UX vs. UI: What’s the difference?
UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) are common words in the tech world. While they are linked closely, people often confuse the meaning of both terminologies with each other. In this article, we’ll explain the difference between UI and UX designs and much more about them. Let’s get started!
What is UI?
User interface (UI) is anything a user interacts with. UI refers to the visual elements that allow users to interact with software applications, digital devices, or websites. The primary goal of a user interface is to facilitate the interaction between users and the system, making it easier and more intuitive for users to navigate and accomplish tasks with the business.
A well-designed, clean, interactive user interface is crucial for creating a positive user experience (UX). It involves elements such as buttons, menus, icons, forms, images, and other graphical elements that users interact with directly. The UI should be visually appealing, easy to understand, and responsive to user actions.
There are various types of user interfaces, including:
Graphical user interface (GUI): GUI is the most common type of user interface used in modern software applications and operating systems. It uses visual elements like windows, icons, menus, and buttons, making it easier for users to interact with the system.
Command line interface (CLI): CLI requires users to input text-based commands to interact with the system. While it is more technical and less visually appealing than GUIs, it is still used in certain scenarios for advanced users or automated tasks.
Touch user interface: This type of UI is designed explicitly for touch-sensitive devices like smartphones and tablets, allowing users to interact with the system by tapping, swiping, and pinching.
Voice user interface (VUI): VUI enables users to interact with systems using voice commands and natural language, often found in virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa.
Virtual reality user interface (VRUI): VRUI is designed for immersive virtual reality environments where users can interact with digital objects and environments more naturally and intuitively.
Flutter is an open-source software development kit (SDK) created by Google to support cross-platform application development for online and in the most popular consumer operating systems. Understanding Flutter’s user interface (UI) approach can help unlock robust application development across all these environments. This course will introduce you to the core concepts of responsive and adaptive UI in Flutter. You’ll start with common layout widgets before exploring application development using the most powerful widgets. Next, you’ll explore external packages that can extend responsiveness and adaptiveness beyond the core Flutter UI. At each step, you’ll see examples comparing and contrasting responsive and adaptive UIs with applications that do not invoke these principles. Finally, you’ll build functional widgets and application UI with hands-on coding environments By the end of this course, you’ll be able to build user-friendly applications in Flutter using responsive and adaptive UI principles.
UI designer’s tasks and responsibilities
If you’re interested in how the final product will look and its design, then the UI field is for you. As a UI designer, your job is to create visually appealing and user-friendly interfaces for products, applications, and websites. Your role is important in ensuring that the interface provides a positive user experience and optimizing the usability of your business product.
Here are some of the tasks and responsibilities of a UI designer.
Tasks | Responsibilities |
Design Creation | UI designers develop the look and feel of the user interface, including layout, color schemes, graphical elements, and typography. They create mockups and prototypes to visualize design concepts. |
User Research | UI designers are responsible for conducting user research to understand the target audience and their preferences, likes, and dislikes. They use this data to create design decisions and make the interface more user-friendly. |
Usability Testing | UI designers conduct usability testing on the designed interfaces to gather user feedback and identify improvement areas. They iterate on the design based on the test results. |
Responsive Design | UI designers are responsible for ensuring their design is responsive and adaptable to different screen sizes, providing a consistent experience across different platforms. |
Collaboration | The designers work closely with cross-functional teams, including UX designers, product managers, developers, and other stakeholders, to align on design goals and requirements. |
Icon and Graphic Design | The designers create icons and other graphical assets that enhance the visual appeal and functionality of the user interface. |
Accessibility | The designers consider accessibility principles and guidelines to ensure that the UI is usable by people with disabilities and conforms to accessibility standards. |
Stay Updated on Design Trends | UI designers keep up-to-date with the latest design trends, best practices, and emerging technologies to continuously improve and innovate the UI design. |
Animation and Micro-interactions | Incorporate subtle animations and micro-interactions to enhance the user experience and make the interface more engaging. |
A/B Testing | Collaborate with the UX and marketing teams to conduct A/B testing on different design variations and analyze the results to optimize the UI design for better user engagement and conversion rates. |
What is UX?
User experience (UX) is about making the business product, application, or website enjoyable for users and how they feel accomplishing their tasks. It’s about understanding what users need and want and then designing things that make sense to them. UX design aims to create products that are easy to use, efficient, and make users happy.
Understanding customers’ wants, behaviors, and expectations is necessary for UX design. Using this knowledge, designers can create products that satisfy users’ needs and go above and beyond their expectations.
UX Designer’s tasks and responsibilities
UX designers focus more on what users experience when interacting with the product. Their role is crucial in understanding user needs and translating them into functional, user-friendly, and interactive designs.
Here are some of the tasks and responsibilities of a UX designer.
Tasks | Responsibilities |
User Research | Like UI developers, UX developers are also involved in customer research to understand their target audience and pain points. The research method can vary according to the needs. |
User Persona Creation | UX designers develop user personas, which are fictional representations of different user types based on research findings. These user personas help guide designers in the decision-making of other user groups. |
Information Architecture | UX designers help organize and structure information logically and intuitively to ensure users can understand and easily navigate what they need. This includes creating sitemaps and defining navigation flows. |
Wireframing and Prototyping | UX developers create wireframes and interactive prototypes to test design concepts before the actual development phase. This step allows early feedback and iteration. |
Advocating for Users | UX designers advocate for user needs and preferences during the design and development process to ensure that user perspective is kept in mind during all developmental stages. |
Interaction Design | They design intuitive and user-friendly interactions that guide users through the product seamlessly. This includes defining the behavior of buttons, menus, and other interactive elements. |
Visual Design Collaboration | UX designers work with visual designers to ensure that the UI design aligns with the user experience goals and creates a visually appealing product. |
Accessibility | The designers are kept in the loop to consider accessibility principles and guidelines to ensure that the product is usable by people with disabilities. |
User Journey Mapping | User experience designers map out the user’s journey throughout the product to understand their interactions and touchpoints, identifying areas for improvement. |
Continuous Improvement | UX designers monitor user feedback and analytics to identify areas for improvement and make iterative changes to enhance the user experience. |
Differences between UX and UI
UI focuses on the look and feel of the product, whereas UX focuses on the entire user journey with the product. The two terms are often used together, but they are very different. Now that we’ve covered them separately, it is time to check the differences between UI & UX design.
Skills
UI Design | UX Design |
Color theory | User research |
Design trends | User journey mapping |
Visual responsive design | Icon and graphic design |
Prototyping | Testing and iteration |
Tools
UI and UX designers use different kinds of tools according to their nature of work. We’ve mentioned some important ones below.
Tools used by UI developers:
Figma
Adobe XD
Adobe Illustrator
Sketch
Adobe Photoshop
Marvel
Framer X
WebFlow
Tools used by UX developers:
User Testing
Balsamiq
Treejack
VisualSitemaps
Hotjar
Salary
The salary depends on many factors like location, nature of work, expertise, and industry. So, it can change and vary depending on these factors. According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary of a UI designer is around $98,260, including commissions, base salary, and additional benefits. In comparison, the average annual salary of a UX designer is around $94,260 in the United States.
Wrapping up
UI and UX are both competitive and in-demand fields. Now that you know the basic differences between UI and UX, you can discuss it with others confidently or choose the right path that you feel fits you.
Educative offers interactive courses for programmers and developers. If you are a developer interested in UI design, you can Learn Responsive and Adaptive UI in Flutter or check out the Most in-demand skills in Industry with Educative.
Happy learning!
