Many people confuse UI design and UX design, many are convinced that it is one and the same thing, but in fact they are two very different concepts. UI design (User Interface Design) is user interface design, and UX (User Experience Design) stands for user experience design.

What is UX design and why does it really matter to us?

First, we'll explain in more detail what UX design actually entails. UX design can be compared to product design, because they have a lot of common features. For this very reason, many product designers also work as UX designers. UX design is focused on the interaction between the user and the product or service. The most common services that UX designers deal with are websites and apps, but even ATMs involve UX design.

What exactly is the job of a UX designer?

Imagine buying the phone you've wanted for a long time and saved up for. As you go to the store and pick up the phone, you feel excited and impatient. You finally bought a phone and suddenly you feel happy and proud. But after only a few days of use, your phone falls out and the screen stops working. You try to get customer service and ask for advice, help, but… no one answers. What emotions do you feel then? Stress, nervousness, anger, worry...

This example best explains how each phase of using a product causes certain different emotions in us. Tracking the emotions that a product or service evokes in us while using it is actually the job of a UX designer. UX designers are responsible for following all the emotions that a person can or must feel when using a product. All these emotions are also called a journey map - a map of the change of all feelings while using a product.

Why is an emotion journey map important?

Simply put, a journey map helps UX designers better understand what a user will like about a product, what will make them feel happy and satisfied while using that product or service, and what parts of the user experience will annoy and frustrate them. nervousness. Designers, based on research and analysis of users, make lists about their users and things that could cause positive feelings, as well as those that will cause negative feelings in users.

We will take the example of the phone again. When a 15-year-old buys a phone, it is important for him that it has a good camera, that he can play games, that the phone looks nice... Let's imagine that a 70-year-old person buys a phone, will it be important for him to be able to play the latest games? Probably not. For an elderly person, it will be important that the phone has excellent call quality, that it is loud enough, that it is as easy to use as possible... These users have different requirements and expectations for the same thing. Different age groups of people have different expectations, but - they use the same thing, the same phone.

So, the job of a UX designer is to follow different age groups, different people who all have different requirements and come up with a solution that would satisfy the requirements of all groups. In simpler terms - how and where can we improve something in the user experience to make them like the product even more. This is the reason why UX design plays an essential role in any business.

What is UI design and what is the difference between the two terms?

UI design is interface design, ie. of what we see on phones, computers, applications... For example, a UI designer thinks about what color will be the image that the user will immediately notice, and a UX designer thinks about whether that image is generally needed there.

Graphic and voice UI design

UI design can be divided into graphic and voice interface design. Graphic interface design means the design of all the icons that we need to click when using the phone, for example, the button to enter the application, the button to return to the home page... The voice interface means that we just need to say a certain thing to our devices, and they themselves do what is required.
Any good graphic interface design implies three things – creativity, consistency and simplicity.

Creativity

What do we mean by creativity? A good, unique choice of colors, fonts, animations - a combination of these things gives a unique identity to any application or site. For example, YouTube is different from Instagram, Instagram is different from Facebook, Facebook is different from Twitter - each of these platforms is designed differently to be memorable and unique to users. Within a few seconds, users can recognize which application is in question just by the combination of colors used, without consciously thinking about it - this is exactly the main characteristic of a good graphic interface design.

Consistency

When you watch a video on Youtube, the video is shown to you in a rectangle under which there is the name of the video, the number of views, the date, the like and dislike button, the option to share and save the video, then the description of the video... And that's the design for absolutely every the video you watch. This means consistency in design. Consistency in design improves the user experience to a great extent.

Simplicity

We come to the third thing - ease of use. On YouTube, there is only one way to search for a video, only one way to like a video, only one way to comment on a video... If there is only one way (maximum of two) to do something, it avoids confusion and confusion for users and improves the overall user experience.

The link between UI and UX design

We can explain the connection between these two concepts using the example of our body and the clothes we wear. Let's say UX design is our body and UI is our style and the clothes we wear. If we are healthy, train and take care of our appearance, UX design is good for us. If we choose clothes that don't fit us, the wrong size, color and cut, we will look average, because we made a mistake with the UI design. But if we choose the right clothes and style, the overall impression will improve a lot and we will look great. It's the same thing with apps and websites. If good research and good UX design is done and we add proper UI design to it, the overall impression and user experience will be great and delight the users, and thus the success of any site and application is guaranteed.

Most of the websites today are made for the customer who asks for the creation of the website, without thinking about the end user who needs to buy or use that product or service offered on the website. Together with our clients, before creating a website for their business, we go through a questionnaire to find out more information about their current clients, and then, with the help of research and analysis of current and potential clients, we create an appropriate UI and UX design for creating a website that will retain existing clients and attract new ones.

If you want your website to delight and attract customers, fill it out our questionnaire and improve your business.