What’s the first thing that you observe while you open any app or website? Its design for sure and how smoothly the transitions are happening. We all do the same, but what we overlook is its importance and the designer is never thanked enough. It is a very crucial task and is also less appreciated. The developers are thanked a lot and even given their share of applause but the designers always lag behind. We are here to explain UI and UX to give you a deeper insight so that the next time you view a website you can understand the technicalities that go into it.
What are UI and UX?
Firstly UX is the evolved version of UI and it’s really hard to find someone who knows both, and if you have someone like this in your knowledge never let them go.
- UI- User Interface
What is the first thing that you look at whenever you open a website? The fonts, banners, images, the sync of the pages and the layout along with the button style and many things more. Basically the visual appeal of the entire page and how well the products are placed. This is called the user interface or UI.
The UI designers are responsible for giving our website or app a theme and layout. It is mostly done by the designers who take care of the aesthetics of the entire product.
In more simple words imagine opening a website or application for cakes and with the graphical feel of it you look at it as more of a clothing brand. That’s where the UI designers come into the picture. The UI designers sync your idea, product and the final output. They give life to your product and play a huge role.
- UX- User Exchange
The graphics appealed to you but what if you click on a tab and instead of rolling down it rolls left? Or the chatbot is not functioning. The transitions are not smooth and are not at all syncing with the graphic design of the website? This obviously increases the bounce rate and you may even suffer low rankings because of it. That’s when the UX designer comes in picture. He sits with the technical and UI team to make them understand the whole interaction map a user would be going through. Merely adding the buttons to your app or website is not enough. Syncing is the solution we need.
Hence, UX is the first step of UI and it deals with making the user interaction smooth and glitch-free.
Difference between UI and UX:
There are very few differences between them. However, these basic differences contribute to a major amount.
- AIM:
The primary difference is the aim of their work. The UI focuses more on the aesthetic and graphic appeal of the website and how every button and navigation will look. It’s like giving the final touch of your product. UX on the other hand researches analyzes and takes many things in mind while mapping out the flow a user will interact.
- Process:
The UI process is for the front end as it is meant to visually appeal to the user and make the interaction more swift and smooth.
UX, on the other hand, is a backend process that focuses on making the skeleton of the website or any field more interactive by analyzing the market and the latest technologies.
- Usage of Colors and Fonts:
The UX designer will just focus on making the layout and leave hints for the UI designer to follow. The UI designer is not concerned about the technicalities involved in making the website. It follows the lead of UX designers. For example, a UX designer will map out the buttons and the colors that goes with the brand’s or product and leave notes. The UI designer will then put their blood and sweat to make the color scheme work along with the borders and the fonts.
The aforementioned were the basic definitions and terms to explain to you the concept of UI and UX. You can surely read in-depth about them. However, we would like to make you understand that your business needs a UI and a UX designer. Always ensure that both are different people. Also, there must be harmony in them and must have good communication. While UX can be for various fields and may or may not be related for digital platforms but the UI is specifically for the digital platforms and a great level of detailing is needed while you design the UI.