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Learn the Difference Between UX vs. UI Design

When it comes to UX vs UI design, there are many elements that set them apart. Learn all about their differences, and how a good website focused on both.

Whether you’re designing an app, a website, or some type of software, the design choices you make have a significant impact on your finished product.

Design isn’t just about making things look pretty, either—you also need to design with the user experience in mind, which is what’s known as UX design. Understanding the differences between UX vs UI design is key for any good designer.

UX design is all about a website’s user experience, where UI design focuses more on the way a website looks. Both types of design play a role in the process of creating a website or developing software, but UX design focuses on the way things feel and work, rather than how they look.

It’s difficult to say whether UI or UX design is more important—a good website focuses on both. A good UI can attract visitors, but those visitors aren’t going to stick around if your website is difficult to use or doesn’t work properly. UX design allows you to provide users with a smooth experience, which can help you retain visitors and build your brand over time.

If you’re creating a website, you might be wondering about the differences between UI and UX design, and what you should focus on when you’re building a website. Combining UI and UX design helps you optimize the look and feel of your website, but finding a balance is key. If you want to learn more about the difference between UI and UX design, here’s what you need to know.

What is UX design?

UX design, or user experience design, is a type of design that focuses on creating a particular type of experience for the end user. While many people think of aesthetics when they think of web design, that’s only part of the equation.

Effective UI design can help you build a website that looks great, but UX design ensures your website is easy to use and does everything it’s supposed to.

You experience UX design firsthand anytime you use a website or an app on your phone. For example, some websites use search bars that provide suggestions based on what you’ve typed so far, which is particularly common with search engines. Some apps, such as Disney+, give you the option to autocomplete your email address to reduce errors. All of these small features can help you get a leg up on the competition.

UX and UI design are similar in many ways, and many UI design choices affect the user experience. When you’re creating a website or an app, UI and UX design are essential.

Key principles of UX design

If you are wondering, “what does UX UI stand for,” UX stands for user experience. To truly be a great UX designer, you need to understand the journey of your customer from start to finish.

How do they interact with your products and services? Then, UX design ensures that users can get the most out of your product with as little friction as possible.

One of the most important principles of UX design is to ensure that your users have a friendly, smooth interaction with your products. They should not need to fumble with your product to figure out how to use it, and they should have an easy time meeting their needs using your products.

While there are a lot of website navigation tips that can improve your UX, UX is not necessarily limited to websites. A key principle of UX design is that it should be applied to all aspects of your business. Your users should have a smooth experience with your customer service team, your shipping process, and your website.

How you buy a product, how you receive it, how you visualize it, and how you use it are all important parts of UX design.

User experience design process

You can customize your UX design process to meet your needs, but there are a number of moving parts involved. A typical UX design process might unfold as follows:

Develop a plan

Before you can start tinkering, you need to have a strong plan in place. You need to make sure everyone on the team is on the same page and that you have a common goal in mind. What does a strong UX design look like? If you have a common goal, you’ll have an easier time strategizing.

Research your users

There are a lot of people who believe that the UX design process is mostly visual. While that is one element, it is more conceptual.

You need to solve the problems of your users, and that means conducting research and collecting data on your users. What are the biggest problems that you need to solve?

Architecture and hierarchy

You need to think about your information architecture, which refers to how the information is laid out. This includes your website, social media page, app, and products.

As a part of the UX design process, you need to ensure your users can find the information they need quickly and easily.

Design the flow

Now, it is time to lay out the flow. What are the steps your users are going to take as they interact with your product? You need to focus on creating a smooth journey that does not leave your users wondering what to do next.

Build a wireframe

With the flow in place, you can build a wireframe. As it sounds, this is supposed to be like a skeleton. Once the skeleton is done, your product or website should work well on a functional level. You should be able to draw your wireframe on a piece of paper before you design it digitally.

Test it

Before you can move on to the UI phase, you need to test the product to make sure it works well. You should gather data from your test users and ensure all aspects work as expected. You may also use information from your testers to validate your assumptions about how users will interact with your product.

If everything works as expected, you can move your prototype on to the UI phase.

Role of UX designer

The role of a UX designer is to make sure the customer’s journey is understood. This means you need to talk to your customers, interview them, and understand your target audience. Some of the most important roles that a UX designer will fill include:

Research and strategy

It is the job of a UX designer to conduct research not only on potential products and flows but also on the users. A strong UX designer should know how a potential customer is going to interact with a product or service.

User testing

UX designers are also responsible for a tremendous amount of user testing. They might have a prototype interface, but they need to test it on users to know how people are going to interact with it.

Flow and information testing

A UX designer is also responsible for laying out the information in a way that makes sense to the user. The hierarchy of the information should guide users from step to step conspicuously.

A UX designer also has to have strong communication skills, as they will collaborate closely with the UI team.

What is UI design?

UI design, or user interface design, is a bit more straightforward than UX design. The UI is the interface users see when they use a website or app, which includes the layout and design of text, images, navigation links, and more.

When you design a product page to draw the attention of potential customers, you’re primarily focusing on UI design. UI design also includes designing things like buttons, fonts, color palettes, icons, sliders, and more.

While UI design focuses more on the appearance of your website than the actual functionality, it’s an essential part of building a website. You only get one chance to make a first impression on website visitors, and an eye-catching UI can help you make a good first impression.

This is especially true for companies like Apple, where UI design allows a company to showcase its brand and style and attract existing customers who recognize that signature style.

Just because UI design is primarily focused on aesthetics doesn’t mean that’s the only focus. In today’s world, a UI designer has to consider both the design and human element of the interface they’re designing.

Key principles of UI design

A user interface is a portal with which a user interacts with the product itself. Essentially, there are a lot of user interfaces that come together to create a strong user experience, which is UX. If you are wondering about the difference between UX and UI, this is a great place to start.

A strong UI should help improve customer experience. During the UI design process, professionals will work with images, typography, and other visual elements to ensure users can digest the information on the screen quickly.

As you take a look at UI design vs UX, the UI process will take wireframes and transform them into a smooth interface, creating a strong connection between the user and the product.

Overall, a strong UI designer is going to sequence many user interfaces together to create a strong product experience, but the designer will probably spend most of his or her time taking a look at individual screens and how they have an impact on the user’s journey. This is a key UI UX difference.

User interface design process

There are a number of important steps that must take place during the UI design process. They include:

Research

The team should research information about users and competitors to uncover information related to the latest design trends. This can help UI designers find a source of inspiration that they can use to help meet the expectations of their users.

Visual design

The UI design process will also focus on fonts, colors, icons, buttons, and numerous other elements that are used to build a modern website. The goal is to ensure everything works properly but also provides a nice, polished look for the user.

Branding

While the focus has to be on the user, it is important to make sure the look aligns with the brand. Brand consistency is important, and UI designers will lean on style guides and pattern libraries to ensure the brand is consistent across all interfaces.

Test the responsiveness

Next, the UI design team will test the interfaces to ensure they respond appropriately. Importantly, the interface has to respond appropriately across all devices.

Animations and transitions

Animations and transitions will often be added to the interfaces to make them look more finished and attractive. UI design vs UX is important here, as the goal is to take the user on a journey that discusses the product or service on the screen.

Prototyping

Once all of these elements are in place, the next step is to prototype the journey from start to finish. User testing will play an important role here.

This is just a brief overview of how one UI design process might take place from start to finish. This can also be customized to match the needs of a specific product or service.

Role of UI designer

Overall, the UI designer should fill multiple roles. They include:

Aesthetics

The aesthetics are an important part of the job of a UI designer. The look of the interface must have a positive impact on the user. Otherwise, the visitor could decide to go somewhere else without even assessing the entirety of the product, service, or website.

Collaboration

The UI designer also has to collaborate with the marketing team and UX designer. The UI designer needs to work with the marketing team to ensure the brand voice is consistent, but also work with the UX designer to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Interactivity

While the screen needs to look nice for the user, the UI designer also has to ensure the interface is responsive and interactive. The buttons need to do what they are supposed to do, and the interactive elements need to respond in a timely manner.

As you wonder, “what does UX UI stand for,” UI starts where UX ends. While UI and UX designers often work together, this is the biggest difference between UX and UI. The UI designer will take wireframes, add visual designs, and make them more usable and appealing. The UI designer will also have to optimize the interface to work well on different platforms.

What is the difference between UX vs UI design?

From email design to website design and everything in between, UX and UI design are key parts of the design process. Now that you know a little bit about what UX design and UI design are, let’s talk about the differences between UX vs UI design.

UI design is all about making sure the user interface—the part of the product or service that the user interacts with—is designed properly. You want your user interface to draw attention when you’re creating a website, which means choosing the right colors and fonts, creating eye-catching graphics and buttons, and finding the right layout for your website. In many ways, UI design is what people think of when they think of web design as a whole.

UX design is different from UI design in the sense that it’s more focused on the user experience in its entirety.

Effective UX design is about creating a streamlined experience that makes things easier for website visitors, which can help build your brand and grow your audience when combined with the right UI. Where UI design is mostly focused on the way buttons, text, and graphics look, UX design is more about the function of these elements.

Good UX design helps guide users through their journey on your website, whether they want to browse some of your popular products, read about your company, or contact you for customer service.

Interestingly enough, UI design is considered a part of UX design. The way you lay out your website and the fonts and colors you choose impact the user experience, so it’s important to make sure your UI design choices have a positive UX impact. While it’s important to build an eye-catching website that attracts new visitors, an overly flashy UI that has a negative impact on UX design can deter some people.

As we’ve mentioned a few times in this article, you need to consider UI and UX design when it comes to building the best website. Aesthetics can get people to visit your website, but a good user experience is what keeps people coming back for your products or services again and again.

Understanding the relationship between UX and UI design

You might be wondering what’s more important in terms of UX vs UI design. The truth is that neither type of design is “better”—UI and UX design help you achieve different goals, and UI design is an important part of effective UX design.

When somebody visits your website, the first thing they’re going to see is your UI. A good UI can help you stand out compared to your competition, which you can see with a lot of the more successful brands out there. However, UI design isn’t all about the way your website looks—it actually plays an important role in the process of UX design. From the layout to the colors and fonts you choose, most design choices that affect the appearance of your UI also have an impact on the user experience.

While UI design affects the user experience, it’s important to keep in mind that UI design is only a small part of UX design. When somebody visits your website, there are several different paths they can take depending on what they want to do.

UX design is about guiding users through these paths in a way that’s intuitive and efficient. In addition to designing an effective, easy-to-use UI, UX design also means implementing features such as typing suggestions to help users save time and get where they need to go.

Whether your search bar predicts the location a person is typing in or allows them to add “@gmail.com” to their login email with a single tap, good design is all about creating the best user experience.

UX and UI design are especially important in the modern world of online business. There’s a good chance you’re directly competing with another product or service, especially if you didn’t choose a particularly unique product or service to offer.

That being the case, UX and UI design are some of the only ways to separate yourself from the competition. If users can get the same product or service you offer from a competitor, why should they come to you for that product or service? The answer is UX and UI design that makes your website easier to use.

Encourage a collaborative approach between UX and UI designers

While you might be curious about the UI UX difference, it is important to take a collaborative approach between UX and UI. That is where UI/UX design tools can be beneficial.

Both UX and UI need to work closely together to create a strong, functional, and aesthetically appealing finished product. The Scrum method can be beneficial in a lot of situations, and your team should use it to ensure that your product not only works as expected but also looks good.

For example, your site might look beautiful, but what if people can’t find the information they need? Or, what happens if your product works as it should, but the text is unreadable, frustrating your customers?

There is no UI without UX, and there is no UX without UI. Therefore, you need to use the right tools to ensure your UX and UI collaborate well.

Create a strong UI and UX design

When you’re designing a website, an app, or an email, it’s smart to keep UI and UX design in mind. You don’t just want your website to work, you want it to facilitate a positive user experience that encourages people to come back. UI and UX design may be branding basics to some degree, but they’re essential keys to building a website that helps your business stand out.

Of course, effective UI and UX design are often easier said than done. The good news is, Mailchimp can help you create a positive user experience with email marketing and design. With Mailchimp, you can get professional results even if you’re not an expert. Give Mailchimp a try today and see how it can help you create a strong UI and UX design.

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