What is the UX and UI designs – Complete Guideline
To begin with, a lot of people confuse themselves with the two words UI and UX Designs. Basically, UI is User interface design which is where the user will use the app or software whereas UX is User experience design. One has to understand this difference and keep it in mind while reading about UI and UX Designs. To elaborate UX design is the complete experience of the user when they use the product be it a website or app from beginning to the end. How easy the app or program is for them to use and how is the quality of the product. When you talk about it is something like how easy the interface for anyone who uses the program. Both are very crucial to the success of a product be it App or Software or website. But both are completely different.
UX (User Experience)Design
UX design is crucial to the success of a product. It includes any interaction between the customer and the company. One classic example we can tell is a website how easy it is for the customer to look at the products or services he wants and how easily he can contact the company for his queries. The aim of the UX design is to create an easy and efficient and pleasant experience for the users of the product. One must keep in mind that UX is not only about the visual part it is the overall experience of the customer when they use the product and try to reach the customer. UX design is not an essentially IT product outcome even though it is widely used by IT companies.
UI (User Interface) Design
UI design (User Interface) is the word one often associates with the IT products such as Websites, Apps, and Software. This is all that appeals to the eyes and more. While the focus may remain on the visual aspect more important thing how easy it is for the users to use the interface and how it appeals to them. It is more about icons, backgrounds, color schemes, and typography.
A website with a bad UI design may not appeal to the customer. Also, even if the UI is good, a good UI designer will make it easy for the people to reach out for the correct sections easily rather than keeping them hidden somewhere in corners. The aim of the UI design is to guide the user through the interface. It should create an intuitive experience for the customers. When the user uses the product, it should guide the customer and should not make the user search or think about how to proceed further.
Key differences between UI and UX designs
As we said earlier, one has to understand though both are completely different and unique, both go hand in hand. Bad UI with good UX or Good UI with bad UX will not provide good results to any product. Do remember the basics. UX design is about the overall feel of the experience and UI design is about how the interface of the product looks and functions while the user accesses it.
UX designer has to consider the complete life cycle of the user when they access the product. From the beginning to the end, how the user will access and what are the difficulties he may have to face, and how it can be solved and provided easily to the user to access the product without trouble. This will include how the content is organized and how the forms and contact options are placed across the website. But it does not include that alone. They need to map the journey of the customer across the product. Once they finish and bring the concept into the Wireframe it is a skeleton on which the product will be built. Here is the point where the role of the UI designer starts.
From this point on UI designer takes over the product. He has to think about all the visual aspects of the website or app. Where the buttons have to be placed and how the gallery should be created. How attractive and easy this should look like etc will be considered by him while doing the UI design of a product.
UX design normally comes first in the product development cycle. To say in layman terms, UX design is like mapping out the bare bones while the UI designer fills with attractive elements. One important aspect one has to understand though widely used in digital products, UX can be applied to any product not only to digital whereas UI is out an out digital product. One has to remember both of these complements each other. Think what is the use of a website or app with cool graphics and mind-blowing design but very hard to use and vice versa.
The activity of a UX Designer and UI designer
A good and quality UX designer will do competitor analysis, Customer analysis and user research, product development, and content management besides making wireframes, prototypes, and development planning.
A typical UI designer will do customer analysis and design research before moving to brand and graphic development. He is also responsible for UI prototyping, interactivity, and animation, responsive to all the sizes of the screen, and implementing the design with the developer. UI designer brings life to UX design. A UI designer is the sole in charge of the user-friendliness of a website or an app. He needs to design in a way it is easy for any user to navigate from the beginning to the end of the website and should place the contact options at places where it can be easily accessible for the users who use the website or the app. A UI designer should have an eye for the latest trend in graphics and user interface designs so that they can design an attractive website for the company.
No doubt that both the UX and UI designers are equally essential for a website or app to become a successful one.
