User experience and user interface - two different terms that often stand in opposition to each other, but do not work against each other at all! Rather, the two areas complete each other during the design process and work closely together. In this blog post, you can find out how user experience and user interface interact, what the two terms actually mean and what the tasks of UX and UI designers are.
UX Design is the short form for User Experience Design and, as the name already suggests, deals with the user experience. In general, UX design includes techniques and methods that are used to design and improve a product. UX design pursues the goal of user-friendly and flawless handling of the product and defines the structure of content and navigation in particular.
User experience design is also about the creative aspects of experiences. In addition to usability, the feeling and experience before, during and after use also play an important role. It is about how the user interacts with the product and what feelings come up. The product can be a technical device, a website, an app or even a company or service. The design determines how the users feel before, during and after the interaction.
The methods and techniques from UX design can be applied to ALL products, regardless of whether they are digital or not. The anticipated end users of the product are always the focus of the processes: At the beginning by defining requirements from the user's point of view (What is the product needed for? What goals does a user want to achieve with it, etc.). Then by aligning the content with the requirements. And then, again and again, by evaluating the content from the user's point of view.
Part of the processes in UX design are therefore user analyses based on various well-known methods from (market) research, especially behavioural psychology, which are carried out and from which certain measures are then concluded. So it's less about designing the user experience itself. Rather, it is about designing the framework conditions that, in the best case, lead to a positive impression and experience for the users.
UI stands for user interface and deals with the design of the user interface. UI design is primarily about the design of the user interface through visual and graphic design (colour schemes, typography, icons, layouts, images, etc.), the content and the appearance of the product, also in compliance with certain style guides and design patterns.
User interfaces consist of various components. Especially typical for digital products such as websites and apps are buttons, texts, input fields, animations, accordions and much more. Users come across all of these UI elements during use.
UI designers focus on the design of the product and thereby influence the visual impression of the product on the user.
UX designers are the interface between the users and the development team. Their task is to put themselves in the users' position during the software development process and to understand them. The user experience is at the centre of the work of UX designers. Therefore, they analyse the requirements, behaviours, emotions and attitudes of the users and define the right channels and points of interest. The aim of UX designers is to adapt the characteristics of the product to the corresponding target group in an ideal way.
Following activities belong to the typical daily work of a UX designer:
The process cannot always be followed in reality - a UX designer is therefore always responsible for achieving a compromise between the interests of the users and the goals of the product together with the development team and other stakeholders. This often involves pragmatically selecting from the methods and using them at the right time in the interactive process.
UI design is not possible without UX design. As a UI Designer, you are particularly responsible for the design of the user interface. To do this, however, you must first know how it should be structured in order to provide the user with an optimal user experience.
UI Designer work closely with the UX team from the first sketch to the final prototype. They deal with colours, fonts, images, layouts and responsive design. They ensure a consistent look and feel and contribute their knowledge of style guides and design patterns. As a rule, they are the ones who translate the findings from the UX design into the graphic design and incorporate them iteratively.
Often the two job titles of UX/UI designer are also mixed. Even if the tasks and approaches of the professional fields are different, the fields have some overlaps. The greatest overlap is probably in the design of the user interface, even if the focus here is on different factors in each case. However, in the end, both parties pursue the same goal! Namely, to create an interface or a product that is intuitive and offers easy access to all functions of the product.
If you look at the concept of user experience, this also becomes clear: because the user experience is characterised by the entire usage process. User behaviour (usability) is only one part of it. The user experience (UX) begins BEFORE the product is used. At this point, it is initially only about the idea of what the product should do, without having used it beforehand. Usability then comes into play during use, because this is about the users' satisfaction during use. Do they succeed in solving tasks efficiently and effectively without any adverse effects of any kind? After use, it is particularly important how the users process the experience, whether they can identify with the product and have built up an emotional bond.
As you can see, a working interface is based on many factors and is very complex. Therefore, a comprehensive planning of the UX is the basis for a fully functioning UI in order to achieve a consistent overall concept and a positive experience of the product by the users.
At Appmatics, we offer UX testing an UI analysis as test methods vor checking and evaluating UX testing and UI desgin.
Our UX team will be happy to advise you in detail about the possibilities in the area of UX design and UI analysis.