The term “UI/UX design” is often bundled with web and app design. But what exactly does the term mean? What is UI/UX design about? Read on to find out!
What’s the difference between UI & UX Design?
This may sound surprising, but UI/UX actually refers to two separate, yet closely interlinked fields of design.
User Experience (UX)
UX design is all about user experience—how easy and comfortable it is to use a product. Let’s take app design for example. UX designers have to ensure that key interface elements can be navigated and accessed with minimal effort from the user. They plan how an interface operates and adheres to user app habits.
Photo Credit: Firmbee@Pixabay
User Interface (UI)
UI design, on the other hand, is about making the user interface pretty. UI designers are graphic designers whose goal is to make user interface elements eye-catching and clear for the user. To do so, they consider things like button shapes, color schemes, typography, image layout etc.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
UX and UI designers work closely together to create a product that is both easily usable and stylish to use. UX designers would propose a design strategy for how the interface works, then UI designers would adapt their designs accordingly and present interface elements clearly and attractively to enhance user experience. How exactly does this work? Let’s have a look at the workflow of UI/UX designers.
UX/UI Workflow
1.Research
This stage is mainly brainstorming and research. UX designers look for inspiration, or problems users face that they wish to solve. Information is gathered regarding main user groups, user habits, pain points etc. for this purpose.
2.Ideation & Design Strategy
Here, brainstormed ideas are gradually narrowed down and worked into a design strategy. When working with a product owner, UX designers have to consider what the product should achieve: how many user problems should it cover? Priority of issues to tackle? Business impact?
3.UX design
Solutions are thought up for the underlined problems that the product wishes to address. During this process, UX designers have to consider all possible scenarios that users might face and carefully refine solutions until those incorporated into the design strategy enable the product to be feasible and easy to use for the average user.
4.UI design
UI designers work with UX designers to produce an aesthetically pleasing design that also highlights key elements in the design strategy of the product. The product interface should be ideally easy to use & deliver a pleasurable user experience.
5.Prototypes and Testing
Lastly, product prototypes are tested repeatedly and modified based on feedback. Testing includes carrying out usability tests so that designers can receive first-hand evaluation from users. Designers will prototype and test by using different UX/UI design software, such as Figma、Adobe XD、Penpot, etc.
Further reading:
Famous examples of UI/UX Design
Now that you have a basic understanding of what UI/UX design is, you’re probably curious about some examples of good UI/UX design. Actually, these aren’t difficult to look for—you’ve probably used and enjoyed most of these sites/apps because of how comfortable it is to use them.
Instagram – visual hierarchy prioritizes content to encourage endless scrolling
Pinterest – waterfall effect allows smooth browsing of images
Spotify – consistent behavior of app shortens learning curve to use it
Airbnb – informative, minimalist design
Uber – design caters to two completely different user groups effectively
Dropbox – responsive colors for each webpage to engage interest
Photo Credit: Brett Jordan@pexels
Want to know more about UI/UX Design?
Have a look at our posts about UI/UX and other graphic design topics on Facebook and Instagram. If you want to try out UI/UX yourself, we also offer a fun introductory course to help you grasp the basics of UI/UX. Feel free to have a chat with us if you have any questions!
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