Being into the development world, I have gone through the discussion over UX and UI a lot…well it is quite irksome at one point of time and quite daunting on the other, as it challenges your credibility.
It is quite difficult to explain to people what is the difference between these two different terms that do appear to be same.
To start with this discussion, I must assert in the very beginning that there is a vast difference between these two terms.
The Club Theory: For Noobs
Well, I remember that the most exciting event was when I was interviewing few candidates for the post of UX designer. I asked the gentlemen about the job role, and the answer was designing the user interface is the main job role of a designer. Well, I was taken aback and wanted to shout out loud: “No, Mr. You are wrong, UX and UI are two different things. Please pay heed.”
This was when I decided to write this post.
To make people understand in one go, I formulated a club theory. Now let us suppose the we came across a good looking person who might be a male or a female depending on one’s interpersonal liking. So, the person might be good looking from the forefront, and the beauty allured you to talk to that person. After gaining all the strength, you went to that person and after talking to you realized that the person reeks of fish or any other personality flaw. This means that the interface was quite good when you experienced it you were not that attracted. This is what means by user interface and user experience.
So, the person might be good looking from the forefront, and the beauty allured you to talk to that person. After gaining all the strength, you went to that person and after talking to him or her you realized that the person reeks of fish or has any other personality flaw. This means that the interface was quite good, yet when you experienced it you were not that attracted. This is the difference between the user interface and user experience.
User interface covers the outlook part, wherein the user experience is more about the practical experience that user has.
An Insight: User Experience Design
User experience aka UX is a widely used term in the field of web designing. A UX designer works on the experience mobile app delivers to the users. In more simple terms the components or content of mobile apps or a website that compound together to deliver engaging user experience. This primarily comprises of the structural design, system support, design components and other visible entities of a website.
A website is said to deliver good user experience if the users are not contending while browsing and this accounts to increasing the user base and the loyalty towards products and services sold by the app.
Following are the job responsibilities that a UX designer possess.
- Strategy making
- Analyzing the market competition
- Analyzing the customer’s behavior
- Product Structure/Strategy
- Developing the content
- Wireframing
- Prototyping
- Planning the development process
- Executing the development process and Analytics
- Tracking the benchmarks and Integration
- Testing
- Working in tandem with Developer
- Analyzing the developers and Iteration
“User experience design is not limited to the confines of the computer. It doesn’t even need a screen,” says Bill DeRouchey, design director of Ziba Design. “User experience is any interaction with any product, any artifact, any system.”
An Insight: UI Design
Though this term is lingering around in the web development field for quite a long time, people are still not aware of what this means. This is quite a difficult topic considering the misconceptions spread across. User experience is a combination of the tasks that are put together to enhance the interactivity of the app with the users.
Talking about the job post you will get that the User Interface Design is almost same as User Graphic design. This might also turn to be front end web design or even branding design.
Even the technical experts have described it something equivalent to User Experience design and it also prefers the same structural design techniques.
Job responsibilities of a UX designer comprise of the following:
- Enhancing the Look and Feel
- Analyzing the customer
- Researching the design trends
- Developing the Graphics and Branding
- Defining the Storyline or User Guide
- UI Prototyping
- Making the site more interactive by adding animation
- Fitting to all screen sizes
- Working in tandem with the Developer
Long and Short of the whole story!
In short we can say that something that is visually appealing but is not easy to use can serve as a quintessential example of a User interface, on the other hand, a poor user experience design. And vice verse.
Both are necessary for a good user experience, hence you need to make sure that you use them in order to deliver a phenomenal user experience.
I know there might be some people who are still wondering about what was discussed, well… then it is my failure as a writer if you still do not get the idea. If this is the case, please feel free to drop me a note with your queries and suggestions.
Till then I am ruminating over few more theories to form so as to explain the difference between UX and UI.