What is UI, UX?
Since the past few years, there have been a lot of talks going around UI, UX. Moreover, there has been a significant rise in the number of employment opportunities in the field of UI/UX.
But there is little awareness and education about this, and the people who enter this field, usually have to find a way on their own, because not many know or are aware of this domain.
“Why I chose this field is not mentioned here. I will be creating a new article on that. Here, I’ll be focusing on explaining what UI, UX really is.”
I too entered this field as a novice, without any theoretical or practical knowledge as such. I too figured my way out, but if I knew few things or had a few concepts sorted, my learning process would have been faster and quicker.
I sensed the difficulty people find to get a proper hang of this domain, and hence this article where I try to simplify the domain as per my understanding and with the little experience I’ve gained so far.
To understand what UI, UX is all about, we need to get some basics sorted to set the stage.
“What is UI?”
UI (User Interface) is essentially a “medium” through which a user/customer/human executes his intended task. The user sees UI as a mode of communication with a device to reach his goal.
For eg: If you want to send a text message to your friend, you’d typically follow these steps irrespective of the platform you use.
- Open your mobile device
- Go to ‘messages’
- Create a new message
- Select the recipient
- Type the message through the keyboard
- Send message
“Done. Your message is sent!”
If you visualize carefully, you have been using your phone (mobile device) for the entire duration until you send the message.
You have been using the messaging interface on your phone to achieve this task.
As per your actions, the interface has been changing for you to achieve your task of sending a message.
“In the true sense, you have been instructing your phone to achieve your task of sending a message with the help of the user interface (UI).”
“What is UX?”
UX ( User Experience) is the cumulative/total/overall experience the user gets/receives/feels throughout his interaction/communication journey with a device.
Let’s take the same example of sending a message.
The 6 steps mentioned above of sending a message has a certain order. You cannot skip steps, or reorder them.
It has a certain flow, to be precise, a user flow.
“Every time a user interacts with a UI (user interface), there is always a user flow created for the user to achieve his task. This user flow will take the user through various stages for completing his task.”
From step 1 to step 6 in the messaging example above, what the user feels throughout, is defined as the user experience.
“From where did UI, UX come from?”
“In my words, the terms UI, UX are basically the children of the daddy domain called HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) or HMI (Human-Machine Interaction).”
HCI/HMI has been there since humans have been using devices/machines to achieve their intended goals/tasks, but it never got recognition of its own until the digital age, where businesses have access to a vast and direct consumer base.
“Why is UI, UX important?”
“In today’s day and age, most of the businesses are online since consumers have access to digital technology. At such times, UI and UX become a differentiating factor for businesses since users can switch to their competitor's products any day if they aren't satisfied with the existing product, as users have multiple options to choose from.”
Important points to remember in UI, UX
- A UI forms the front-end of any app/website/device. It is what the user sees first and will always be interacting with.
- UI can be seen and touched. UX is felt and experienced.
- UI is not UX and vice versa.
- UI is a part of UX and not the entire UX.
- “Without a proper User Flow, there can never be a UX.”
- “As long as there are users and business products, UI and UX will never go out of fashion!”
So that was a brief introduction to the world of UI and UX. I hope I’ve simplified myself while explaining everything.
And I hope I’ve sent out some inspiration to future UI, UX Designers out there.
If this article resonated with you, do give some claps.
Cheers :)
