Difference Between UI And UX

For better sales, user engagement and user retention of a product, a good design is essential and what makes a design good is its UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience). UI design is concerned with the look of the product whereas UX design focuses on the function of the product.

These two terms are often used interchangeably, which is quite understandable as they are inextricably linked. As you dig deeper into this topic though, you’ll understand that both the terms have different roles. If you get confused with these two terms, this article will help you understand the relationship between them.

Let’s dive into it and take a look at how they differ from each other:

User Experience (UX) Design

User experience (UX), is the experience that a user has after interacting with the company’s product or service in any kind. For a greater user experience and satisfaction, your design should be easy to use, and intuitive at the same time. The main goal of the UX designer is to create a seamless experience for the user. Creating functional design requires research about the target audience, competitors, and the market. This research is also used later while creating the interface of the product.

User Interface (UI) Design

UI (User Interface), on the other hand, is all about the interface - layout of the product which consists of a color scheme, screens, content, and visual elements such as buttons, icons, scrollbars, images, etc. that helps the user to navigate through a website. A pleasant UI design attracts the user’s attention and encourages them to interact with the product. The basic goal of the UI designer is to make the interaction with the product easy and effecient.

Now you know how UI and UX differs, we will go through the roles of UI and UX experts that will give you a more clear understanding of the topic:

Both UI and UX designers work on different design principles, but their ultimate goal is to craft a user-centered design. They have to work collaboratively with a corporate strategy to achieve this goal. Let’s put it this way, if a UX designer is responsible for setting up the vision for the project then a UI designer’s job will be to bring that vision into life. We will discuss their responsibilities in depth now.

UX Designer

UX designers are responsible for planning a user's entire journey throughout the product and creating a seamless experience for them. To provide a greater experience a UX designer has to perform continuous monitoring at every stage of the product development and conduct research on the target audience to understand users profiles, background, demographics, problems, and factors that affect their purchasing decisions. This information is used for product development, testing, wireframing, iteration, and to plan strategy.

UI Designer

UI designers focus on designing the aesthetics and visual elements of the product or service. The information gathered by UX designers is later used by UI designers to develop prototypes and graphics, layouts, of the softwares to ensure that the product or service meets user’s needs and is at the forefront of cutting-edge technology.

If you’re still confused with the terms, we have a quote by Rahul Varshney, co-creator of Foster.fm that perfectly describes the relationship between UI and UX -

“User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are some of the most confused and misused terms in our field. A UI without UX is like a painter slapping paint onto a canvas without thought; while UX without UI is like the frame of a sculpture with no paper mache on it. A great product experience starts with UX followed by UI. Both are essential for the product’s success.”