What is UI Design?
The “UI” in UI design stands for “user interface.” The user
interface is the graphical layout of an application. It consists of the buttons
users click on, the text they read, the images, sliders, text entry fields, and
all the rest of the items the user interacts with. This includes screen layout,
transitions, interface animations and every single micro-interaction.
Any sort of visual element, interaction, or animation must
all be designed.
This job falls to UI designers. They decide what the
application is going to look like. They have to choose color schemes and button
shapes — the width of lines and the fonts used for text. UI designers create
the look and feel of an application’s user interface. Mockup
What is UX Design?
“UX” stands for “user experience.” A user’s experience of
the app is determined by how they interact with it. Is the experience smooth
and intuitive or clunky and confusing? Does navigating the app feel logical or
does it feel arbitrary? Does interacting with the app give people the sense
that they’re efficiently accomplishing the tasks they set out to achieve or
does it feel like a struggle? User experience is determined by how easy or
difficult it is to interact with the user interface elements that the UI
designers have created.
So UX designers are also concerned with an application’s
user interface, and this is why people get confused about the difference
between the two. But whereas UI designers are tasked with deciding how the user
interface will look, UX designers are in charge of determining how the user
interface operates.
How They Work
Together
So a UX designer decides how the user interface works while
the UI designer decides how the user interface looks. This is a very
collaborative process, and the two design teams tend to work closely together.
As the UX team is working out the flow of the app, how all of the buttons
navigate you through your tasks, and how the interface efficiently serves up
the information user’s need, the UI team is working on how all of these
interface elements will appear on screen.
Let’s say at some point in the design process it’s decided
that extra buttons need to be added to a given screen. This will change how the
buttons will need to be organized and could require changing their shape or
size. The UX team would determine the best way to lay out the buttons while the
UI teams adapt their designs to fit the new layout. Constant communication and
collaboration between UI and UX designers help to assure that the final user
interface looks as good as it can, while also operating efficiently and
intuitively. Logo Mockup
Research is Key
Research is vital for both UI and UX designers. It’s
important for both disciplines to gather as much good information as possible to
assist them in crafting appropriate designs, and both follow a similar
approach.
Both will research what users want. What they expect from
applications of the sort being developed. This research is often iterative,
involving usability sessions, where real users will interact with scaled
versions of certain functionality or visual designs being tested to determine
whether the designers are moving down the proper path. Feedback is integrated
with each iteration.
This process involves generating low fidelity prototypes,
like wireframe renderings of interface elements in order to gauge a user’s
response strictly to the functionality being tested. This can also involve fast
visual prototypes and A/B tests of different possible versions of the look and
feel of the interface to determine which one users prefer.
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