internet and mobile phones became commercialized and more and more people started using them. Around five billion people have access to the internet today. With this huge number of people using the internet comes more need for developers and designers to create digital products that attract more attention from users. In these digital products, there are some terms like User Experience and User Interface that are meant to enhance the experience of the user. However, they confuse most people. So in this article, we’ll discuss the key difference between UX and UI. Let’s get started!
What is User Experience?
User experience, commonly known as UX, refers to the journey a user takes when they first interact with a digital product. User experience design involves many different aspects of product development, including branding, usability, function, and design, in order to create products or services that provide meaningful experiences for users. It has nothing to do with the physical or tangible layer of the product, but rather with the overall user-friendliness of the interaction.
The term “user experience” was first introduced in the late 1990s by cognitive scientist Don Norman, co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group. He defined the term User Experience as: "User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-users interaction with the company, its services, and its products." According to him, to provide a high-quality user experience to the end-user, it is necessary to seamlessly integrate the combination of engineering, marketing, graphic design, industrial design, and interface design into a digital product.
You’ve probably figured out now that UX design is about improving the user experience. The quality of the product does not depend on how many features it provides or how well it looks. It all depends on the end user. If the user is not satisfied, the product is a failure.
What does a UX Designer do?
A UX designer or a User Experience designer is a person who works to make the product usable, accessible, and more enjoyable. It is the responsibility of a UX designer to enhance the user’s experience and to ensure that the user achieves his or her objectives as easily as possible. It is also the responsibility of the UX designers to create a product that meets the needs of consumers and allows them to effectively achieve their objectives.
Through the use of research and experimentation, UX designers work closely with UI designers, developers, and marketing teams to develop a deep understanding of the need of the end user. Using both qualitative and quantitative market research, they continuously enhance and improve user experience.
What is the User Interface?
User interfaces, also known as UI, refer to the layers, buttons, and other visual and functional aspects of a digital product. These aspects are used by users to communicate with the product or service. It is the process of transforming conceptual diagrams into an attractive and functional graphical user interface. As a result, this increases the usability of the product and creates an emotional connection between the product with the end user.
Just like the User Experience, it is also very critical to keep the end-user in mind during the UI design process and to create an interface that is easy to use and allows the user to move seamlessly from one point to another. However, the main difference between the UI and UX is that the UX focuses on the overall look and feel of a digital product. Whereas UI focuses exclusively on its design and layout, as well as its components. These components include everything from the touchscreen to the keyboard, sound, text, images, and animation.
In the first three generations of computers that came until 1964, command line interfaces were used. There was no such thing as enhancing the user interface or the user experience until the fourth generation of computers came into being. Xerox PARC was the first company to develop a graphical user interface. GUI is the user interface that is now used in all digital products such as software or websites to enhance the interaction of the user with the product.
What does a UI Designer do?
UX designers’ job ends with prototyping, which is where UI designers begin. User interface designers design and create the user interface using a graphical user interface. They are responsible for the layout, design, and functionality of the product. It includes everything from selecting fonts, to creating buttons, and making sure that the components and pages are aesthetically pleasing and designed according to the needs of the end user.
Apart from developing beautiful interfaces, UI designers aim to make sure the brand is accurately conveyed in the final product. Also, the user can easily navigate the interface, and the navigation is enjoyable for the end user. It may also be the responsibility of UI designers to create a User Interface style guide. The style guide is created to ensure that all the aspects of the product are built using the same style if developed by different developers.
Conclusion:
In this article, we discussed the key differences between User Experience and User Interface design. We also talked about what does a UX designer do and what does a UI designer do? We tried to keep things as simple as possible and we hope that now you do not get confused the next time you hear any of these terms.
