UI vs UX : Two Halves to a Whole

Each and every one of us is a consumer. Whether its food, water, energy, products, services, you name it. Little do most of us realize is that there are, at a minimum, two processes going on throughout the utilization of these resources. In 2018, majority of use cases deal with some sort of user interface.

The user interface is the space where the interactions between human and machine occur.

I like to think of it as The Pretty ,The Stylish, The Sexy and The Interesting. The UI (User Interface)is the series of screens, pages, buttons, visual elements and icons that we use to interact with a device.

On the other hand, the UX (User Experience) is a term that was coined by the Cognitive Scientist Don Norman and he said that it “Encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”. Which is the perfect definition to what it is. It is the summation of your experience with a company’s brand, not just the experience associated with a singular product or service.

Norman stated that the

The first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products that are a joy to own, a joy to use.

This speaks volumes as to why the user experience is such a deal breaker and why some products make it and most don’t. They don’t stick to this model above all other things.

Let’s take a look at an example of bad UI. First is Lotus Notes:

Lotus Notes is a very old software from the late 80’s, early 90’s that was used until as late as 2006 to do a number of office related tasks. Just the initial sight of this software gives me the impression that it will be a burden to understand and getting it to work. Turns out that this software doesn’t just look like a burden but it ended up being a burden to use anyway. It wasn’t intuitive, it didn’t recognize hotkey conventions and it was seen as an example of what not to do when developing software. The consensus on user experience with Lotus Notes just wasn’t very high.

Here’s an example of a very good UI. Google.com.

Here we have the most popular and one of the simplest UI’s to ever touch the internet. Google.com only has a logo, search bar and two buttons. Very simplistic, very easy to use and figure out, very appealing to the eyes and the mind. With a simple string typed in, you’ll get every relevant page of the digitized internet with just a click. Thats where this UI becomes one of the heavyweights. It gives the end user exactly what they came to the site for. Nothing more or less, just the most relevant answer it could find. More often than not, its is very much correct with the returned results.

Powerful user interfaces like Google.com can translate into more than just millions of page visits a day, it will translate into a great user experience and in the long run more revenue, simply because you have a positive disposition about your user experience with the Google brand. So when they release new software like their own browser or their own smart phones, you’re more inclined to indulge and support those products and service just off the strength that you feel you can rely on them to give you a great user experience.

UX isn’t limited to the visual interface of your product. It’s a concept that has many dimensions and encompasses the entire journey a person takes, including:

• The process they go through to discover your company’s product
• The sequence of actions they take as they interact with the interface
• The thoughts and feelings that arise as they try to accomplish their task
• The impressions they take away from the interaction as a whole

When creating your own applications, you must take on the mindset of the user. How exactly do you want them to feel when looking at and using your applications and products. That may be the difference between a bad application or a great one.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 286,184+ people.

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