Understanding the difference between UX and UI

In this article, we have tried to clear the difference between UI and UX with some real-life examples.

UI is an acronym for User Interface while UX refers to the User Experience. As easy as the two terms sound, they still put people in turmoil. There have been prolonged debates and discussions over their definitions and even today, people get baffled while explaining the difference between UI and UX design.

UI and UX are two of the most important components of a product that work in tandem. Despite sharing a close relationship, they aren’t the same. Both refer to the distinct aspects of the product development cycle. Although these terms are executed interchangeably, they convey a completely different meaning.

So what exactly is the difference between UI and UX? In today’s post, we will briefly understand what UX and UI are, what key differences they have, and the role of UI/UX designers in product development.

UX Explained

Anything that can be experienced defines the User Experience. For instance, driving a car. Let’s say you went to a showroom to purchase a car. The salesperson there will offer you to take a test drive so that you can feel the experience before you make the purchase. Now whether or not you buy that car depends majorly on your test drive experience.

There are many examples in our day-to-day where we can relate to the UX. If you are sitting on a chair that makes you feel uncomfortable, it would annoy you a lot while if you sit on a sofa that provides a comforting experience, you will feel relaxed. So, basically the experience you get after using a particular product is what UX is.

The same goes for the case of mobile application design. Technically, User Experience or UX design can be defined as the elements that cater to the overall experience of a user with a brand- its website, mobile application, products, and services. Now, a good or a bad user experience entirely depends on how easy or difficult a user finds it to interact with the components of your website/app. UX design addresses concerns related to the user flow- whether it is smooth or bewildering, and whether or not it is providing clarity to the users.

UX implies researching your target audience, identifying customer pain points, and doing competitor analysis, collectively with a focus on making the user journey convenient. Besides, UX designers consider the business objectives and build products accordingly that match with the company’s vision and mission.

UI Explained

User Interface or UI design has much to do with the look and feel of the product. Considering the same example of the car, how attractive the car looks defines the UI. The car design, color, shine, are some of the important points here from the UI perspective. If you look around, the color combination of your sofa set, the design of your washing machine is all part of the User Interface.

Put simply, UI encompasses the visuals and the product layout. In mobile application design, this can include buttons, typography, animations, responsive design, color palette, call-to-actions, images, placeholders, and all the visual aspects that users interact with, to perform a task or achieve an outcome. These are supposed to be elegant and user-friendly. Imagine a mobile app where the UI design looks cluttered and clunky- having too much text, unpleasant colors, weird fonts, etc. This would immediately compel users to close the app and then it won’t even matter how good your products or services are. UI designers create interfaces that are intuitive and make the user journey exciting.

Difference between UX and UI

As we mentioned earlier, UX and UI are closely related and work in tandem. Let’s understand the difference between UI and UX design with the same car example. When you visit a showroom, at the very first moment, your eyes would catch the cars that look fascinating. That’s related to the UI. You might not be aware of their internal features but the design and color won’t let you take your eyes off the car. This is normal human behavior. Within your budget, you will select the cars that have an amazing outlook. Afterward, you will take a few test drives and, based on your driving experience, purchase the one that you find to be the perfect fit. That’s UX.

Google’s search results page is another example to understand the difference between UX and UI design. It has a minimalist design with no distractions which is a perfect example of a great UI. It also loads billions of results within seconds and categorizes them well- that drives a great user experience.

The key difference between UI and UX is that UX focuses on the User’s Journey whereas UI focuses on the Product’s look and feel.

We have been stressing quite a lot on the point that the UX keeps a strong focus on the User Journey. But how? To understand this better, it’s essential to understand the User Journey Map first.

A user/customer journey map is a flowchart that visualizes a user’s flow throughout a website or an app. It represents the entire touchpoints, blockages, between the user and the product explaining what paths or channels they follow while interacting with a product from beginning to end. This plays a key role in UX design as it allows designers to look at things from the users’ perspective and work on the challenges they are facing on their journey.

UI, on the other hand, is the part of this journey that employs design elements and makes it possible for the users to effortlessly navigate and reach the outcome without any hassle. You can say a UI design compels users to take action while the UX is the result of the action.

Some other definitions to understand the difference between UI and UX

1. UX design involves identifying customer pain points and solving those problems to enhance the user experience while UI design is all about creating interfaces related to the functionality that lead to a positive experience. UI and UX are like the heart and brain of a website or mobile application.

2. UX deals with the functionality while UI deals with the interactive designs.

3. UX covers ideation and development of the product whereas UI covers adding a finishing touch to the developed product.

Workflow Analysis

Although the two terms are entirely different, they complement each other. Both serve the purpose of providing a trouble-free user journey and maintaining a positive experience throughout.

Talking about their work, UI/UX designers try to identify and understand the needs of the users by having a discussion with the product team, marketing team, and business analysts. They conduct market research and competitor analysis to further understand their target audience and the thought process behind creating a product. Once research and analysis are done, the designers create a flowchart like diagram that highlights the user journey through the application and how different functionalities are connected together. The next step is to create wireframes to illustrate the user interaction points. This is followed by creating prototypes that create an interactive composition of the UI functional elements.

Then starts the work of developers. Once their job is finished, the designers work on the layout design, style, and visual elements to create rich interfaces that make it easy for users to perceive the information. They ensure that the product design goes well with the brand.

Summing Up

The buttons and display of your AC remote refer to the UI, the functionality of the buttons define the UX. As simple as that!

We hope we helped you understand the difference between UX and UI.

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