User Experience (UE) and User Interface (UI) are two of the most crucial aspects of the contemporary landscape of web designing. Many people tend to consider UX and UI design to be the same thing, but so is not the case. This article aims to define both of these integral design elements while mentioning their core differences.

The term “User Experience” was coined by Don Norman, the co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group Design Consultancy. He described UX to encompass all aspects of the interaction of the end-users with a company, as well as their product and/or services. As per his definition, UX design would include any and all interactions between an active or potential customer and a company, irrespective of the medium.

US design involves the process of creating products that offer relevant and meaningful experiences to the users. It largely includes the research and analysis of various customer-related information, organization of the content and its sorting, so that the users can swiftly find what they are looking for. When it comes to web designing, the key goal of UX design tends to be to create a digital product that the user feels comfortable with. UX design aims at solving the problems of the users as well, while being in compliance with its important technical and business specifications.

While user experience can be considered to be a conglomeration of tasks that are focused on the optimization of a product for enjoyable and effective use, user interface design essentially is its complement. It encompasses the look, feel presentation and interactivity of a digital product. Unlike UX, UI design is a strictly digital term. A user interface largely involves the point of interaction between the user and a product.

UI design process includes making computerized device or software interfaces, with a prime focus on style and looks. UI design can play a major role in making the achievement of user goals highly aesthetically pleasing owing to the creativity of the UX designer. Hence, one can consider UI to be a part of UX in the digital product development process. The UI design, however, is majorly oriented on the how of user experience. The key goal of UI design is to guide the user visually through the interface of a product. It includes the creation of an intuitive experience that does not require the users to give much thought.

Rahul Varshney, the co-creator of Foster.fm highlights the relation and difference between UX and UI with a good analogy. He mentions that a UI without UX is much like a painter slapping paint on a canvas without any thought, while UX sans UI would be like a frame of a sculpture without any paper mache on it. He mentions the fact that a great product experience starts with UX followed by UI, and both of them are important to the success of a digital product.

Here are some core differences between the elements of UX and UI design:

• While UX design largely involves identifying and solving the problems of the users, UI designing majorly involves creating intuitive, interactive and aesthetically pleasing interfaces.
• The element of UX design comes first in the process of product development and is followed by UI designing. The UX design professionals typically map out the bare bones of the journey of the users, while the UI designer subsequently fills it with the necessary interactive and visual elements.
• While UX can ideally be applicable to any type of service, experience or product, UI is only specific to digital experiences and products.

When it comes to web designing and digital product development, UX and UI can be considered to be largely inseparable and interdependent on one another.

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