A walkthrough into the terms UX and UI

UX, User Experience design. Well, I would have started this post by saying UX is defined as the process of… or this term was first introduced…, so and so, but that would only puzzle you more. I don’t want you to give this post a skim and move on to another website to learn about UX just because the definition given here sounds boring (I personally did that while digging for the content). That’s why I want your complete satisfaction and full understanding into every single line I have written. Even the term UX conveys the same idea.

As a presenter, you have to think differently considering the fact that the visitors doesn’t even care how much resourceful the website is, or the content they are looking at. If they don’t like it, they just don’t like it, there is no second thought into this. I said that because once the damage is done there is no way of undoing it, by the time you realize the mistake, your website might have already lost so many returning visitors. 

So what’s the catch, how to get it all done right, obviously the answer lies with the term UX- User Experience Design.

What does this User Experience Design stand for?

UX is a general term that refers to the level of experience a user perceives while using any particular product or item in the real world or virtually (online). By bringing UX into designing, User Experience Design provides the visitors of any website easy accessibility of the product and further establish a certain level of trust and satisfaction, thereby building the brand value for the particular business.

Complementing the User Experience Design, there is another term related to UXD called the User Interface Design (UID). You put both the terms together and your mind will go boom, all that you understood about UXD will go blank and you may thing, “what is this UID then? Is it a synonym to UXD? The answer it’s no. UID is the graphical user interface or the actual skin over the User Experience Design that provides the interaction between the user and the computer system or whatever you are relating to. UI design is usually built over or above the UX design. UI design allows the users to navigate and interface by the use of input devices like keyboard, mouse, touch and toggle between different display sizes.

The idea behind UX design is to provide experience to the users up to their satisfaction that will create an impact on the user’s mind and portray the brand value.

Let’s take an example of a shopping website (say Amazon). When you open the website, whatever appears in front of you is the UI design. You can easily spot out everything, the interface speaks by itself, with just one mouse scroll you can understand where to look for and with the next few clicks you reach the desired product. 

Concerning the UX: Before you add the product to cart, you have the freedom to check if the same product is offered by someone else at a lower price. After the product is added to cart, you have the choice to further lower the price by applying coupons or promo codes and even at the time of payment you can switch between Credit/Debit/COD and other payment options available. You know that’s not all you can even avail other benefits like in-a-day delivery at an extra cost, the product tracking system is a plus. All this counts to the UXD, but if you think User Experience Design is just related to web designing, then you are wrong because UXD can be applied to any B2C (business-to-customer) item.

The pen you use in your daily life to write has an outer body that reflects its UI because when you go to the stationary shop, from the wide variety of pens, you try to find a good looking pen within your budget. The tip of the pen is your UX, because even if the pen looks good, you always first test the pen on a rough paper to check the flow of the ink and feel the smooth experience, and only then you go forward to buy it.

Good UI but Bad UX: If an e-commerce website has a very attractive look but the customer is facing problem adding a particular product to cart or on the payments page there is no option for cash on delivery, the tracking system is not real-time or the lack of basic functionality like slow delivery service. I am afraid it’s all going to result in a poor user experience along with the loss of a very good and returning customer.

Good UX but Bad UI: An e-commerce website has all top of the products in their catalogue and they offer very good services, but if their website navigation interface looks old fashioned with a badly managed homepage, the visitors will come to site and then leave immediately. They will never come to know the experience and services being offered.

Always remember user experience is how it feels and user interface is how it looks. So in order to get the things go right, you need both UX and UI done right.

What role do the UX designer play?

UX designers are usually researchers who are responsible for understanding the customer needs. They analyze the results of their competitors, conduct customer surveys, feedback on their existing services and utilize the obtained data to create rough plans generally in the form of wireframes.

These wireframes are again passed into various test procedures so that the final implementation meets up to customer satisfaction.

Based on the wireframes of the UX design, the UI designers prepare their web interface design accordingly and the web developers code that into the UI design.

Ah! With that we have reached the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed reading every single bit of it. Please leave a comment below because your one valuable feedback can help me do better the next time. If you have something to add or correct, again just comment and do let me know the user experience you had.