The difference between UX, UI, Design (or the UX Designer Myth)?

The Collective Plus has prepared a presentation for you on the difference between interface design (UI: User interface) and experience design (UX: User experience). This is serious!

Of course, English speakers are not left out. Here are some examples:

For the user to keep a good memory of his visit to your website, work on UX, the “science of the user experience”. Know that out of 10 Internet users, 7 do not return to a site if their first experience was bad. It is therefore a necessity to work on improving the UX if your goal is to offer your users a pleasant and unforgettable experience. It is particularly important to ensure that the user understands very quickly what you expect from him. Otherwise, it will leave very quickly, which will obviously have a negative impact on your sales, if you have an online store.

For the improvement of the user experience of your site, so you need to hire a UX specialist. The latter will become acquainted with your project and will implement a real UX approach. In particular, he will ensure that design and user experience are integrated directly into a strategy aimed at transforming needs into functionalities.

Designing a good user experience involves following several steps.

The first is the development of a strategy, that is to say the definition of a role of the product or service offered. Clearly, it is to be well located on the need to which it will respond. The second step is to define any obstacles related to the particularities of the project. The third is the structure, which is considered the beginning of the design of the product or service. It is at this level that we reflect on the architecture of information. Then comes the framework stage from which the skeleton of the product or service is created. We can then focus on the surface, the last step that defines the visual overview of the product. The UX specialist attaches importance to all these steps so that the user experience is designed effectively.

You are probably wondering when it is good to think about UX . The reflection must begin at the very beginning of the project to create your site and it must be active until its end. The work of UX design begins as soon as the specifications are written.

UI, the science of the interface that improves the interaction between the user and the product

UI-vs-UX-DESIGN

If UX is the science of user experience, UI is the science that improves the interaction between the user and the product . The UI is more centered on the visual, because its objective is to attract the user’s gaze, encourage him to stay on the page he is visiting and promote his engagement. It is involved in all stages of the development of a site or a mobile application, except for research.

And as is the case with UX, you need to call on a specialist to manage your interface project. He will begin his work by defining the concept of the project. This is also the most important step since it determines the whole project. The UI expert relies on brainstorming to precisely determine several elements, such as the values ​​you want to convey and the functionalities of the interface. It also reflects on your target by asking itself a certain number of questions. For example, he wonders what your interface will bring to your target, on what occasion and in what contexts they will use it and on what media it will be visible. The UI expert will determine your concept and theme. Next, it can perform benchmarking in order to know the current trends with regard to the type of project you have chosen. An analysis of the existing situation is made in order to know the positive points as well as the negative points of similar projects. This can lead to a documentary watch concerning your direct competitors and also the leaders of other sectors of activity. L’UI design brings together everything he found on the same board. This is the moodboard, the working basis. The expert can take the best UI trends and add various elements, such as color palettes, visuals, icons and typography, while staying in step with your project.

For the step of creating your user interface, wireframes made beforehand will be used. Note that UI specialists are used to creating a  specific UI kit for each project. In it, there are all the graphic elements essential to the interface. This is the case for buttons , fields , forms and menus. They take care that there is a coherence between these various graphic elements which have the capacity to suggest the action which they allow the realization. For example, if a clickable button has been implemented, it should suggest to the user the possibility of clicking on it. After creating your graphical interface, the UI designer looks at the animations to integrate to make them dynamic.

In conclusion, remember that UX is very different from UI, even if the two complement each other and are essential in the design project of a web project. The first notion comes before the second.