Whether you like it or not, User Experience (UX) and User Interface (User Interface UI) design have always been compared and wondered the difference between them. UX is an English acronym for user experience designer, while UI is an acronym for user interface designer. If you are someone who encounters these terms for the first time, let me try to explain the difference between the two with a small example. Let’s take the chair I’m sitting in right now. Our UI designer designs the exterior of this chair. Our UX designer thinks about the person sitting in this chair and designs it to be more comfortable; soft cushions, fabric selection, and armrests make it more comfortable or anticipate it. In the past, these used to come to mind when it comes to user experience, but nowadays, websites, applications, etc. UI / UX terms began to be used in interactive designs.
The tools used by UX and UI designers are related to each other, although their approaches to problems are different. UX designers do in-depth research on the product they are working on, follow the competitors and analyze their technologies, then design the interface of the product, which is the first interaction with the user, and not only look at this design from an aesthetic point of view but also how efficient, simple, understandable and easy to use the design. takes care of their concerns. Finally, it tests the product and tries to understand how users who use this product for the first time feel. User experience design (UXD) is a very broad branch that also encompasses user interface design (UID).
Today, among the products that can be designed for user interface, software, computers and similar electronic materials, cars, toys and almost every product with electronic components has a user interface and someone has designed them for us. Just as in architectural designs, even in which direction a door opens is important, every element designed in user interface design must be suitable for its purpose and well thought out.
If these are different things, you may ask why they are given together in job postings. As you have noticed, these two terms come from the same place, so there is no difference between them; such that if you don’t work in a big company like Intel, Google, or Apple. In medium-sized and small companies, a single person is expected to do both UI and UX, because there are already a couple products to be interfaced.
I would like to mention a few words to people who strongly oppose “These are completely different things, they cannot even be compared with each other”, but I also have the utmost respect for the designer friends who take it personally, as the job description will change according to the meaning you attribute to these terms. But in my personal opinion; The fact that these two terms are used together in job postings and the similarities that make people confused seem to prove that they are not very different things.
I would like to put an end to this question with a simple explanation.
We can count many things that look great in terms of design but are not useful, or, on the contrary, we can count many things that have a terrible design but are very useful. In other words, UX deals with purpose while UI deals with appearance and functionality.
One of the most used websites in America, craiglist.com is considered weak in terms of interface, but it works useful and efficiently. Ketchup manufacturers initially entered the market with a steep bottle, but the experiences of the users shaped future ketchup bottles.
To understand the difference between experience design and product design, you need to start thinking in that direction. For example, in most cars, the warning light button that turns on the quads is located in the center of the car’s dashboard and in an easy-to-reach place, the UX designer decides where this button will be and how it will work when the button is pressed, the size, color, etc. of the button. The UI designer is responsible for the appearance properties. What we can deduce from this is that when you have to press this button, you will probably be under high stress because there is something wrong that you will use that button. Therefore, it should be in a place that can be seen immediately and easily accessible. Interestingly, according to statistics, this button is used very little and can be replaced with another button that is used more, but the user experience does not allow it. Stress and danger factor outweigh; Although the button is less used, the UX designer envisages it to be easily accessible to the user.
Designing the experience is a difficult task. It’s also the UX designer’s job to provide flowcharts, prototypes, blueprints, design plans, user testing, and team collaboration. That’s why UX designers need tools to make their life and work easier.
There are hundreds of other applications on the market similar to these. Microsoft Visio, Axure RP, AppCooker, Flinto, Sketch, InVision, Optimizely, Trello, Time Doctor, Fotojet programs like these are very helpful software for UX designers.
The user interface is the visual part of the job and the part of the project that will come into contact with the user the most. That’s why it’s best to move forward with a meticulous, clean design and detailed feedbacks from the experience designer. There are many tools for designing, I am listing the ones that come to my mind, now if you have a program that comes to mind, you can write it in the comments section.
Similarly, you can opt for innovative programs like Affinity Designer, Figma, or you can use traditional programs like Adobe PhotoShop, Illustrator.
I tried to explain the difference between UX and UI as simply as possible, I hope you like it. So how do you answer when your customer asks you this question? Waiting for your comments below.
If you liked the article, don’t forget to hit the like button, even share it on social media if you liked it very much, and if you haven’t subscribed to my youtube channel yet, don’t forget to subscribe to be notified of future videos. You can visit my blog for my other articles.