A good user experience is built on the foundation of a good user interface. Your users want your site to be beautiful and easy to use. The difference between UX and UI design is the focus. UX is all about the user, while UI is the overall look of your site. We’ll dive deeper into each of these terms, and how they differ, in our guide to UX and UI design.

To begin with, what exactly are UX and UI?

First and foremost, what do the terms UX and UI actually mean? The folks you overheard are discussing two professions that have been dubbed UX and UI design by the IT sector, despite the fact that they have existed for decades and in theory for centuries.

User experience design is referred to as UX design, whereas user interface design is referred to as UI design. Both parts are critical to a product's success and function in tandem. However, despite their professional link, their jobs are highly diverse, relating to very different areas of the product development process and the design discipline.

Before we look at the fundamental differences between UX and UI, it's important to understand what each term represents.

What is user experience (UX) design?

User Experience (UX) design is the process of understanding user needs and designing products, websites, and services around those needs. UX design requires the use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods, along with usability testing to ensure that the final design is usable and satisfies user needs. UX designers are involved throughout the product development cycle, working closely with developers, content producers, marketing professionals, and others involved in a project. UX design has been in existence since the 1980s but it is now a critical component in any digital product development and is increasingly valued by companies worldwide.

What is user interface (UI) design?

User interface design is the practice of crafting a digital experience that will help people accomplish a task. This includes the way the website is organized, the types of elements included in the design, and even how the colors are selected. UI design is closely related to interaction design, but it also involves the user’s actual experience. It is all about what the visitor feels when they interact with your design. An effective UI design provides a good interaction between the product and the user and results in a pleasurable experience.

What’s the difference between UX and UI design?

These days, a lot of people are confused about the difference between User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design. But in short, UX is the experience that users have when interacting with a product. UI design is the way in which that product looks. UX designers focus on the way the user feels when using a product. UI designers focus on how a product is designed, from the outside in. While both UX and UI designers work in tandem, the best UX designers should be able to do the basic job of a UI designer while the best UI designers should be able to do the basic job of a UX designer.

How do UX design and UI design work together?

You might be wondering if one is more significant than the other, but the truth is that they are equally significant! Here's the quote that clarifies my statement.

“Something that looks great but is difficult to use is exemplary of great UI and poor UX. While something very usable that looks terrible is exemplary of great UX and poor UI.”

As you can see, UX and UI are inextricably linked, and while there are countless examples of fantastic products that lack one or the other, consider how much more successful they could have been if they were strong in both.

The icing on the UX cake is UI design. Imagine you've come up with a brilliant app concept; something that's plainly lacking from the market and has the potential to transform people's lives. You engage a user experience designer to do user research and assist you in determining what features your app should have and how the complete user journey should be laid out. Your software provides something that your target audience want, but when they download it, they discover that the text on each screen is hardly readable (think yellow text on a white background). Furthermore, the buttons are too close together; they keep accidentally pressing the wrong one! This is a classic example of poor judgment.

As a result, when it comes to product design, UX and UI are complementary—and in today's competitive market, having both aspects right is critical. It's beneficial to have a solid knowledge of both UX and UI design, regardless of whether you want to work as a UX or UI designer; after all, you'll unavoidably be working together.