The terms user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are often used synonymously in IT organizations. Is there a difference between these terms, and what do they mean? We know this is a million-dollar question and will answer it descriptively so you can gain better insights.
When using a website, app, or other electronic devices, you interact with screens, buttons, sliders, icons, and other graphical components that count as a user interface. In UX, we refer to how a product makes you feel during your interaction with it. UI indeed plays a role in UX, but they are two completely separate things. And when you collaborate with a leading UX/UI design agency, they will help you with how the customer navigates and what they will experience in your digital product.
In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the difference between UX and UI and how both parts work together to make an extraordinary user journey.
Table of Content What is a User Interface? What is User Experience? UI and UX: what is their importance, and how are they related? UI vs. UX Design Popular Tools Conclusion
What is a User Interface?
The typeface, illustrations, pictures, and other visually appealing components are used in user interface (UI) design to make a simple interface understandable and practical. It is the method of turning rough visual user interface wireframes into a finished product. This improves the usefulness of a product and forges a psychological attachment between the clients and the business.
Therefore, a user experience (UX) comprises numerous user interfaces (UI), which combine to create a digital product with a smoother transition.
As UI’s concentration is on interfaces means the interaction. We can describe its boundaries much more concretely than with UX. The total impact of a series of interfaces and all the additional, less obvious aspects of a product’s experience make up the user experience. At the same time, UI is solely focused on the impact that each screen or interface’s design will have on the user’s journey.
Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen succinctly put it this way:
It’s important to distinguish the total user experience from the user interface (UI), even though the UI is obviously an essential part of the design. As an example, consider a website with movie reviews. Even if the UI for finding a film is perfect, the UX will be poor for a user who wants information about a minor independent release if the underlying database only contains movies from major studios.
What is User Experience?
User concerns must be resolved to create experiences that are meaningful, simple, engaging, and readily available. UX design is a broad field that evaluates how each component of a solution or service a user interacts with contributes to the overall user experience.
Understanding your users’ complete journey and translating it into a product are the goals of UX design. It makes an effort to provide a solution to the question: How can I make it as easy and hassle-free as possible for individuals to accomplish their goals?
Simply put, UX design is focused on a customer journey’s total user-friendliness.
UI and UX: what is their importance, and how are they related?
The marriage of UX and UI shapes your whole experience with a product. Even though two similar products could yield the same outcome, their UX/UI indicates the ways how they deliver it. People will use a service more frequently if it has a superior UX/UI design than the rest of the competitors, as they enjoy the whole interaction.
To demonstrate this fact, we give you an example of Uber. Uber has disrupted the industry and solved problems for riders. It provides the user with precise location information and an estimation for the cab by incorporating Google Maps into the app. They greatly simplified online payments by implementing a wallet system connected to the user’s debit or credit card.
Over 8 million individuals currently use the app in 400 regions across 70 nations.
Imagine if the user opens the app and cannot find the desired location. To get a precise destination, they have to type the full address. And every time the ride is complete, they must complete a long feedback form. Wouldn’t that be most inconvenient? And people will surely make a vow not to use it again. But get back into reality, Uber understands the pain points of its target audience: Riders. And by implementing a simple UX/UI design, the app has won the hearts and minds of its users. Animation is one of the core elements in the app’s design it makes the transition smoother, thus animation in an app better user experience for app users.
UI vs. UX Design
Tools for UX/UI Design
We’ll look at a few UI and UX tools that you can find useful during the design process.
- Figma
- Sketch
- InVision Studio
- Axure
- Adobe XD
Although there are some tools that are specifically built for Ux to develop wireframes such as,
- Balsamiq
- VisualSitemaps
- Wireframe.cc
In a nutshell
Without both UX and UI, a meaningful product cannot be made. Instagram would be visually stunning and attractive but impossible to use without a UX design. In addition, Instagram would be a fantastic invention but challenging and complex to use in practice. It is NEVER UI vs. UX. It is always UI and UX. Every business leader should understand the difference between user experience and user interface design and how they connect and depend on one another. Get in touch to produce a highly profitable, visually appealing, and scalable digital product without sacrificing quality or risking technical debt.
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