If you are familiar with the “design” world, especially web design, you’ve repeatedly heard about UI and UX design. Two initial words that most of the time come together. But what are UI and UX? If you ask ten people what is the UI and UX design, you will hear ten different answers. But which of these definitions is correct?
We narrow this discussion down to web and app design, but UI and UX design are used in all companies. Each business that has a product, service, and user (client or audience) surely has to deal with two concepts: user experience (UX) and user interface (UI). Perhaps some people think that these two are basically the same or that both of them are one person’s duties (jobs). Some things like HTML and CSS always come together and are used by a web designer. However, that is not actually true because even in small companies, UI and UX design are two very different jobs, positions, or departments.
What is UX design?
UX stands for User Experience. The UX designer is trying to improve the user experience of working with a website, app, product, or service. This means that someone who performs UX design should know about all the audience’s access points to the company and its services. They must predict all scenarios that may be used by clients and have them. In other words, UX design is the planning process for an experience that a person may have due to interacting with a product. UX design focuses on user interaction with daily products and services. UX designers try to make using products and services easy, logical, and fun.
5 things the design of UX attention to
Someone who performs UX design for a company should try to have an ideal experience while working with websites or applications. Of course, this experience leads users to the path that the organisation wants them to take. As you can see, this is practically a kind of research, and its output is a series of suggestions and solutions that are implemented in other parts of the company. Improving UX design can have a great impact on the growth and development of a business. To have a better understanding of UXdesign and its usage in website and app designing, you can follow the practical example below.
A practical example of UX design
One of the most familiar examples of UX design on a website is: that UX designers should try to guide users from the main page to the Blog or Shop section with the lowest number of clicks (max up to two clicks). As well as in smartphone apps, there are so many Buttons & Tables for different operations (such as Export to Excel, Print, Shopping, etc); so as a result of comforting users, the UX designer suggests putting a Drop Down menu on the top right corner of the page and then place all these operation keys in there. Doing thistheUX design lets users go directly into that menu and perform whatever they want within a few seconds instead of searching all around the page to choose a certain operation key. Actually, UX designers really put efforts to prevent users from getting confused, exhausted and lagged during their experiences of using a website or app.
Who is a UX designer, and what do UX designers do?
In small and newfound companies, the design of the user experience usually is done by the CEO and the owner is the one who considers occasions and gives his/her requests to the web/app designer. In large and professional companies UX design department is meant to interact with other departments and gives them suggestions based on customers’ behaviour review and the company’s strategies.UX designers act as user representatives. They work on applications, websites and products in any industry. In most cases, UX designers are not responsible for aesthetic design, but instead, focus on improving customer interaction. In sum, UX design units and UX designers have a wide range of job responsibilities:
Designing user persona and performing research on user
Designing user flows and wireframes
Create product prototypes
Testing products on real users
Doing continuous tests on products and improving them over time
UX Designers Responsibilities
What skills do UX designers need?
UX design is a fully specialized job, and the UX designer must first understand the processes related to “designing ideas” properly. They should also dominate technical knowledge such as designing and prototyping via tools such as Sketch, Figma and Adobe XD. In addition, the soft skills below can also be very effective for UX design position:
UX designers should have a practical insight into the data they collect, whether in the early stages or when testing on real people.
UX designers examine many different approaches to solve a particular problem. Therefore, they should have the ability to solve problems.
Communication is very important because UX design is a highly collaborative process.
What is UI design?
UI stands for User Interface, and it focuses on parts of the products that are digital, so the user sees and uses them. The UI designer works with graphic sketches and then puts these sketches on the website and app. UI design (user interface) is a customer-based approach to designing digital products. In fact, they create the appearance and feel of a website or application through the user interface. These items should not only be operational but also be easy to use and visually attractive (user-friendly).
The purpose of UI design is to create a user interface that satisfies users in terms of aesthetics and ease of use.
UI design is a two-part responsibility. Part of this is the duty of the graphic designers who work on websites and applications (this can include typography, colour pallets, buttons, animation, and other images, etc.). All of these visual elements or animations that allow you to interact with the app or website should be designed. There are many similarities between graphic design and UI design, but they are not the same because the other part is the responsibility of the front-end programmer, who implements the final plan and does the codding.
What is a UI designer and what do UI designers do?
A UI designer works at two levels: user interface graphic design and user interface coding (final run). In many projects and companies, these two parts are completely separate. First, a designer, who usually has a graphic background, first draws the plan as a wireframe or sketch and then implements it with tools like Photoshop or Adobe XD. The design is completely implemented graphically, and it’s not on the website or app at all. This plan is based on UX design’s needs and ideas. This means the graphic designer takes the needs and requests from user experiences and completes them with his or her own ideas. The final output is then delivered to the front-end or user interface code writer.
The next step is programming the designs, which is the duty of the programmer (Front-End website or application). This coding is done based on HTML, CSS, JS, etc. The programmer usually does not make any changes to the design and only changes the layout. The approach of the project’s ideas is done by a UX designer, and the graphical stuff will be done by a UI designer. Ultimately, the developer only runs it.
UI design is only associated with a small part of UX the design
What skills do UI designers need?
The user interface designers are responsible for creating integration and apparent beautification of a product, application or website. Someone who does UI design should be familiar with the latest trends, techniques and technologies. In the field of graphic design, they should have a perfect understanding of visual design, interface design, brand design, layout and so on. They also should also be skilful in graphic tools (Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch, MockPlus). Experience in Agile/Scrum development processes and HTML, CSS and JavaScript knowledge is also useful. In today’s digital world, both hard and soft skills are important for UI design:
User interface designers should conceptualize ideas in a visual manner so they should be very creative.
User interface designer works with product designers and web developers, so effective communication is an important skill for them.
User interface designers should be compatible with changes in daytime and technology advances.
What’s the difference between UX and UI Design?
A person who does UX design is managing user experience interacts with a product and makes a plan for it. They work on:
why do customers use the product (service, website or App)?
Where users are supposed to be guided after entering the site or application?
What should be shown to them?
What is the main goal for users’ login? (for example signing up on web site, buying, or just giving an email or other information, etc)
A UX designer usually focuses on the conceptual aspects of the design process and focuses on the users and their journey with the product.
A UX designer provides needs, suggestions and requests based on user experiences. From all of these requirements and examinations, some parts that are related to the appearance of the web site or app are given over to the UI design department. UI designer focuses on the visual and technical elements of the product. Designers create a series of contact points so that users can interact with products. They make sure that users can make their tasks easily, visually and enjoyable.
UX and UI Design work together
It is ok to say that UI design only has to deal with a small part of UX design, but UX designers even after the website or program running, constantly examine the user’s behaviour and testing methods to improve the UX in dealing with the product, and these studies will improve the UI design in next update. UX includes all the experiences that a person may have due to a product or service from the beginning to the end, but UI design is implied on items that a customer can interact with a product via them.
UX design is all about identifying and solving users’ problems. UI design is all about creating visual, aesthetic and interactive interfaces.
UX design is usually placed first in the product development process and after that is UI design.
UX design can apply to any type of product, service or experience, but UI design is specific to digital products and experiences.
Difference between UX and UI Design
When “Design” is different from “User Experience”
The image below shows the difference between the scenario we expected to come up with (Design) and the experience that users had after using the website or app (User Experience).
When the user experience is different from the expected scenario
Imagine the above photo as a small part of a website. The UX designer suggested that we must create a way depending on the needs of the users. UI design worked on the plan of this road and made the output (paving the way). But when the real experience of users was observed, the result showed that users made their own paths. Now the UX designer should give another plan base on company priorities. For example, if the user’s comfort is prioritized, UI design must change the path. If the priority of the company is about the preservation of grass or even appearance, UX design should give suggestions for using the fences. In the following example when the path has changed (or UI updated), UX design should continue its observation again. It should keep customers under magnification and analyze the results to have constant improvement. This cycle will never stop.
How do we do UX/UI designing?
We believe that UX and UI designers work together, one by focusing on research and ideas and the other by focusing on aesthetics and brand, but both are essential in product design. In Pass Group designers integrate their knowledge into projects. UX designers comprehend the process of graphical stuff and UI designers reach a mutual understanding of user-friendly designs. This leads to better ideas, a more efficient workflow and ultimately, a user-friendly app and website
