UX and UI design - what's the difference?

UX and UI are two terms that are often confused or used interchangeably, but actually mean something else entirely. How exactly are they different?

UX Design refers to the term User Experience Design, while UI is UI Design. Both are crucial to the IT product and work closely together.

UX Design (User Experience Design)

User-centered design is a process made up of many elements, such as competition analysis, customer needs, research of future users and product strategy. These are key elements for the entire design process. On their basis, the information architecture is shaped, i.e. creating an appropriate structure through appropriate navigation, tags, labels and grouping of content. Another important step is the transition to mock-up and prototyping, and subjecting them to tests and initial customer approval. During this stage, we can spot holes and shortcomings in the project and observe user behavior. Thanks to which we receive information about what elements are to be changed and which ones meet the expectations of future customers. After these activities, we can move on to the implementation of the project, here it is important to cooperate with the entire team and dynamically respond to changes. You might think that this is the end of UX designer work, but it's not true. After the finished product is handed over to users, it is necessary to conduct audits from time to time and on their basis, identify problems that will be improved.

Thanks to the popularization of this field, programs have appeared on the market that allow us to present more or less advanced layout views during tests through interactive, clickable prototypes.

UI Design (User Interface Design)

Thanks to the popularization of this field, UI (User interface) is a field dealing with the design of interfaces through which the interaction between the user and the device takes place. UI design is designing the appearance, including the selection of colors, typography and interactions that will occur. The task of the UI designer is to translate the raw prototypes into a visual form that will ultimately be viewed by the user while using the product, maintaining all the assumptions of the UX project. Appearance must correspond to the target group, strengthen product goals, care for brand identity and good reception.

Designing the interface should also start with an analysis of the target group, but in terms of visual expectations and conducting competition analysis. It is important to develop a single system design that is applied consistently throughout the project. Thanks to this, the graphic design is not accidental, and all assumptions result from the specificity of the brand and functional design. Design system is the development of a color palette, primary and complementary colors, typography, buttons and other elements repeated throughout the project.

UX and UI cooperation

UX and UI are inseparable and extremely important design elements that complement each other. During the entire design process, communication between the UX and the UI designer is very important. Frequent consultation of the results, openness to any team ideas and introducing ongoing corrections is extremely important. A product that looks good but is difficult to use is an example of good UI design and poor UX design. Also vice versa, having a very useful product with the best functionalities but looking uninviting is a clear effect of good UX and no UI. Only by working together can they create a good product that is functional, easy to use and appealing with its appearance.

The main maxim of the IBM founder Thomas Watson was the sentence "Good design is good business" Ultimate Systems puts design at the heart of the work. We support the client at every stage of product development, from UX and UI design to programming and making a commercial product. If you are at the stage of searching for a Software House, you've come to the right place!