If you are someone who is looking to build a career in designing or starting to work in this field or just have a website, then there are two terms that you often hear- UI and UX. What are these two things and why are they so important in the designing world? UI stands for User interface and UX stands for User experience. It’s a constant debate in the designing world, how these two tools are essential and work together. 

So let’s begin with the one question you must be thinking :

What is UX? 

User experience, as the name suggests, is about the experience of the user. In more technical terms, User experience can be defined as the interaction of the user with the product or services and user experience based on this interaction. To make the user experience better, it’s important to understand the user and understand their journey and requirements. The work required on UX is possible with constant research and empathy towards one’s users. To take timely feedback from your users, carefully deliberate and work over those insights and find solutions henceforth. 

The UX designer’s role is to make the journey of the user as easy as possible. It means that they need to have empathy, recognition of the target audience, and communication skills apart from having an understanding of user flow for the product.

It is also noteworthy that User experience is not just limited to the digital experience of the product or the visuals, it’s about the overall experience. For example: While one company is an app that focuses on sharing daily news, whereas there can be a company which delivers their product through the app. Therefore, UX is not just limited to digital interaction with users. 

What is UI?

Google offers paid advertisements that appear in search results on the Google browser. The ads are denoted with a green “Ad” label. Google also offers Display Ads, which appear on the Google Display Network. The Display Network is an in-depth collection of doors, third-party websites that have partnered with Google and have agreed to serve Google ads. Google ads on the Display Network are often in text, image, video, or rich media format, and might be targeted differently. This includes remarketing and banner ads. 

It is easy to confuse UX with UI, but mostly UI is defined as a  complement to the user experience. Many UI’s are combined together to form a user experience. The User interface as its name suggests is about interfaces. It’s designed as a place for interaction between the user and software. Multiple interfaces come in sequence to give life to a product. The user interface comprises output and input hardware. It is synchronization between the two hardware that makes User interface interaction possible for humans.

As you can tell by now, UI and UX are very inter-related in the designing world. So let’s review the different key features between UI and UX: 

1. User Experience pays attention to the user’s journey with/on the product whereas User Interface pays attention to the means a user interacts with the product
2. User Experience is not just limited to the visual appeal of the product, it also has to give intense care to the physical aspect involved for the user with the product whereas User Interface is attentive to the visuals outlook, product upgrading, and is engrossed with the digital aspect. 
3.  A UX designer has to put focus on the full experience of the user, from their first touch to their last as well as the way to retain the user and make the product experience as such that the user keeps coming back whereas the UI designer is concerned with more tangible elements and pays attention to the visual touchpoints of the product. 
4. The User Experience is focused on making the effectiveness of the product as such that it’s easy for the user whereas the User Interface is focused on making the product aesthetically appealing
5. The UX designer needs to grasp the target audience whereas the UI designer needs to grasp the product inside out and pay attention to every tiny detail of the product. 
6. The UX designer is supposed to solve the problems a user discovers through their journey whereas the UI designer is supposed to create, work and develop the imagery, button, typography, the color scheme, the animation used, etc. of the product. 
7. UX designers are required to constantly work towards the execution of the product. They are supposed to communicate with all the members whereas the UI designers have to work closely on the user flow and each interface created by the UX designer. 

Both of these roles are equally important and require different and essential sets of skills. Despite these differences, one of the major things required in both disciplines is research work. To exhibit the required skill sets into the design, it’s a necessity to align the good information gathered by UI and UX designers. Furthermore, it’s vital to keep up with the ever-changing trends of the UI/UX industry. 

With the increase of remote work due to pandemics, the designing world experienced drastic change as well. Here are the noteworthy UI/UX trends:

• The Dark force is growing

One of the major updates across all trending apps was the introduction of “Dark mode”. This update was also anticipated by many for its many benefits for extended battery life, less eye strain, and minimized screen glare. 

• Voice User Interface 

With the increase of interest in AI, voice control interface and air gesture, are acquiring favoritism across the globe. 

• Smooth onboarding  process and personalized experience

The process of having great and smooth onboarding is increasing. Nobody likes hassle, by having a smooth onboarding helps web or mobile apps to retain more users and ensure they keep coming back. Providing an option to personalize the experience of a user adds a cherry on the cake.

• Make it 3D 

For years, 3D design has been attractive to gain an audience. 3D  is being popularised on both the web and mobile applications. 

• Errors can be fun

Though no one likes seeing error messages, UI/UX has stopped error messages from being boring. Now Error messages come with creative animation, illustrations, or simple games. 

UI and Ux are like two very distinct designing concepts that exist in perfect harmony with each other. For example: If you have a beautiful design and aesthetic visuals but your customer delivery system is slow, it’s harder to navigate through your app/website. Despite the perfect design, you’ll lose out on customers. Therefore, it’s important to maintain a perfect balance and work towards both UI and UX growth of your product or services. 

We hope with this you could understand the slight difference between both terms. Although many people will still debate and say it’s the same and commonly while applying for a job or interview, you will find the UI/UX role being interchanged, we hope with this difference you would be able to identify what job profile you are looking forward to.