These two terms are often used together, but also mixed up. Yet they are two different concepts. They are trendy words that have a lot of meaning within tech companies. What the two terms mean and why they are essential for your brand can be read here.
What UX and UI have in common is that they both affect customer experience. The terms stand for User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI). The moment a visitor views your website, they are traveling some kind of route. So visiting your site is a digital experience. Here we speak of Experience and Interface.
What is User Experience (UX)?
So in English, the term translates to user experience. We also speak of customer experience because we kind of assume that a visitor is going to become a customer. These days, people often refer to UX design. So the design of your website should be completely geared toward the customer experience.
Sebastian Smeenk
Business developer
By the way, the term UX does not refer only to digital environments. After all, the whole idea of UX is the customer’s experience, this is also applicable in a physical environment. Consider restaurant or retail chains, for example. Have you ever noticed that you can have the same customer experience, in different places around the world? Your visit to a large furniture store in Stockholm not much different from a similar visit in Amsterdam? Right, that’s because of good UX design!
The term UX design was first used in the 1990s by Don Norman, a cognitive scientist and founder of Nielsen Norman Group Design Consultancy. It was described as “a process involving all aspects of interaction between an end user and a company’s products/services.” A mouthful, but clear.
In the digital world, UX is almost unimaginable. About the same time the term was invented, the tech industry took off. Think of the famous dotcom bubble. Ever seen a website from 20 years ago? It almost seemed as if customer experience had been totally omitted. Nothing seemed logically arranged and the design was terrible. It just goes to show how far we have come with technology.
What does UX design consist of?
A good UX designer thinks about the customer’s experience. A visitor to your site walks down a digital corridor, so to speak. It’s like visiting your digital store. This route is thought out and designed by the UX designer. The customer experience should be as easy and smooth as possible.
Consider the simple functions of a website: what’s on the landing page, where to find the assortment, how does the checkout process work? Everything should proceed in chronological order and be well organized. In addition, the design of your site must also be good. Do the colors match, is there some sort of house style, are there not too many ads?
So designing a website using UX is a real expertise. Often UX designers need a few years of experience to make Web sites truly customer-friendly. It is not a matter of using a standard website template. This is something scholars can do for their Internet blog, but a company with a brand needs its own design. So here, UX design is very important.
What is User Interface (UI)?
The term User Interface also focuses on the customer experience, but the implementation is slightly different. The term “Interface” doesn’t really translate into Dutch. It can therefore refer to several things.
Interface can refer to what the customer sees and feels. It is literally what the customer experiences when he or she sits at the controls of your website. You can think of it as follows: UX is a general term, describing the entire customer process from A to Z. It is the route the customer takes. With UI, the focus is more on the small details of the image. The buttons customers can click on. How your brand’s logo comes out. Whether the mobile browser works properly and smoothly. So the X of Experience is about the overall experience, the I of Interface is about the image the customer sees.
In the concept of UI, we speak exclusively of the digital experience. As mentioned earlier, UX can also refer to a physical environment such as a store. This is not the case with UI, which is a term used only for digital environments.
Often UI designers have a background in graphics, working a lot with colors, corporate identities and logos. The look, feel and interactivity with a product are important aspects a UI designer should think about. It’s all about making the digital experience of a product or website feel nice. Products should stand out as much as possible, almost jumping off the screen. As if the customer were literally in a store.
What are the main differences between UX and UI?
The idea behind UX design is to walk a trail, while UI design defines the look of the walk. A marketing agency starts with a roadmap of sorts. A roadmap of, say, six phases that the customer goes through. This is the route, with a number of intermediate stops. Once this is well worked out, then comes the UI design.
Often companies already have a certain corporate identity. Think about the colors of a logo, or the look of the products you sell. Based on this, a UI designer can create a design. This way, your brand will stand out on your website. It is critical that this be designed by an experienced UI designer. After all, a website is your company’s signboard and business card. Without good design, a company misses out on a lot of sales.
A UX designer ensures that a website visit runs smoothly in broad terms. When opening the home page, it should be immediately clear where the customer should go. For example, is it immediately easy to see where the assortment is located, or is there a search bar at the top? This requires a kind of psychological empathy. Everything should be logical and easy to find.
While a UX designer works with logic, a UI designer goes more by feel. A customer has to get a certain feeling about a site. Just think about the use of colors. Using certain colors is also a kind of psychology, but plays more into customers’ feelings. Blue radiates a different emotion out than red: one represents confidence and strength, the other fun and revival. This all plays into the customer’s feelings. Think hard about the brands you know. What emotion does a particular color evoke in you? In the subconscious mind, this does more than you think!
How do I ensure good UX and UI?
Do you have to come up with all this yourself? It certainly doesn’t hurt to give this some thought. Just try to think about what your brand should convey. Quality, durability or just fun? These three terms are all important and have much in common. Yet they are three different emotions.
You may be wondering: can’t my brand exude all three? You certainly can, but you choose one of three colors. Is quality the most important attribute? Choose blue. Is sustainability right on the mark? Then green is a good color. On the contrary, for a pleasant image, yellow is better. Using two colors is also possible in some cases, but this should be carefully considered.
Thinking about this is already a good start. A complete website design is best outsourced. It is an investment that always pays off. As mentioned, UX and UI are quite specialized fields of work, involving knowledge and experience. They are processes in which many elements come together.
More importantly, they must be aligned. The terms UX and UI are different, but they cannot exist without each other. Hiring a graphic designer who can only design is not enough. The psychology behind a digital walking route requires a certain kind of knowledge.
About Dusver
As a digital design agency, Dusver specializes in UX and UI design. All of our clients’ websites are subject to a clearly thought out process. We work with a concrete step-by-step plan, always taking into account the client’s wishes.
Here the focus is on the customers’ experience. After all, this is what your company hires us for: more growth, more conversion, more customer satisfaction. We give honest advice, putting the customer experience first.
If you are curious about the current UX and UI design of your website, we can also be of service. We do what we call a ‘Quick Scan‘ where we take a close look at your website. That way, you know immediately how your brand scores.
Curious about the possibilities? Contact us with no obligation and we’ll stop by for coffee!
