When you are developing an application or planning to develop a new app, then you may have a chance to know the term UI/UX.

UI/UX is oriented to the design field. Every application needs a good design to draw the attention of users. As per the stats, 94% of websites’ first impression is got by a design.

The User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) seem to be the same, but it has different roles. Let’s see how UI varies from UX.

User Interface (UI)

User Interface is the process of designing user interfaces for your web applications, mobile apps, and software products.

Every application or product has a front-end (technically, client-side) and back-end (technically, server-side) design and development process.

The user interface is the client-side part where the user interacts with the app by accessing different features in the application. The success of any website depends on how friendly the website is for users.

User Experience (UX)

As the name implies, User Experience is an activity, where the UX designers design according to the user’s interests.

UX design is the process of developing apps or products that produces a greater and better experience for the users when using that app or product.

If a user finds a particular product or app meaningful and worthy to use, then that application is made with the best UX design.

Benefits of UI and UX

UI/UX design benefits your applications:

1. Customer Retention

2. Customer Acquisition

3. Low Cost

4. More Productivity

Difference Between UI and UX

UI/UX design plays a major role in developing and publishing applications for your targeted audience. UI/UX is a little confusing term but this article will help you to know how UX design is different from UI design in detail.

1. Beautiful vs Useful Interfaces

“User Interface (UI) helps to make beautiful interfaces but User Experience (UX) helps to make useful interfaces”.

An app or a product will be developed for a purpose either to meet the user’s expectations or to solve the user’s problem in the form of an app. Your application should be unique and not contain copycat features so that you can stand out from your competitors.

UX designers help you to make your application drive traffic, and for that, they make a small analysis of customer needs. The process includes competitor analysis, minimum viable product development, and understanding customer needs. We will discuss this process later below. Hence UX designers design a user interface. Moving on to UI design, the UI designers will design an interface that is visually appealing to the customers.

Thus, for a complete application, both UI and UX design are used.

2. UX is First and UI is Second

A step-by-step and organized development and design process should be maintained properly to finish the project on time. Hence plan your task effectively.

“User Experience design is done first and then the User Interface process is followed”.

The UX designers focus on:

Researching and Analyzing Competitors:

Every process starts with research. UX designers research a lot to find out whether their app’s design idea is already implemented by their competitor or not. If not, they continue to the next step, otherwise, the designers will modify the design plan.

Understanding Customer's Needs:

Since the customer is everything, the UX designer’s task is to understand the customer’s feelings about using the application. UX designers design the app by knowing the features expected by the customers.

Wire Frame:

The wireframe is a visual guide or blueprint to plan the design/structure of the applications. This wireframe helps UX designers to arrange the elements visually, before jumping into the development and design process.

Minimum Viable Product:

A minimum viable product is a new product version and it is a process where this new product with limited features is provided to existing customers to experience the design. By doing this, the UX designers will easily understand which features work well with the users.

This process will help UX designers to avoid huge expenses on product development and also it saves time.

After producing this minimum viable product and examining the users’ results, the positive features are moved to the next process. Then the apps process is forwarded to UI designers.

The UI designers focus on:

Prototyping:

Prototyping is the advanced form of wireframe where UI designers and the project planning and designs are explained visually in detail.

After prototyping, the UI designers start the design process.

Complete Design:

As said before, the design is the prior factor, visual designs grab the visitors. UI designers are taking care of the overall design of the application. The UI designers will design the amazing and appealing application interface according to the wireframe and minimum viable product results.

A catchy layout using the new programming technologies is involved to make the app with the best performance.

Promoting the Product

After the design, the UI designers will also focus on branding the application to reach the targeted audience.

3. UX focus on Connection and UI focus on Navigation

“When the UX starts the project as groundwork, UI will finish the project”.

As by one-liner, Content is king, the application will contain design along with greater content. This content will be the solution for the user to use this particular app. Thus, by researching and wireframing, UX designers make the application with features that users expect. So UX design is attached more to the connection between the customers.

Navigation is a crucial factor to consider in app development. If the customer opens the app, the fast loading and navigating speed of the app and better performance will encourage the user to use that app more. The app with low loading and navigating speed will simply navigate the user to another application.

Thus, in the UI design process, the designers concentrate on the navigation process, button features, and visual designs. Thus, UI design is attached to the interaction of the users with the application.

4. UI on Interface but UX on Products and Services

User Interface is the design which includes directly with the customers. The interface should be interactive so that the user finds it more interesting to use.

To make the customer happy, the UI design includes:

* Customization options in the app like the text’s font style, colour, and size of the app.

* The button features to access the app

* Fast navigation and loading

* High-quality images and videos content

* Push Notifications to make the user remind about using the app

* Continuous up-gradation of content.

To motivate the users to use the app, the UX design includes:

* Unique features and services in the app or product

* Better user experience

* Before developing, a quick and organized wire frame and the prototype

* Competitor analysis to improve the performance

5. UI is Not UX

UX is a design process, where the UX designers have to identify the pain point of the customers. Firstly UX designers design a sample and rough prototype to understand the project needs. Then by testing it, if the results are matching the expected requirements, the product is ready to build.

Now it is the chance for UI designers. Now the idea is developed into a real-time application where the visual design and interaction design are applied together to enhance the app or the product.

A lot of you think that UX designers are the macro designers followed by the UI (micro) designers. But UX handles the user flow and the features of the app are implemented only by the UI designers. Hence UX and UX contribute equally to the tasks. Thus it is clear that UX is not UI or vice-versa.

Now, you can know that the UX (User Experience) design is a wide process that should be followed carefully to continue the UI (User Interface) design process successfully. Thus, UX and UI together can build your mobile or web applications or a particular product.

If you ask the question "To which(UI/UX) do I have to give more preference?

Just think, if having a pretty design application, that does not work well. Do you like to go again or work with that website? Alternatively, the site functions are good but not as bare-bone design. These two scenarios will turn off a large segment of the user not to have interest in the website.

So, the answer will be concentrated on both UI and UX.

Both UI and UX need to work together to create a website that delights users both visually and functionally.

Three different roles of the UX design team

As we discussed, UX is the first important task leading to the UI design process. In general, the UX team has three different roles.

1. UX analyst: The UX analyst will take care of the research part by analyzing the users’ behaviour and requirements. Competitor analysis is also executed by the UX analyst.

2. UX architect: The UX architect will take care of the presentation of the application. The overview of the design planning is properly arranged and organized by the UX architect.

3. UX designer: The UX designer finally take care of the wireframe and prototyping to design the app with a better user experience.

4. UI designer: At last from the UX design, the UI designers design the applications and make the virtual app ideas into visual applications.

So, the UX team requires UX analysts, architects, and designers to complete the UX design process.

Final words

"Even though both UI and UX are of different ideas but they need to work together to make a pleasant interface for the users."

Sometimes the UI designers can take on the wireframe tasks. At the same time, UX designers need the UI team when layout the customer’s requirements. So, a good design team requires expert UI/UX designers.

I hope, you will get the differences between UI and UX roles.

If you are planning to design an application, then Infinijith Apps & Technologies is one of the best UI UX design service companies to hire designers & developers.