UI vs UX Designers: An Exploratory Braindump
Don’t step in the bullshit…
Let me explain before you jump down my throat…
First a bit of back story. For over 6 years I’ve designed the UX and UI for the game companion apps / websites. I’ve been through 3 releases of AAA games, several iterations, kick-offs, and reboots of apps and sites, and have straddled both sides of the isle for nearly 5 of my 6 years in my career.
Traditional Traditions
Traditionally, so I’ve been told, a team is successful when a you have one person who is focused on how the user flows through the system, the edge cases, how to test and measure your successes, and you have a completely different person unburdened by those responsibilities roaming free in the art space, making the system look and feel a certain way, dancing wildly and untamed to some Dave Matthews jam.
But I’ve been struggling with this division. Like… a lot… as long as I can remember.
This division of roles has apparently prevented me from progressing and I’ve definitely seen people interview themselves right out of a job.
“…however, we feel you’re too visually focused for this UX role…”
I think this is an outdated view, but I get the concern. If you’re good at many things, how can you be a master of one?
But, here’s where I get hung up…
How can you visualize a flow or think through a design without considering both? How can you create a layout without understanding the information architecture?
Maybe I’m too naive to understand the difference yet. Maybe I’m not experienced enough to understand that these are different roles only “because that’s the way it is” or “that’s the best way for it to be”.
Maybe I’m just a caveman lawyer. Your world frightens and confuses me!
But with the new tools and technology out there to make and use unique and groundbreaking experiences, I don’t see how you can draw the line that clearly anymore.
Unified Field Theory
Have a look at this article.
Stevie Granger goes into some detail about what the difference between the two fields are as they pertain to your company or project. He also breaks down how these two roles can’t really exist without the other.
“A UI without UX is like a painter slapping paint onto canvas without thought; while UX without UI is like the frame of a sculpture with no papier-mache on it.”
JohnUnger slices the two roles in half with minimal overlap. But I can’t really see a reason why… and I haven’t found a good reason yet.
I hate and love the image above. It visualizes how attributes that are so similar are forced into different camps to justify a need to keep things separate. Are you telling me that if I take my visual design and do user research on it I’ve transitioned from UI to UX? No. Any UI designer worth her weight in salt has her designs reviewed by peers and especially involves UR. She’s also thought about how her graphic design is going to be interacted with and how the layout affects the information architecture. Wireframes and typography and colors…
How is this not all one thing? How can you do one without the other?
The Dribbble Effect
Sites like Dribbble, Behance, and MaterialUp are amazing, but don’t really help my case. These places literally are just for artists and visual designers to share, learn, and stroke each other off (sorry for the visual).
To be clear, I’m on these sites daily. Looking for inspiration, ideas, and sometimes just designs to “borrow”.
The problem is systemic within the community of these places. These visual designers, while wildly talented, love to create UI and UX that can never exist in the real world with real content and data. Their designs are so pixel perfect that even thinking of the word “localization” makes them shit themselves.
So what’s your point, John?
Like I said at the start of this little brain dump, I could just be a naive. Maybe my six years experience being caught in the uncanny valley between UI and UX has afforded me some rare glimpse into a different dimension of reality for designers that no one can understand. But now I can’t conform to either field.
But maybe…
Maybe what I do is unique. Maybe I do this because I don’t know anything else. I think about all aspects of the design. From wireframe and prototype, to visual polish and style guide. Is that wrong? Does that mean I can never be UX because I do UI?
Why can’t it be both?
In the end…
I truly think that you can do both, successfully. Some may scoff at this, but why? Why is it so hard to see a combined role? Maybe it's fear of overlap? If the roles start blending who is the neanderthal and who is the human? Who stands to lose the most as progress moves forward? Isn’t it possible for designers to be both a UX and UI designer?
Or maybe… Maybe not. Maybe I’m full of shit.
