UI and UX concepts are practical in website design.
The importance of UI and UX can be seen from the fact that their design is done by independent designers separately and they are called UX designer and UI designer.
In this article we want to explain the differences between UI and UX, but before we get into that, we need to explain each of these two concepts.
we will mention the difference between UI and UX in general and separately.
Then, we turn to the specific tasks of a UI designer and the differences between his work and that of a UX designer or user experience designer.
What is UI?
In a nutshell, Ui design stands for User Interface design and is a part of the design which relates to when the user is browsing the website.
UI is an interaction which happen between machine and human in design industry.
In this interaction, the human is allowed to control and have effective function on the machine.
In this process, the machine returns information to the user that helps him to make decisions.
One of the designs that the UI designer provides to human to control the machine is the button to do shopping process somewhere on the page.
What is UX?
UX design stands for User Experience design and means the user experience of viewing the website.
UX refers to the behavior, state and emotion that a user experiences when using a product or service.
In fact, UX is a practical and objective user experience in interacting with a computer.
The user’s understanding of various aspects of the system is part of this scientific and objective experience;
for example, whether working with an application system is effective, meaningful and simple, and whether it adds value or not.
According to the definition of ISO, Ux or user experience includes all emotions, opinions, benefits, physical and psychological reactions, behaviors and actions of human before use and at the time of use.
UI and UX differences
Some people mistakenly equate UI and UX, and it does not seem easy to distinguish between them. But the truth is that UI and UX are two completely different categories.
In the field of software, UI refers to everything that is displayed on the screen. so images, text, charts, modules, tables, videos, and in each case, their colors, and anything related to them, fall into UI category.
But UX, or user experience, is a much broader category than UI, and as the name implies, refers to the user experience and feeling when using your product or website.
UI design is influenced by the taste of the site designer, but in order for the site to be built according to the principles of UX design, the key to success is summarized according to the wishes and needs of users.
The difference between UI and UX can be summarized as follows; the whole is a UX product and every part of it is a UI.
UX Designer tasks
UX design is very important and is considered one of the essential foundations of product development. However, since UX is a new category, its performance is not very clear.
Some do not even distinguish between user experience design and site design and consider both as one.
The task of a web designer from the point of view of user experience design is not just design a beautiful environment for the site.
The user experience designer considers the emotions and feelings of the users and designs the website accordingly so that the user can communicate emotionally with it.
If the user experience designer does his job well, it will have a very positive impact on your business.
Before today’s advances in digital technology, design meant graphic design that focused only on the appearance of the product.
But today, as we see the advancement of digital technology, our expectation of digital interactions has changed and the feeling that the product creates in the user has became very important to us.
therefore, the task of the user experience designer is summarized in this sentence: Recognizing the experience that arises.
A good UX designer should pay attention to the following: the product should be simple and convenient for all users.
The product must fulfill the needs of the user; the product should be beautiful and attractive.
According to these definitions, the UX designer must directly make the product functional, usable and enjoyable for users.
Of course, you have to keep in mind that tasks of a user experience designer depend on the company and the project, but every UX designer undoubtedly has several main and fixed tasks, which are;
- Its content and strategy include customer analysis, competitor analysis, structure design and product strategy definition.
- Development of prototypes and drawing a two-dimensional model. which includes creating a prototype, testing it and repeating, developing, planning and then drawing a two-dimensional model.
- Analysis and execution that requires coordination with developers, UI designers, analysis and iteration, goal tracking and integration.
If we want to further open tasks, we come to the following essential activities:
- Product search
- Making characters and scenarios
- Information Architecture (IA)
- Making a frame
- Prototype or pattern
- Product testing
In the following, we will explain each of these tasks;
Product search
Every UX designer should start from this point.
Product search, which is actually market and user research, allows designers to make their decisions based on factual information, not assumptions.
The UX designer finds information about user’s behavior, goals, motivations, and needs by searching the product.
With the help of product search, the designer gains an understanding of industry standards and identifies appropriate product presentation opportunities and priorities from variety of perspectives.
Making characters and scenarios
A persona is an imaginary identity that represents user groups.
Persona is created based on the results obtained in the product search phase.
It is true that the characters are imaginary, but they represent the real audience and their behavior.
Personas are not the users we want to have, but the users we will really have.
To create characters, we use patterns that we recognize in users.
After creating the characters, it is time to write the script.
The script refers to the story of “one of the days of life” of one of the characters.
The UX designer defines through the scenario what role the website or application being designed and built will play in users’ lives.
In creating the scenario, all the steps that the user goes through when working with product, whether it is a site or an application, will be considered.
Information Architecture (IA)
Information architecture is the first step in the operational part of the work and it is the construction of the structure of a website, application or product.
It allows users to know where are and how to access information about their current location.
Through information architecture, paths, hierarchies and categories can component is the site menu.
Making a frame
The user experience designer, or UX, takes the second step in the operational part by building the frame.
The frame is the most important element of product design because it shows all the important parts of the product.
The UX designer also helps the UI by designing a good frame and showing its goals.
The template can help the UX designer get feedback from users.
Prototype or Pattern
The prototype is actually the representative of the final product and shows how the product works and allows the user experiment with final product.
Of course, keep in mind that a prototype is not exactly the final product, but it does the same thing, and its purpose is the same as the final product.
Product testing
Product testing is the identify users’ problems when working with product.
A common way to test a product is through usability testing.
This test is performed to observe user behavior and get verbal and non-verbal feedback.
It helps UX designers create a better user experience.
The user experience or UX designer does not finish his work after presenting the product.
UX design is never-ending process.
The user experience designer, no matter how well he has done his job, will publish an update for the product after the work is presented.
UI designer tasks
Now we come to the part where we talk about interface designer or UI.
What the Ui designer does is map the overall structure of a page.
The UI designs the pages according to the needs of the brand or business.
Achieves this goal by placing the right colors, fonts and pages elements like images.
The user interface designer first implements the page view with all the details and details on paper oi in special software and then provides them to the coder or site and application designer.
Like the UX designer, the work of the UI designer does not end there, and he must always improve his workspace and make new changes.
according to the needs and innovations of the world of technology and communications and competing markets.
Also, the UI designer should always make the sure feel better about viewing the page than before.
Because the UI designer has to design different pages, his most important needs is to master graphic programs such as photoshop and Illustrator.
Familiarity with psychology of colors and a correct understanding of the design space are the strengths of the user interface designer.
Interface design has principles that we will mention a few in the following.
Structure
In the final design, the components must be structurally put together to be understandable to the user,Crowded and cluttered pages and disrupt the interface.
Simplicity
Beauty is always in simplicity. This principle also applies to the design of web pages, as complexity only does not attract the user’s attention, but also cause your web page to close very quickly.
Also, what happens on the page, such as loading the page, should be simple and fast. you should not confuse your users.
Accessibility
The components of a page should not be hidden or out of sight.
You do not want the user to leave your site disappointed and frustrated and angry.
your users are not boring people so so not force them to look too hard for what they are looking for.
Accuracy in designing
Be careful in designing the pages of the site or application to reduce the error rate to zero.
You need to get the right UI to get an acceptable UX. so we come to the following general tasks:
Paying attention to the appearance characteristics in the work, which includes brand and graphic design, user guide customer analysis, research design.
Paying attention to the responsiveness and interactivity feature.
To achieve which it will be necessary to implement special settings for all dimensions of monitors, pay attention to interactivity and animation.
UI and UX differences
UX and UI design concepts are similar and confuse the audience to some extent.
But the truth is that these two activities are very different.
Here are three key differences between UX and UI designers:
The goal of UX is the performance of a product and achieving a specific goal.
The goal of UI will be the quality of the end user interaction while the product.
In fact, the UI is trying to get UX to its goal.
UI design has an artistic aspect because it deals with artistic effects.
Its job is to design the product with the aim of the user interface. The UI will affect the final product that final user sees, hears, touches and feels.
But UX design has a social aspect because it follows the path of market research and customer relationship in order to understand their needs.
UX is holistic because it focuses on project management and analysis, and in this regard, it deals with project ideation, development and presentation.
But UI design is more detail-oriented and has a technical aspect.
The UI must create the design components for the final product.
Finally, UX and UI are both essential for product development and presentation, are not topics that can be considered trivial.
If the customer has a good experience working with your site, it will increase your income, so by investing in UX and UI, you invest in your product or service.
The customer pays for your product or service.
So, he has to get what he expects at this cost. If your product or service does not provide the rewards customers are looking for, they will no doubt go to another manufacturer that meets their needs.