UX? UI? So you’ve seen the acronyms everywhere, but now you’re wondering what exactly is the difference between the two terms? And to make it even more confusing, just what is a UX/UI designer? Some kind of unicorn hybrid? While some people tend to group the two positions in the same boat, they’re actually separate disciplines that both share a common goal of creating a product that is centered around the needs of its users. But just how does the role of a UI designer differ from that of a UX designer?
To understand, let’s break down what exactly are the differences and what are some overlapping roles of the two positions.
UX Designers
By definition, User Experience (abbreviated as UX) is how a person feels when interfacing with a system. The system could be a website, a web application or desktop software and, in modern contexts, is generally denoted by some form of human-computer interaction (HCI).
What a UX designer does
User Experience (UX) design encompasses every part of the design that involves how the user will interact with a product. They are concerned with how a user feels about a product. Empathy for the user is at the core of their job description. A user experience designer conducts research to better understand the goals and desires of the people who they are designing for. UX designers then use the research to create a journey for the user as they complete their tasks. They do this through things like:
- Focus groups
- Surveys
- Interviews
- A/B testing
- Personas
Tools of a UX Designer:
- Pencil and Paper
- Sticky Notes
UI Designers
User Interface (UI) Design focuses on anticipating what users might need to do and ensuring that the interface has elements that are easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate those actions. UI brings together concepts from interaction design, visual design, and information architecture.
What a UI Designer Does
Whereas user experience designers focus on the user, UI designers focus on presentation and how the user interacts with a product. A UI designer will be tasked with working on some of the following tasks:
- Focusing on the visual design and flow of the product between interactions
- Wireframing
- Creating visual assets (buttons, forms, etc)
- Build transitions between screens
Tools of UI Designers:
- Dot Grid Notebook
- Sketch
- Prototyping tools, such as InVision or Principle
Why a UI Designer is not a UX Designer
UX = Research UI = Visuals.
A UX designer might be great at performing research studies to learn more about the user, but they may lack the skills necessary to prototype a complex screen animation to hand off to a developer.
UI design requires that the designer has a better understanding of hierarchy, color, typography, motion graphics, and interaction design.
Different skill sets needed
While some aspects of UX and UI will share common similarities, what’s expected of each role is very different.
UX designers will be spending most of their time researching and analyzing data in order to build a user’s emotional journey while using a product. The UX designer is concerned with how the product will meet the goals of the people that will be using it.
UX skills:
- Conduct user interviews
- Perform A/B tests
- Create user personas
- Wireframe a customer’s journey
UI design skills are focused on the creation of the visual assets for digital products, instead of the analytical skills required by user experience designers.
UI skills:
- Prototyping what happens when a user clicks a specific button
- Creating a style guide to hand off to developers
- Knowing how to pair typefaces together to create legible copy
- Figuring out how the site will look like across different screen sizes
- Ensuring that the branding is consistent across all screens of a digital product
- Building out the final visual elements and designs user interactions based off of wireframes given to them from UX designers
Where the Roles of UX and UI overlap
UI Designers are in charge of designing each screen or page with which a user interacts and ensuring that the UI visually communicates the path that a UX designer has laid out.
Now, these two roles do have a bit of overlap. In fact, a great UI is one of many aspects of good UX design, you can’t really have one without the other!
UX and UI designers must communicate throughout the entire development phase, especially when getting feedback from users.
Both jobs require designers to:
- Wireframe
- Prototype
- Test
- Get feedback, and repeat.
But the most important thing about the two disciplines is that for both, everything stems from knowing your users, including understanding their goals, skills, preferences, and tendencies.
Recap
UI design is everything that a user will see and interact with on a digital screen.
UX and UI designers work closely together on separate tasks to build a product that achieves the goals of the users. Without a well-crafted interface, it wouldn’t matter how accurately the UX designers understand the need of their customers. That being said, a beautiful interface can’t save a product that hasn’t been thought through for the intended users.
UX and UI, a blend of analytical research and visual design, work harmoniously together to combine research and visuals into a great final product.
FURTHER READING:
- Best UX/UI Design Bootcamps
- UX/UI Bootcamps: The Complete Guide
- UX Design vs Web Design
- From Startup to Corporate: The Differing Roles of the UX Designer
- Why You Should Learn UI Design
- Top 5 UX Design Skills Employers Want
For a more in-depth look at how to become a specialist in either of these dynamic fields, check out the CareerFoundry UI Design and UX Design courses! And read CareerFoundry reviews on Course Report.
Written by
Sean Beaubien is a freelance Visual Designer & blogger, and a UI Design student at CareerFoundry. He studied graphic design at Radford University, and is based in Roanoke, Virginia.
Edited by
Liz Eggleston, CEO and Editor of Course Report
Liz Eggleston is co-founder of Course Report, the most complete resource for students choosing a coding bootcamp. Liz has dedicated her career to empowering passionate career changers to break into tech, providing valuable insights and guidance in the rapidly evolving field of tech education.
Comments (6)
I also agree with the comment that an integrated design allows you to create the necessary design that will comprehensively solve the mission.
Absolute nonsense. I really hate, how these days everyone tries to disconnect UI/UX. It is called User Interface designer. If you know how to do it User Experience friendly design, that doesnt make you out of the sudden User Experience designer. If you only know whats User friendly, you are just useless talker:
Conduct user interviews
Perform A/B tests
Create user personas
Wireframe a customer’s journey
This is not a job for UX designer. Its the stuff he based his works on as UI designer. These things are made by marketers and me and others use it to make good, UX friendly UI. Same as UI is not just putting blocks of buttons next to each other. We must BASE our work on UX. Thats why its called USER EXPERIENCE. Design without USER EXPERIENCE is not a design.
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ReplyYes! Johnny, thank you. This is trivially important. Or maybe truly important.
Let us all everyone from now on henceforth use the the term UX... Which stands for User Interaxion/User Experience/User Interfaxe/User X... With "X" being a placeholder for WHATEVER. Because that is the reality.
Probably the more important word is DESIGNER. Designers (UX Designers) may or may not be engineers, or even coders these days. Just as engineers may not be much in the way of design.
UI is not UX. I've yet to meet ONE person who can do both really well. Either a person is JS/CSS whiz or they are a good web designer. Not both. Sorry. UX is the modern day term for "web developer," that's all. UI means web designer now, and in a very limited way...mainly Photoshop and basic HTML/CSS.
BECAUSE SOMEBODY DOESN'T DO BOTH THINGS WELL DOESN'T MEAN anything.
It's all part of the same process. If you suck at one or the other you are incomplete, or you aren't being given time to do it adequately, or the workflow imposed is wrong. When you keep it separate it becomes compartmentalized and rigid. People that do both don't work well under rigid constraints. When you keep them together it is flexible and iterative.
Wow this is the first time I ever commented on the internet and I just have to do it because this is one of the most ridiculous viewpoint I have ever read on UI and UX.
As a current UX Designer (whose work involves heavy UI design), I can safely say that 95% of the web developers I have worked with knows NOTHING about UX. They couldn't (and mostly unwilling to) think from the user's POV. But of course, I am not blaming them because they are developers, not designers. They do what they do best - developing systems.
Yes, UI/UX designers are usually better in one aspect than the other (I admit I am still learning on doing better user research), but that doesn't mean you can only be either one. One main trait people should look for when hiring any designer is EMPATHY (even pure graphic designers). Good designers care deeply for their users, and this is one thing you don't see in everyone. Whatever your title is, we are all designers who want to deliver the best experience for our users.
And which UI Designer still uses Photoshop nowadays? I am sorry but you are obviously not very in tune with the industry.
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