What’s the Difference Between UI and UX Design?

The digital era has significantly altered the concept of design. Now it includes not only graphic design but also new types of digital product design.

This, in turn, leads to the necessity in creating user-friendly interfaces. The three main criteria are to make it practical, intuitive, and comfortable. UX and UI designs are the two best tools that can help achieve these goals.

Not everyone knows what exactly UI and UX stand for or what their difference is. We hope our article will provide you with a good understanding of these two concepts. We will explain everything in simple words.

UI and UX: understanding concepts through examples

UX Design (User Experience) is the design of the process that a user goes through when using the product. UI Design (User Interface) is the design of the product’s appearance. This concerns strictly the visual – interface – part of the product.

For instance, imagine the development process for an application for purchasing cinema tickets. In this case, the UX-designer is responsible for creating the process of selecting, buying and using the tickets. He must have an accurate idea of how every stage of this process will work, how the user will interact with the interface, and what he must do in order to perform actions within the application.

The UI-designer receives this information, and his task is to design the visual appearance of these stages – the visual language for every part of the process. This means he is responsible for the visual design of the interface for the processes of purchasing, reserving and activating tickets.

In addition, the specialist must come up with a unique visual design of the app for this specific cinema. This would allow customers to better remember that it is this particular cinema that offers this unique services, and the cinema will gain a more loyal audience.

As a result the difference in these two concepts can be summed up in the following statement:

The difference between UX and UI is that the UX designer plans the user’s interaction with the interface, and what steps are required from the user in order to do something; The UI designer comes up with the visual design for each of the steps.

It is also important to understand that the work process starts off with UX and is followed by UI. This is essential because the majority of beginner designers first design cool buttons and perks in their interface, but they don’t think about how the user will go from one step to another.

Conclusions

The UX designer’s job process includes a complete analysis of competitors, the development of figures, and then the development of a more-or-less viable product. A product that will be of value to the target audience. This presumes the understanding of the user’s psychology and behavior.

Once the interaction process is complete and the product prototype has been developed and approved, the UI Designer takes over. His task is to make the product look aesthetic and attractive. This process involves the selection of the color scheme and a visual design that would not only be pretty but also comfortable to use.

UX is how your product works. UI is how it looks. UX design makes an interface efficient, UI design makes an interface beautiful.