Especially in online marketing and web development, there are always many new words. Some of them have a very short lifespan and disappear quite quickly. Others have come to stay. UI UX Design are two terms that have become established.

The catch: Similar to website and website, the two terms UI UX Design design are often wrongly used synonymously. This leads to unnecessary irritation and misunderstandings.

It doesn’t have to be. Do you want to know how a UI designer compares to a UX designer to commission or hire the right person? Or know in a discussion what UX design is about?

Then this article is just accurate for you.

 

What’s the difference between UI UX Design?

UX design refers to the term “user experience design”, while UI design stands for “user interface design”.

Both terms refer to different aspects of the product development process. They represent independent and relatively young sub-disciplines of design and have gained enormous importance in recent years.

UI UX Design – The differences at a glance

Application:

UI UX Design are used for digital products. However, the application of UX design also applies to all products – whether digital or not.

focus distance:

UX design rather requires a basic understanding of the user and has the entire experience of a user with a product in mind. UI design, on the other hand, focuses on details.

Alignment:

While UX design is more strategic in nature, UI design requires operational and technical excellence.

Analyzes & Measures UI UX Design 

In UX design, user analyzes are carried out using all the methods known from market research. Especially with methods from behavioral psychology. This results in measures aimed at the framework and structure along the entire customer journey.

In UI design, on the other hand, technologies and competition are the focus of the analysis phase. But the analysis doesn’t stop there. In practice, this leads to a combination of technology, web, and graphic design to make the user interfaces technical and visual.

Results

UI Design convinces the aesthetically pleasing design of the user interfaces. UX design emphasizes the effectiveness, effectiveness, and added value of a product in an emotionally positive way.

So much for the UI UX Design overview. In order to better understand these key differences in detail, we must first define what each of the terms means on its own.

 

What is UX design?

Basically, UX design is a process and method used to design and improve products.

Over the years, different terms have been used for UX design, the core remains UX design, just as psychology has been called psychology over the years, even if the content, research areas, and areas of responsibility have evolved.

Therefore, we want to go into what UX design is in general:

• The process in which the interaction between the user and the multiple facets of a company, brand, or product is developed.
• As well as the process in which the quality of this interaction is optimized.
• A cognitive science discipline that exists independently of the digital world. In practice, however, scientific findings are mainly used by digital companies.
• UX design is less explicitly about beautiful optics and a pleasant visual design. It’s about the sum of feelings in user interaction.

Or in other words:

User experience is about how people interact with a product and how they feel about it. The “product” can be pretty much anything. A website, a phone, an app, a flashlight, or an entire company.

The design and layout of the product determine how we feel when interacting with the product.

According to science, there are various criteria that influence our feelings. Exactly what these vary partly because there are different catalogs of criteria.

One could now assume that UX design is about designing the user experience. However, this is only possible to a very limited extent, because the experience and experiences with a product depend to a large extent on the individual user.

It is therefore more about the design of framework conditions that lead to a positive impression on the user if possible.

 

What does a UX designer do?

 

User Research/user research

Basically, the user is the starting point for any design process. Anyone who has ever had anything to do with marketing knows how important it is to know the target group. During user research, UX designers determine the requirements, behaviors and goals. Industry information, competition information, technical standards and barriers are usually used for this. Opportunities are also looked at in a targeted manner.

UX design process

It’s definitely not just about looking brilliant. UX design processes are about more. It’s about creating a mental connection with the user. This is the only way for the designer to improve the much-described user-friendliness.

Digital products are often about accessibility, clarity and navigation. All of these factors affect the user’s perceptions. A good designer has to put his own ego in the background here.

UX texts

Also, with regard to the texts, the considerations should not only be made after the UX design but should be integrated into the process. UX copywriters write in the early phases of product development. Therefore, a new job title is increasingly being coined. That of the UX copywriter.

Validation and user testing

This phase finds problems that real users are struggling with when interacting. The methods of collecting this range from questionnaires to oral feedback to eye tracking.

presentations

A UX designer has to represent, explain and present crucial parts of his solutions. I mention this specifically because it presents such a great opportunity. Well-founded process knowledge replaces the “but I think so” that is unfortunately still far too common among project stakeholders in the design process. As a result, there is huge potential for many companies here.

What is UI design?

Now let’s move on to the UI design. By UI design we mean the design of the graphical interface of a software, web application, or website. The UI in UI design stands for the user interface or in German the user interface.

As with modern websites, user interfaces can consist of very diverse components. Buttons, buttons, texts, input fields, sliders, accordions, animations, slide controls, and many other elements are typical for websites. A user interacts with each of these elements during use.

In principle, depending on the interpretation, the UI design is nothing new. It is at least as old as computers and programs themselves. After all, they only add value to humanity if they can be interacted with at any point.

In principle, endless types of user interfaces need to be designed. Here are perhaps the most common three.

• Command line tools (MS Dos, Node.js CLI, Windows 10 CLI)
• Graphic user interfaces (Windows Explorer, modern websites, apps)
• User interfaces for voice assistants (e.g., Siri, Alexa)

The UI design is ultimately about the design of the appearance, the interaction options, and the presentation.

Of course, with so much variety, it’s not easy to determine what makes a good user interface. In principle, however, Aaron Walter’s UI design pyramid helps, which has become the standard barometer among UI professionals.

 

What does a UI designer do?

In smaller teams and startups, it’s not uncommon for the UI design role to encompass a broader range of duties and responsibilities – such as B. User research or a deeper knowledge of UX principles. UI designers are often UX designers at the same time.

But if the terms are used correctly and clearly, a UI designer has the following design tasks.

• Development of standard UI components and style guides for company-wide use
• Responsive design
• font selection
• Creation of prototypes in the form of wireframes, interactive prototypes, etc. Tools such as Proto.io, Adobe XD, or Figma are usually used
• Presentation and communication of UI designs to developers and key stakeholders
• Research and use of new technologies, best practices in UI design,
• Conducting competitive analysis in the UI area
• In-house training for designers and developers in the field of UI design
• Implementation, observation, and analysis of usability tests
• Development of consistent, intuitive information architectures

 

Conclusion: How do UI UX Design intertwine?

The terms UX and UI design are often not used clearly, although they are very different disciplines that require very different skills.

One of the reasons for this is that UI UX Design are closely related, especially in the digital economy, and have a great deal of interaction.

UI design is much more concerned with designing visual and audiovisual properties. UX design, on the other hand, is more about the overall feel that a product or design conveys.

Without sound UX, even a well-designed UI runs the risk of creating a poor user experience. UX without UI, on the other hand, runs the risk of remaining in theory. Only the combination of both leads to an attractively designed user interface that invites interaction and convinces visitors and is remembered as a beautiful user experience.

Both UI UX Design are therefore part of professional web design today.