What’s the Difference Between UI and UX?

Nowadays, the term UI and more recently, UX, are commonly used in the web designing industry although many people often wonder whether they really mean two different things. Yes, there is a big difference between the two.

Putting it simply, the UI (User Interface) provides the front screens for a website while the UX (User Experience) provides the feeling or experience to the user during site navigation. Let us look at both these web designing areas in more detail.

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Description of UI and UX with an Example

UI is one element of a website that enables interaction between human users and computers. Taking an example of a web page that has forms, the series of buttons that presents options to the user forms the UI. When the user clicks a button and it is displayed in 3-D as if it were really pressed down, now that’s UX. It is the entire package that makes the user feel good about the website. The best policy for web designers is to incorporate the best of UI and UX, taking advantage of their differences to enhance user interactions.

Application of UX to Business

Website owners can apply UX to get their message across to users and make a convincing call to action such as buying a product online or sharing content on social networks. The aim is to attach emotion to a product; this can be achieved by first creating a good feeling about the website and then extending the same feeling to the products. Instead of simply displaying product catalogs, website owners can give examples and tips to users on how those products can enrich their lives. Businesses focusing on UX can positively influence user emotions after having visited their websites.

Sample Websites with Excellent UX

Some websites that have given sufficient thought and creative focus to UX are ZenDesk, Basecamp and MailChimp. User-friendly features include assisting the user at every step of site navigation and using colors pleasing to the eye. The sounds, visuals and content of these websites all come together to create an excellent end result.

Relationship Between UI and UX Designing Teams

UI and UX need to be taken care of by separate designers since they have unique focus and principles. While UX spans the entire web application from beginning to end, it won’t work well without a good UI to back it up. Business owners need to hire good UI and UX designers and encourage close coordination between both teams in order to come up with clean, simple and effective websites.

To sum up the differences between UI and UX, they provide functionality and feeling to a website respectively. A website that is fun and easy to use requires designers to strike the right balance between these two areas. As the web grows and new applications are created in the coming years, the divide between UI and UX needs give way to constructive collaboration so that users feel like associating with the website, the company and its products