User Interface (UI) Vs. User Experience (UX) Developer

User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designers and developers are committed to making products intuitive and easy to use. However, they have different roles within a design team.

UI designers are responsible for the visual elements of a design, while UX designers are responsible for overall user experience. We break down these two important roles below.

What Is a User Interface (UI) Designer?

A user interface designer is a person who works on the user interface of a product. User interface refers to how well someone is able to interact with a machine or application, and vice versa.

User interface designers primarily focus on the visual aspects of an app, website, or program. Their overall goal is to make these visual aspects not only pleasing to the eye but intuitive and easy to understand.

For example, consider a streaming website. A good UI would have things like an easy-to-spot search function and simple navigation. A bad UI might be cluttered or make it hard to find what you're looking for.

Someone working in UI design can be employed by a variety of industries, including application development, e-commerce websites, and other types of digital products. Some choose a specialization in the type of UI they work with.

What Does a UI Designer Do?

There are several different things that a UI designer may do as part of their job. These include:

• designing a product interface
• ensuring accessibility in the visual design
• creating interactive elements like buttons and menus
• determining visual elements like fonts, typography, animations, color schemes, and other graphic design elements
• managing prototypes in wireframes
• working with their teams to create low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes and mockups
• using responsive design to ensure that their product can be used on a range of devices
• running usability testing and problem-solving pain points

In many cases, UI designers work as part of a design team that may include back-end designers, members of the marketing team, and user experience designers.

What Is a User Experience (UX) Designer?

A user experience designer is responsible for the overall ease of a user's interaction with a product. Their goal is to make the overall user experience as user-friendly as possible.

Often, user interface is a core part of this, but it's not the only part of user experience design. UI designers look at the full user journey to determine the best way to meet user needs. For good UX, this often requires user research and a strong understanding of the brand.

Let's go back to our streaming site example. It's awesome if a site looks good, but does it take forever to load? Do you have to click six different things to find the show you want? Those are examples of bad UX that may make users turn to different options.

What Does a UX Designer Do?

A UX designer is in charge of the overall customer experience on things like mobile apps and websites. Tasks within the UX design process may include:

• conducting UX research to identify a product's end user and their user needs
• analyzing how real-world customers interact with a product
• designing the pathways and touchpoints a user might engage with and determine user flow
• building prototypes and wireframes to showcase different iterations of a project
• running usability testing to identify pain points
• work with members of the design team to fine-tune a product

It should be noted that while UI is purely digital, UX doesn't have to be digital. It can apply to a variety of products and services, including things like customer checkout lanes and automated phone systems.

What Is the Difference Between User Experience and User Interface?

User interface and user experience go hand-in-hand, but there are a few key differences to keep in mind. To start, UX can be physical or digital while UI is only digital.

User experience looks at the entire experience a user has while using the product. This includes user interface, but also includes how easy overall it is for a customer to do what they want to do with the product.

User interface is a component of user experience and is the part of front-end development that brings a digital product to life through digital design. It's what makes the website or app easy to navigate and use.

What Is the Difference Between UI and UX Design Jobs?

UX designers are focused on the overall usability of a product and the experience the customer has while using the product. They may create customer personas and analyze how a customer might navigate through using the product.

UI designers, on the other hand, are focused on the visual design portion of product development. They utilize their design skills to organize how a page is laid out, choose the color schemes and fonts used, and create the interactive elements.

Essentially, UX designers determine the overall framework of a project. UI designers then come in and add the various design elements needed to make the product look nice and easy to use.

Are There UI/UX Designers?

Yes, there are UI/UX designers. They are often an important part of effective product design.

UI designers often work for things like mobile apps and web applications. UX designers can work on these too, but they can also work on a wide variety of products and services.

How To Get into UI/UX Design

To work as a UI designer, you need to understand UI and know how to design the visual elements required for digital products. To learn these, you can get a degree with a concentration in UI or complete a bootcamp, like the UI/UX bootcamp by UMass.

In these programs, you'll learn:

• fundamentals of design principles
• photo, video, and animation skills
• graphic design and interaction design
• how to use products like Photoshop, InDesign, Adobe XD, and Figma

Similarly, you can get a degree or take a bootcamp to help you learn about UX design. These programs will teach you:

• customer psychology
• user research
• web design
• wireframing and prototyping
• how to use tools like Sket, Illustrator, and InVision