UI and UX are perhaps some of the most confusing terms in today’s world. Most people don’t even know what they mean, much less their purpose, and that’s quite ironic.
Why, you ask?
Because from the moment we wake up to the moment we sleep, all of us are affected by both UI and UX. Let’s take a look at these two terms before taking a look at why they’re important to our everyday lives.
UX is an acronym for User Experience
Sometimes dubbed UXD, a slightly more specified term meaning User Experience Design. Our second term, UI is the shortened form of User Interface. As you may have probably realized by now, these two go hand-in-hand. They complement each other. For one to exist without the other is almost impossible. And the reason for this? Well, we’ll get to that later.
UX simply denotes a medium where better interaction between a customer and a product is achieved. UX is in part what determines how satisfied a customer is with a product.
UI focuses on a more visual approach, or rather it has a more visual impact. It simply takes a product and makes it more appealing to the customer. This, of course, is a rather simplified definition because UI entails much more.
A product must have a good UX because that is its defining structure; that is what gives the product form, direction, and purpose. That same product must also have a good UI because that is what will communicate the message to customers. This is where the two terms correlate. Ultimately, what happens is this: UX gives birth to the product and provides satisfaction to the end user while UI completes the product’s look and attracts the customer. Functionality complemented by design.
This relationship between UX and UI applies to any good product, mobile devices and apps included, which is our focus here at Dynamik Apps. It might seem counterintuitive for two things that are dependent on each other to still be so different, but that is exactly the case with UX and UI. Oh sure, they share certain similarities, but they have many differences too.
Differences Between UI and UX (Mobile Apps)
Sequence
This is simply the order in which UI and UX are integrated into the process of design. UX design comes first, because that entails building the app from scratch; all the research that will guide the development of the app. UI designs follows that, working on visual the design of the app.
Useful Interface and Beautiful Interface
UX designers have the job of developing apps that must be valuable to customers. It’s their job to do the research, the analysis, and testing, all in a bid to create something that will satisfy the need of targeted customers—a useful app with a useful and easy-to-use interface. After that, in comes the UI designer.
The UI designer’s sole purpose is to make the product more appealing. To refine it and give it a form, typography, color, and interactions compatible with the UX designer’s creation. It is the UI designer who gives beauty to the interface; life and color to all those emoji and animations we all see and enjoy.
Goals and Emotions
UX designers study people to ascertain what exactly it is people seek. They make observations and inquiries to outline the problems people are trying to tackle and the goals they aspire to achieve. They design apps based on these findings. For instance, an app that promotes awareness of animal cruelty.
The UI designer will come in and see what the UX designer has done. He or she looks at it and asks themselves, “How can I take this and turn it into something that people can connect with?” A bright or striking design will catch their attention or if it’s funny, it will make them laugh. Different designs exert different emotions from people, and the UI designer knows just the right one to spark that emotion in people.
In conclusion, to say that mobile devices have now become an integral part of our lives would be an understatement. Studies by British psychologists show that we use our phones twice as much as we think in a single day. To be more explicit, we use them for at least five hours a day; at least five times every hour we’re awake. That’s a lot of hours, and app usage takes up more than half of those hours.
So all this is caused by simple apps?
Yes, but not just any app.
Developers and designers are aware of this. They know how imperative it is to make apps that are both utilitarian and aesthetically pleasing. It’s these kinds of app that attract people the most—the colors and designs attract them while the usability keeps them hooked. It is also these kinds of apps created by Dynamik Apps that are birthed from a harmonious merger of UX and UI.
Let’s make great things happen!
Handy
