UI, UX, they are similar but they are different, think of them as fraternal twins. Think of UX as the doctor of the body, maintaining the overall health of the body, while UI brings in the sexy and keeps the body in good shape. Clear as mud, right? To further complicate matters, depending on who you ask, UX and UI are completely separate, overlap, or UI is a subset of UX. Let’s untangle the madness and take a closer look at the differences between the two.
UX stands for user experience. The UX designer will build a relationship between the company, its products and its customers. They will focus on the why, what, and how of using the product. For example, people may visit your site to research the best type of cat that will make a great companion for their small apartment lifestyle. In this scenario, the UX designer could research cat-loving people and find out what is important to them. They’ll discover what’s valuable to the cat lover when seeking help finding their next furry feline. The UX designer will ask questions, observe people, prototype, and run some tests to validate your product and business value propositions. The UX designer will likely design user flows, the steps a user would take to move around the website. The layout is then passed to the UI designer.
UI stands for user interface. The user interface deals with the visual design, look and feel of the site. For example, the user interface designer will design the buttons and icons on your site to be attractive. When the user clicks the button, the UI designer can make sure that it changes so that the user knows that it was successful in moving on to the next task that they selected. The user interface designer will choose a color scheme and typography that are attractive and easy to use. Color choices, typography will not be based on the personal preference of the UI designer, but on the clearly articulated reasons specific to the people developed by the UX designer.
To simplify what our fraternal twins do, the UX designer helps users get things done across platforms and services, while the UI designer creates beautiful, aesthetically pleasing interfaces that connect with humans. The next time you’re wondering what the difference is between UI/UX, think about fraternal twins.