UI and UX or User Interface and User Experience respectively are the two key terms used by any designer when it comes to creating an effective design. It is one of the key essentials that make a great website.

What is UI/UX?

UI is a part of UX, where the latter implies the overall experience and usability. Let’s look at what UI and UX imply and their basic differences.

a. User Interface

As it points out, User interface or UI deals with human and computer interaction. It implies how a user will interpret certain designs. UI may include anything from the display screen to the appearance. Bettering UI is directly proportional to improving User Experience. Anything visual in a website or application implies UI.

Types of User Interface

• graphical user interface (GUI)
• command-line interface (CLI)
• menu-driven user interface
• touch user interface
• voice user interface (VUI)
• form-based user interface
• natural language user interface

The goal of the user interface is to produce better results through the easy, efficient, and user-friendly operation of the website and its components.

b. User Experience

User experience or UX, on the other hand, implies the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving usability, accessibility, and comfort of a website or an application.

It mainly focuses on wireframing an application and structuring all its components and elements appropriately to create the user flow.

To increase user experience, a website must provide minimal input to achieve the desired output. This helps to retain the interest of the website visitors.

Five Key Elements of UX

The five key elements of UX design are;

Strategy (Abstract)

The goal here is to define the user needs and business objectives which can be done through Strategic Research Process. The strategy implies;

• Reason for building the product
• Application or usage
• Why create
• Who are the clientele
• Why use it

Scope

It outlines the functional and content requirements of any product. For example, a functional requirement is as a media player while the content requirement is the audio file.

Structure

Structure defines how the information will be displayed on a webpage. The structure can be distinguished into Interaction Design and Information Architecture.

Skeleton

Skeleton determines how the user moves through the information, and how it should be presented to make it more effective and assertive.

Surface (Concrete)

The surface component determines how does the final product will look, the right layout, typography, colors, etc.

Importance of UI/UX Design

The human attention to the website has decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds to 2018. People have a tendency to consume more information at a little time. Also, the concept of “Above the fold” is redundant.

The importance of UI/UX Design is as follows;

i. Encourages interaction

Creating an appealing design encourages people to interact with. Developing content alone is not enough. You need to create content that people will want to interact with. This includes written content, images, advertisements and calls to action.

ii. Generates loyalty

Great experience generates loyalty. An easy to use website or app will encourage people to use it time and again. A designer will create a customer journey map (CJM) that maps a user’s entire journey through the site or app.

iii. Generates recommendations

Great experience will help influence people and grow recommendations. A great design encourages word of mouth recommendations.

iv. Reduces development costs

Following the tried and tested UI and UX methods helps to keep your development project within budget. It prevents extensive user research, prototyping, and usability testing. This ensures that development time is targeted on the areas of functionality that matter.

v. Reduces internal costs

UX design is end-user focused from the outset. That concentrates design and development effort on what users want, not on what developers think they want. As well as saving money on development costs, it stops businesses from wasting internal resources.

vi. Increases profits

Great designs always help to generate interaction and conversions. It has been proven that 75 percent of people judges an app or website on its aesthetic design.  People are more likely to buy from a well-designed website or app than they are from an unappealing one.

What is the purpose of UX Design?

User Experience encompasses the entire user journey. The purpose of UX is to incorporate research and context into a design to greatly increase the user experience. Creating a user-centered design is an iterative process where you take an understanding of the users and their context as a starting point of the design.

Hierarchy of UX Design

• Skeleton
• Interface design
• Navigation design
• Information design
  • Structure
  • Interaction design
  • Information architecture
    • Scope
    • Functional Specs
    • Content Requirements
      • Strategy
      • User needs
      • Site Objectives

What is the purpose of UI Design?

The purpose of the user interface is to provide minimal input to achieve the desired output. Some of the basic facts about implementing UI are as follows;

Usability – Is the design of the system easy and simple to use? The application or website should feel familiar, and it should be easy to use.

Useful –Does the application fulfill a need? A business’s product or service needs to be useful.

Desirable –The aesthetics of the system should be attractive, and easy to translate.

Findable –Information needs to be findable and simple to navigate. A user should never have to search for the information.

Accessible –Does the application support enlarged text without breaking the framework? An application should be accessible to those with disabilities.

Credible –An application should be transparent, secure, and honest.

What are the most important aspects that the UX designer play?

UX designer plays a vital role in the development process to create a usable design. Here are some of the importance of UX development.

a. User Research

Creating a great experience always begins with user research -gaining empathy for the users. A UX designer can make better decisions about information architecture and solving usability issues.

b. Information Architecture

Information architecture helps a designer by providing detail on the organization, structure, and labeling of content.

c. Interaction Design

Interaction focuses on the behavior of a product or service. A designer uses Interaction design to convey content and meaning to their products.

d. Visual Design

The visual design engages the user by drawing the eye to the correct functionality on the page. A designer uses visual design to ensure a user-interface is de-cluttered by having appropriate contrast, alignment, and repetition.

e. Usability Evaluation

Usability evaluation helps to understand how to design an experiment, log the insights and data from the experiment, and analyze the data to measure usability.

f. Interface Prototyping

Interface prototyping enables the designer to express ideas freely and visually. Prototyping allows the designer to create a concept that everyone can look at and offer their feedback.

g. UX Leadership

UX leadership helps initiate UX practices, motivation, provides UX guidance, confidence and most importantly, builds morale throughout your UX team.

h. Technical writing

Technical writing incorporates expressing complex ideas concisely. It helps to sell your design and explain how to best use your design.

Importance of UI/UX Development

As pointed above, UI and UX development are the key features of any design development. Whether a mobile app or a desktop website, conveying your design to your users has become the foremost priority. These features highlight the importance of UI/UX development.

User satisfaction should always be the goal of any development process. The implementation of UI and UX Design helps to win the consumers’ confidence and make them use your application or website. It also helps to bring more users through referral or good word-of-mouth. The number of consumers you are getting on your website/application can measure the success of the great UI and UX.

Searchable Design is a premier web design company specializing in the best UI/UX development in Des Moines. Get in touch with us to hire the best UI/UX developer in Des Moines.