What’s the difference between UI and UX design?
Published: 2023-11-17 08:43:53

User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are concepts that are likely recognizable to anybody with even the slightest knowledge of software and digital product development. Even people who are quite knowledgeable about the subject, nevertheless, occasionally confuse UI/UX development company, using one term when they mean the other or even thinking they are equivalent. This post will explain the two roles, show out where they overlap and vary, and emphasize how crucial both UI and UX are to the success of your digital product.



Table of contents

Why are UI and UX important?
What’s the difference between UX and UI? Defining the terms
What do UI designers do?
What do UX designers do?
How UI & UX work together
Difference between UI and UX - Summary

If two terms in design are frequently used interchangeably, it has to be UI (user interface) and UX (user experience). And why not? Both emphasize on making digital goods visually appealing and simple to use, and they both start with the letter "U," suggesting that they are directed towards the consumers of these items. Even though they are closely related, the UI UX  design services jobs are very different from one another once we are inside the digital product development process.
Why are UI and UX important?

Let's imagine you have an online store where people can explore, purchase, monitor orders, post reviews, and so on. This is known as an ecommerce platform. If your platform performs as intended (that is, if users are able to purchase your items; in other words, if the platform functions), then the combination of UI and UX will determine whether the platform is successful or not, whether it captures a sufficient portion of the market, and if it provides you with a competitive edge.

Actually, UI and UX work together to influence how well a person interacts with a digital product and, therefore, how they react to it. A product's user interface and user experience (UI/UX) determine whether it is enthusiastically praised by customers and shared with others or swiftly (though not always silently) dropped in favor of something "better."

Not only are UI and UX "nice to haves," but they also play a major role in how successful your digital product is.

What’s the difference between UX and UI? Defining the terms

What precisely are UI and UX, then?

The way a user interacts with a digital product, including its visual components and overall appearance and feel (colors, pictures, typography), is the focus of user interface design. The aim is to produce something that looks good and is both functional and accessible on every screen or device.

The focus of user experience, however, is broader and encompasses the entire user journey, including the user's feelings when using or interacting with the product in different ways.

When the first graphical user interfaces were created in the 1980s, people were able to interact with computers more graphically by utilizing menus, buttons, icons, and other elements. This is when UI design originated. Comparably, one of the key moments in UI design was the introduction of the point-and-click mouse interface.

The idea of UX design originated from UI; once consumers are able to interact with a product interface, digital designers began to pay close attention to the quality of their experience and how it made them feel, as well as how it affected their decision to utilize the product or not.

UI is a more specialized discipline than UX since it is more focused on a product's interface or interfaces, and as such, it is a part of the larger user experience. This broader experience encompasses the entire user journey, including how and when the user learns about the product, where they can find it, test it out, make a purchase, acquire it, use it for a longer period of time, report any issues or other feedback, and receive a response. and so forth, including their feelings towards all of this.

Using Peter Morville's "UX Honeycomb" and its six areas of value is a helpful method to illustrate the breadth of UX:


Usable: The product and its systems are simple to operate; a brief and not overly steep learning curve is required for proficient use.

Useful: the product satisfies a sincere need or desire of the user.

Desirable: The product has a pleasing appearance.

Findable: The content is easily accessible, the navigation is fluid and logically organized.
Accessible means that everyone, with or without a handicap, can use the same user experience.

Credible: The product is reliable, as is the firm making it.

It is evident that UX extends much beyond a product's practical design. In actuality, the user experience is flexible yet possibly infinite, contingent upon the nature of the product and its advancement. A possible method to conceptualize the distinction between UI and UX is to think of UI as what the user sees and does, while UX is the user's perception of what they do see and experience.

What do UI designers do?

Design-oriented investigation A user interface designer must comprehend the product's competitors and consumers, then incorporate that knowledge with the most recent design trends.

Design systems: Once more, in the broader context of a company that sells a variety of goods and services, a user interface designer (UI designer) can be in charge of developing a design system that includes style guidelines, pattern libraries, and standardized components and guarantees user consistency. In addition, this consistent design philosophy makes use of widely recognized design patterns (such as red error messages, 'bell' icons for notifications, and standard button styles), all of which lower the learning curve for users of the product.


Visuals: A UI designer makes decisions on the colors, icons, buttons, pictures, typography, and other visual elements that a user will see on the screen (or other interface) in front of them.
Accessibility: Making that the design complies with the most recent version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which include guidelines for text, font size, color contrasts, and other accessibility-related concerns.

Any interactive component of the interface, such as animations, transitions, etc., falls under the category of animation/interactivity.

Interface design requirements for responsive design vary based on the platform, device, and/or screen being used to access the product.

Branding: UI designers have to take into account the product's branding, as well as how it fits into the larger company brand.