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It’s not enough to simply have a website these days. With the latest digital technology and increasing competition, not to mention changing customer demands, a website must be more than just a showcase of a company’s business– it has to meet customer needs.
As a business owner, it's important to be familiar with UI and UX design basics. These terms have been used interchangeably, but they refer to different things. Understanding the difference helps determine if you need a UI/UX developer or a web designer to improve your website.
UI, or user interface, refers to your website or mobile application's overall look and feel. It's what your users will see and interact with every time they use your product. UX, or user experience, ensures your UI is easy to use and navigate. UX applies to digital and physical products, while UI refers to digital products.
UX aims to create a product that delights customers because it is effective. On the other hand, UI intends to delight customers with the product’s aesthetics. UX focuses on the entire customer journeyThe complete experience a customer has with a brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase interac..., while UI focuses on the visual touchpoints.
User Experience Design is the behind-the-scenes aspect of designing a product. It involves design and user research, information architecture, usability testingEvaluating a website's ease of use by testing it with real users and gathering their feedback., interaction design, and content strategyA plan for creating, publishing, and managing content to meet business goals..
UX Design focuses on understanding the customer’s needs, emotions, habits, motivators, and behavior. UX designers understand their customers deeply and will go out and talk to them. Their process often involves extensive research to understand the customer’s psyche and behavior.
A good UX designer will consider cognitive load and user flowThe path users take through a website to complete a specific task or goal. when designing a product. They'll ensure users can find what they're looking for and accomplish their goals without getting frustrated.
They begin the design process by determining a customer’s pain points and then create solutions to address these challenges. They use information architecture and wireframes to come up with a product skeleton.
A User Interface Design (UI) is the visual and graphical component of a design. A well-established UI designer will have the following:
At a senior level, they can have the ability to work as an art or creative director with a clear visual vision.
The UI designer comes in once the UX designer finishes creating the product skeleton. They bring the vision of the UX designer to life by using visual elements to make the user journey seamless and pain-free.
UI designers are responsible for making the product accessible and inclusive. UX designers map the journey, while UI designers focus on the details that make it possible. They work hand-in-hand to create a fantastic product that delights customers.
Web designers are professionals who create content for websites based on the most recent trends. Their responsibilities include designing the website's layout, aesthetics, utility, and functionality.
They are a broader term to describe graphic designers with experience building a website or backend web developers who have developed skills to design the front-end of a website. They don’t necessarily have the more profound customer knowledge that UI and UX designers have and often don’t create human-centered websites.
UI and UX designers study customer psychology to understand customers' thinking, while web designers don’t go this deep. It's their job to put all the pieces together, including UI and UX, and design a mobile and desktop-friendly website.
Web designers possess extensive knowledge of programming languages like HTML and CSS, scripting languages like JavaScript and PHP, and design packages like Photoshop. While it seems that a web designer’s role is the same as a UI designer, they are less iterative and tend to focus more on the aesthetics of the site rather than how users will interact with it.
Deciding who to hire between a UI, UX, and web designer may seem confusing, especially with the recent advances in digital design and technology. You may be tempted just to hire anyone who claims to provide all three services or forego one over the other.
Remember that to create a competitive website that customers will be satisfied to use, you must carefully consider the roles of UX, UI, and web design and hire the right designers. While they all have different roles, they all work together to create a final product that customers would find useful and be delighted to visit again.
Creating a great UI and UX is essential for keeping your users happy and engaged with your product. Learn more about best practices in running a successful and engaging website. Check out Bliss Drive’s blogs for more articles about web design and development.
