Many people don’t understand the difference between UX & UI design. Many think that they are the same, but they are not.
In short, UX (stands for User Experience) is connected to user research, analytics, “user first” approach in creating product or service. On the other hand, UI (stands for User Interface) is more visual, graphical presentation of a product or service.
“UX design is the process of enhancing user satisfaction with a product by improving the usability, accessibility and pleasure provided in the interaction with the product.
So, when we look at the website, UX designer’s job is to make the website usable and obvious, clear to the user. He’s making wireframes for the website that will give the user natural and logical, expected flow through the presentation – from page to page, from information and content to desired action. UX designer explores and gives the best solution how to give the information to the user in the most acceptable way. He finds the way that is the easiest for the user to understand and get the information he is looking for, to show them a value they need, and guide them to desired action (usually to buy product, subscribe to mailing list, etc.).
UX design team explores how easy is for the user to complete the desired task on the website. To complete and find solutions they will make user research, competitor’s research, industry research and make the best strategy and content for the product or service. Having user needs & expectations on mind, UX design team will make wireframes of the website with defined flow. This way they are making the best structure for the user to get the information. The goal is to connect business needs to user needs.
Good UX designer is concerned about the execution of the product and feedback and analytics and that’s why he coordinates with developers and UI designers.
“User interface design (UI) is the design of user interfaces for machines and software. The goal of UI design is to make user’s interaction as simple and efficient as possible through aesthetic means.
UI designer will use wireframes that UX design team created and using them as start point he will make final screens using mostly graphic elements – fonts, colors, proportions. UI designer will make style guide and will ensure that look and feel of the website is consistent throughout the application. In doing this he will research industry visual trends, use brand style guide (if there is one) and be familiar with the technology and its trends for development of the website.
UI designer should make screens for all screen resolutions that are mostly in use and make guides for responsive design. Good UI designer will use elements that are familiar to the user but he will use them in such way to make them unique for the brand.
We can see that everything UI designer is engaged in results in enhancing user experience, just like UX designer. So there are points where UI and UX have same goals, but the means they are using to achieve those goals are different. UX design is like skeleton and muscles and UI design is like skin, color of eyes and hair and wardrobe.
UI designer should work with developers to be shore that everything is looking as they wanted. UI designer will pay attention on every detail so that the design is absolutely the same as on the screens he designed. Usually UI designers have some knowledge of HTML and CSS, but this is not necessary. Having knowledge in basic frontend development will certainly make design and frontend development process much easier and faster.