THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UI AND UX DESIGN

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UI AND UX DESIGN

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UI Design refers to the term “User Interface Design” while UX Design refers to “User Experience Design”. They are two different elements of a single consumer experience, they both work together and are very important to a product

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Just imagine a human body as the product. The brain, the nervous system and the heart are the UX. It determines why the body moves, where it moves to and how it moves. UI is what can be seen on the human body, the features: complexion, body shape and more. UI is what makes it look like a human body, while UX is how it functions like a human body.

What is User Interface Design? UI Design is purely digital practice. It is all about the design of the product, it focuses on the look and layout. It considers all the visual and interactive element of the product, which includes: check boxes, menu items, buttons, spacing, color schemes, responsive design and more.

What a UI Designer Does? A UI Designer decides how to visually design the product for effective user experience. They ensure that the pages and steps a user experiences with the finished product goes along with the UX designer’s creation. They ensure that the page visually communicates the path.

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What is User Experience Design? User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services and its product ” — Don Norman.* It’s the process of researching, developing and improving the aspects of users interaction with a company’s product to satisfy its user’s experience with the product. It simply builds the relationship between a company, it’s product and the customers.

What a UX Designer Does? A UX Designer is concerned with the entire process of acquiring and integration a product including aspects of branding, design, usability and function. They think from the users perspective and enhance users satisfaction with a product.

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UI vs UX Design

  • UX is the interaction and experience users have with the company’s product and services, UI is the specific asset users interact with.
  • UX creates design strategy, understands the purpose of the product, UI solves specific problem
  • Audience is the backbone of UX. Research, testing and experiment work focuses on learning and improving the user experience while UI focus on the detailed layout to delight customers and entice them to take desired action.
  • UX build trust and confidence in an uncertain venture and in the app, UI helps to stimulate the app by creating interface based on functional requirements.
  • UX designer focus on creating a product’s structure, flow and functionality, UI designer focus on the structure and look of the product

Principles of UI/UX Design

UI Design Principles

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Create Natural Interface: Natural interfaces makes the user interaction direct and consistent with their natural behaviour. Natural interfaces feels fun and easy to use because the users make use of their existing skills, it saves them the trouble of learning something new —  e.g. speaking, the voice note button on WhatsApp is an example of natural interface.

Consistency: Consistency in UI design is making sure elements in the user interface are uniform. Placing, styling, type choices and layout should remain consistent throughout the entire user interface. If navigational elements is placed within the header of screen A it should not be placed within the footer of screen B.

Clarity: Clarity is a key feature in interface. Users should understand what they interact with through the interface. A simple clear screen is better than a messy one.

Information Flow: The screen should show only the necessary information. There’s no need for unnecessary details.

Source uxplanet.org/top-ui-design-principles-to-ke..

UX Design Principles

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Focus on the User: A good design’s purpose is to solve users problem. Empathize with users, see what they see, feel what they feel and think what they think. Harmonize with their needs, operation context and their mental goals

Build Personas: Personas gives the realistic representation of the intended users. It helps designers in working with clearly defined insights for a user rather than working off on assumptions.

Consistency: Consistency is important in building a successful product, it helps the design functionality stay the same across all pages. Resist the temptation of adding new crazy ideas, remember that usability is important too.

Usability Testing: Implementing a user-centric design strategy means consulting your users right at the beginning of the design process, but your engagement with them should go much deeper. You’ll need to put in place a continuous rigorous system of usability testing to ensure that the product pages are working for the users.

Source 99designs.com/blog/web-digital/ux-design-pr..

Conclusion UI and UX are both important. There’s no UI without UX. No matter how beautiful the UI is, without UX the users will find it useless. No matter how functional the UX is too, it is useless without UI. UI and UX design are both important in building a product.