The acronyms unveiled- UI/UX Design

Designing is a very broad term used nowadays, whether it be Graphic Designing, Fashion Designing, Interior Designing, Product Designing or any other. Designing is evolving at a very high pace and is at a boom, in terms of skills. And UI/UX Designing is the front foot of design roles. In the coming period, it would top the list of job requirements as well as in freelancing, since it is most responsible for customer gathering and attraction.

| Separating UI/UX Designing

Generally, both terms are confused and treated as they both mean the same. To be very clear, UI stands for ‘User Interface’ and UX is ‘User Experience’, hence they are a very different aspect of designing. They have distinct processes for their implementation. UX and UI go together to form coherent and beautiful experiences.

“User Experience is a journey and User Interface is the destination for the journey.”

| UX is User Experience

As the name says, UX is what the user experiences in the product or the application. Designing doesn't mean just to make things visually good, but the most important aspect of designing is problem-solving.

UX is multi-step strategic design process, so that customer /user, find easy to use and quickly understand the flow of the application. It is about how something looks, feels and works well. It is the one to decide the workflow and handles the procedural part of the application. It is responsible to make the application reliable, it just doesn’t deal with the aesthetics.

User Experience is based on User Research, which involves a strategy for customer and competitor analysis, testing, prototyping, planning, and iteration. It also deals with analytics and execution, like coordination with Developer(s) and UI designer(s), Tracking Goals, Integration, etc.-

| Key points in UX designing:-

• Business Goals analysis and technical specifications
• Competitive analysis Reports
• Crafting of personas and UX research
• Sitemap and Information Architecture
• Experience maps, user journey, and user flows
• Sketches and Wireframe
• Mockups and Interaction Design
• Interactive Prototype
• Usability Testing
• Visual Design

| UI is User Interface

‘It is like a joke if you have to explain it, it's not that good’

UI is basically the graphical layout of the application, through which the customer or the end user would interact with the product. The most important aspect of UI designing should be that it should be intuitive. For instance, when we compare Apple and Samsung, Apple is more preferable as it is more intuitive since it is more soothing, simple and has a consistent look and feel.

UI is concerned with the aesthetics and beauty of the product. It is responsible for the attractive and interactive nature of the application. In interface designing, the interface experience should feel like there’s a human on the other end, not a computer.

It deals with the screen layout, transitions, interface animations, and even single micro-interaction. It decides the color schemes and typography. It is mostly concerned with the look, feel, responsiveness and interactivity.

| Key points in UI Designing:

• Branding and Graphic Development
• User Guides/ Storyline
• Customer analysis
• Design Research
• Adaptation to all screen sizes
• Interactivity and Animation
• UI Prototyping

|Summing up

“ I strive for two things in design: Simplicity and Clarity, Great Design is born of those two things ” — Lindon Leader