Two terms that are used interchangeably and mean something completely different.
UX, user experience, is about how something works: can someone achieve their goal without faltering. UI, user interface, is about how it looks and feels: layout, colour, typography, buttons. A nice interface with a bad experience is a building with a beautiful facade and untraceable exits.
IN COMMON LANGUAGE
The difference in practice
UX starts with the question of what someone comes to do and in what steps it is possible. What information does he need, in what order, and where does he drop out now?
UI makes those steps visible and pleasant. What stands out, what should be quiet, how do you recognize what is clickable.
They cannot be pulled off. A misplaced button is both a UI choice and a UX problem. The distinction is especially useful to determine what goes wrong: do people not understand it, or do they not see it?
WHY IT MATTERS
What we pay attention to
We design based on the question of what a visitor comes to get, not based on a layout that looks good on a presentation. This sometimes results in duller screens and almost always better numbers.
With an application, UX weighs more heavily than with a website: someone who works in it every day will go crazy if there are three too many clicks: and these are never noticed upon delivery.
- What does the visitor come to do? — the starting point, not the layout.
- The number of steps — every additional step costs users.
- Recognizability — what is clickable should look clickable.
- Consistency — the same action works the same everywhere.
- Error messages that help — say what needs to be done, not that something is wrong.
- Daily use weighs more heavily — irritation builds up with repetition.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
More about the difference between UX and UI
Do I need a separate UX designer?
Rarely for a website of a few pages - then the organisation is clear enough. It is wiser for an application in which people work every day, because small friction is repeated there every day.
Is beautiful the same as good?
No, and it's not a contradiction either. A neat design inspires confidence; that's real value. It only becomes a problem when the appearance gets in the way of the operation: colors with too little contrast, for example.
How do I test this without a budget?
Ask three people who don't know your site to talk out loud about what they do while completing a task. You will hear more in ten minutes than a report tells you, and it will cost you a cup of coffee.
CONTINUE READING
Of course, continue reading about this subject.
Screens that work?
Tell who should work with it and for what purpose. We design from that task, not from a template.