User experience and user interface are commonly used terms when it comes to websites and app design. They are placed together under a single umbrella and often viewed from the surface when it comes to describing the same thing.
It can often become challenging to find a solid description of the two but the truth is that they are both two sides of the same coin. UX is essentially how a product feels and UI is mostly about how a product looks.
UI design is also known as user interface design and UX design stands for user experience design. UI is how something looks and how you interact with it while UX is how something works in its essence.
In this blog, we will understand the fundamentals of UI/UX design and why it matters.
What is UI/UX Design?
Before you go ahead with understanding the basics of UI/UX, it makes absolute sense to gain a foundation of all definitions. The term “users” forms the foundation of UI/UX. A user is essentially someone who uses or interacts with a product, service, or digital interface.
User experience is the overall experience of users when they interact with a product. It refers to the emotional experience or connection that a user can establish when engaging with a product. When combined, a good user experience can affect a user’s perception and experience with a brand. Understanding the needs, goals, and challenges of users is important for designing a positive user experience.
The user interface is considered a part of UX as it focuses on designing interfaces that can often lead to an improved overall experience for the user. When compared to UX, UI takes a technical approach to how people interact with digital interfaces. UI creates a graphic and visual design along with interaction design and information architecture.
A good quality interface design is dependent on the ability of the designer to understand the needs of the users and also build pathways that can allow people to get where they are aiming. Users are at the center of UI/UX and this forms the core principle of UI/UX design.
Principle of UI/UX Design:
Even though this list is not extensive by any means, UI/UX can be understood as a principle of empathy, usability, strategy, and inclusivity.
- Empathy: Empathy forms the centre of UI/UX design. It places the user at the centre of design and also seeks to understand the problems of users while using a product or a service.
A designer can take into consideration the common expectations that most users have when they use a product. Following a user-centered approach, the ability to think from a person’s point of view, and understand the relationships makes a user journey map important for empathetic design. - Strategy: Designing the perfect solutions for difficult problems can often prove challenging but the design processes of UX are often iterative. Hence, it is important to create a well-defined plan and goal before beginning a project.A well-made design strategy is capable of highlighting the objectives including the chosen research methods, design solution, user interview approach, testing system, and success for user and business. Designers must understand this during different stages of designing.
- Usability: Design must also be invisible and intuitive at the same time. The process must be simple and easy so that the best usability can be established.In addition, a good user experience also ensures the usability of something by people belonging to all ages and backgrounds. Ensuring that a product becomes intuitive is at the centre of a usable product.
- Inclusivity: Inclusion can be defined as something that requires to be worked into a design from the beginning and not as an afterthought. Even though it may not always be possible to include everyone, the designers must strive to account for the significant needs of people coming from all backgrounds.Incorporating the experiences and needs of marginalized and creating a solution for their people is an exemplary method. Ensuring an inclusive design has a lot to do with the needs of users who may experience exclusion otherwise. The inclusion of these people becomes important because there is a risk of excluding them unintentionally.
- Validation: The users are an important part of the design process and the success of a design can be verified by user testing. An important part of UX design is to test your design solutions with the users of the product.The right feedback can improve the design because it helps in serving as a guarantee that products will always be useful. A product is never really finished even after it gets released because of the simple fact that people are dynamic. Designers must strive to test and ensure that product design stays relevant.
The iteration in UI/UX process enables continuous improvement and also takes the benefits of iteration. A product or a service doesn’t just stop improving when it gets released. Based on business goals, user requirements, market trends, and technological advances, a product can go through a repeatable design process. All iterations can be helpful in finding new opportunities for continuous testing and product improvisation.
Why Does UI/UX Matter?
UI/UX Design makes a big difference for a company for many reasons and these reasons are not abstract but quite competitive. To begin with, UX design can optimize conversion rates that you can achieve through digital assets.
The reasons why UI/UX design matters are mentioned below.
- Improved Online Engagement: It helps in improving online engagement with users of your website or an application. People can interact in an easy and effective manner with a digital product as they are likely to refer to it more often.
- Online Performance: UI/UX design can improve the performance of an online platform when it comes to SEO. Good usability ensures that your website ranks better in the searches and is also quickly discoverable.
- Online Reputation: Good quality UI/UX design also builds the online reputation of a brand while increasing a user’s trust in it. Customer satisfaction can improve when people interact easily with digital assets. Moreover, efficiency also contributes to better opinions.
- Customer Acquisition and Retention: UI/UX design is capable of improving customer acquisition and retention levels as well. This essentially means that customers get attracted to a brand and stay with it for a long period of time.
UI/UX improves the overall ROI of all possible digital efforts. You can easily achieve the best with digital products and integrate UX design thinking into each of them.
Conclusion:
It can be simple to get caught up in technicalities and UI/UX processes as a good designer because you can remind yourself of the important principles of UX design. UI/UX is about improving the quality of life of people.
A good UI/UX designer has the potential to solve complex problems of the world in all industries. It can make a long-lasting impact on the lives of people when designers know the right principles. If you are also interested to become a capable UI/UX designer, pursue the four-year Bachelor of Design in User Experience at Chitkara University.
