The content of the article:
- UI Design Guide
- What is User Interface Design?
- UX Design Guide
- What is UX Design?
- What is the difference between UI and UX Design?
- How do UI and UX design work together?
- Conclusion
When people think of design, they often think of visuals—a painting or a logo. But to understand what design really is, you should understand its underpinnings. The difference between UI and UX design refers to the scope of work that goes into creating a web page.
UI design focuses on the visual aspects of a webpage, such as its look and feel. UX design, on the other hand, is the process of ensuring that the page is usable by the audience who will be using it. This article covers the main difference between UI and UX design and gives you an introduction into designing for user experience.
UI Design Guide
User interface (UI) design is one of the most misunderstood and undervalued fields in the tech industry. It’s not uncommon to see articles about the importance of user experience (UX), but not as many about user interface design. This is partially because users aren’t as concerned about it as marketers and developers, but also because it’s not a brief topic to cover. That being said, if you’re ready to up your game on UI UX design differences, keep reading. Here’s what you need to know about user interface design fundamentals.
What is User Interface Design?
User interface design is the process of creating digital products that are intuitive to use. User interface design encompasses every aspect of digital products, including web development, mobile app development, and computer software design. UI designers are responsible for making sure that the devices people use are understandable, useful, and attractive to the eye.
Why is User Interface Design Important?
User interface is an important part of the user experience. It’s what users interact with on their devices to interact with your product or service. The best interfaces are intuitive, easy to navigate and have a clean design. A good interface not only makes it easy for users to interact with a product, but can also make them more inclined to purchase it. The importance of a good interface is often overlooked by startup founders who think that they can just get away with making something as intuitive as possible without considering the design aspect of their platform. This is a huge mistake because a bad interface will drive users away from a company towards competitors with a better-designed app or website.
The 5 Principles of Good User Interface Design
The basics of a good user interface can be broken down into six main principles.
1) Keep it simple
UI is about solving problems for users. One of the best ways to do this is by making tasks as simple and intuitive as possible. Don’t make users think or struggle with a process; users should never have to doubt "how do I ____ in this app?" Better yet, you should put instructions right on the screen next to whatever they're doing.
2) Design for both mobile and desktop
There are many people who have both a desktop and mobile device, which means that your site needs to function flawlessly on both of these devices. Sure, there will be some differences in what you can offer on each one, but don't make your mobile site so simplistic that it's not worth using at all!
3) Use common action words
The words you use in the UI make all the difference. Make sure to use action words like 'delete', 'save', or 'import' so that users know what they need to do next. This makes things more comprehensible and saves users a lot of time. As they could complete the sequence of actions from the first try without going back and forth trying to figure out the instructions.
4) Be consistent across platforms
Designing an interface that looks great on one platform isn't enough – it has to look great across multiple platforms. Your interface needs to match the context of what the user is doing at the time.
5) Consider Every Detail
You may have a great design on paper, but it can easily be ruined by a small detail like a user name input box or login button positioned too close to each other.
UX Design Guide
Designing a user experience is more than just creating a pretty website. It requires planning, research, and testing to create a user-friendly and successful site. A good user experience is one that is relevant and useful to users, who are able to accomplish their goals easily.
What is UX Design?
User experience design is the process of creating a user-friendly website that is easy for users to navigate, understand, and use. This involves many aspects of design - from layout to interaction design. A good user experience is one that is relevant and useful to users who are able to accomplish their goals easily. Designing a good user experience requires research and testing to create a site that is usable and meets the needs of the majority of its users. UX designers work on everything from wireframes and prototypes to developing high-fidelity visuals. They also conduct research, analyze data, and test with real people in order to design an effective site or app.
Why is user experience design important?
A good user experience is important because it is the first impression your brand makes. It is what will make people want to come back and use your website or application again. If your website or app isn’t easy to navigate, understand, or use then visitors won’t be likely to return. If implemented correctly, UX design can help you gain an edge over other companies in your industry, as with a competitive UX you are more likely to attract more customers. It might not be visible from the start, but designing a great user experience does pay off in the end as you are able to increase customer loyalty and engagement with your brand. You will also be able to generate higher conversion rates with a well-designed site that is geared towards driving conversions.
Among the top UX design benefits are:
- Improves conversion rates;
- Increases customer loyalty;
- Increases the number of leads;
- Decreases the time it takes for a customer to make a purchase decision;
- Decreases support tickets and phone calls;
- Strengthen search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Key elements of User Experience Design
User experience design is a process that encompasses every aspect of your website and how it relates to your users. The user's journey on your site, or their customer's journey, is the most important component.
1) Planning
The first step in any design process is to plan. It helps ensure that you are considering all aspects of your site and what you want to accomplish. Before starting with a design, one should ask themselves these questions: What do I want my user's journey to look like? What are the goals of this project? What will make this project successful?
2) Research
Once you have an idea of what you want to accomplish with your website, the next step is to do research. It's important to know who your target audience is, what they're looking for, and what their needs are. Identifying these things will give you a better idea of what is the best design for them. This includes researching competitors' sites or other projects for inspiration and ideas.
3) Testing
Testing is an important part of the design process as it helps identify potential problems with a web design before going live. Testing can be done through everything from user surveys to usability tests that involve real people using the website in question. The goal of testing is identifying potential problems so they can be fixed before launch day. It also allows you to see if there are any parts that need additional attention so they can be improved as well.
What is the difference between UI and UX Design?
Further, we answered the frequent question of what is UI and UX design, let’s sum up the main similarities and differences. UI design is the design of a product user-facing screens. The goal of UI design is to facilitate the user's interaction with your product, and to provide them with information they are looking for. UX design, on the other hand, is a broader process that includes interface design. UX designers create an interactive experience that delights users in all possible touch points of a product or service, including physical interactions and digital interactions.
The main difference between UI UX design is in the way each discipline approaches a design. UI design is primarily focused on the visual elements and appearance of the design, like color scheme, typography, and icons. UX designers are more concerned with how the user interacts with a product or service on a deeper level. They look at specific interactions with a product and concentrate on functionality, usability, and emotional engagement. UI designers work on creating how something looks while UX designers work on how it functions. These two fields often overlap, but they are not interchangeable. A person might be proficient at both approaches to design, but typically one will excel in one area more so than the other.
How do UI and UX design work together?
The design space is a diverse one. Even though the various design fields seem different, they all have one thing in common: they all deal with the user. Users are the lifeblood of any design space. If a design isn’t user-friendly, it won’t have any value. When you have a great user experience, it can be easily noticed by users. Users can tell the difference between a good and a bad user experience. User-friendly design is about making the user’s interaction with a product or service as simple and intuitive as possible. And this can be achieved with a structured synergy of UI and UX design.
Conclusion
Creating a digital product is not just about the interface. The interface is only half of the equation. User experience design is just as important and is the second half of the equation. If you don’t have a great user experience, it doesn’t matter how good your interface is. So if you’re creating a digital product, it’s important to create the right balance between these two types of design.
Learn more who we at Wezom approach UX and Ui design.
