If you go now to any job site or one of the freelancing sites, you will find hundreds of jobs about UI/UX, and these jobs are constantly increasing.
Despite that, you find many people do not know what the difference between UI and UX, perhaps, the most that someone knows is that UI is an abbreviation for User Interface and UX is an abbreviation for User Experience.
If you ask them about the difference between them, they will not know the answer. That is why if you are:
- Someone interested in design in general.
- A beginner in the field of graphic design.
- Someone who is looking for ways to profit from different graphic design.
- An entrepreneur who wants to implement his project idea professionally.
You are in the right place, because here you will not only find a detailed answer on what is the difference between UI and UX but you will also learn:
- What is user interface (UI) design
- What skills does a user interface designer need
- What is User Experience Design (UX)
- What skills does a user experience designer need
- The most important resources you need to become a professional UI/UX designer.
User Interface Design UI:
Have you ever dealt with DOS (that black window in any computer to type some commands in order to make the computer perform a certain task such as opening and modifying files…etc)?
If you did; what is the difference between that system and Windows? I think you would agree with me that the difference between them is ease and beauty of design and nothing else.
Both perform almost the same tasks, but the difference is that the first makes you type some commands in an orderly manner – which you must know well without any error and in a specific order, and the second makes you do the same thing, but by several clicks of the mouse while you see with your own eyes the changes you are making.
The comparison between DOS and Windows is an example of the development of user interfaces… From the invention of the first computer to the present day, where there are hundreds of types of computer devices that perform different tasks.
For this we can say that the user interface (User Interface) is: the way in which the user interacts with any computer system that requires some input to perform a particular task.
The printer screen with some menus and labels is a user interface, it’s the way for anyone to decide what jobs are required of the printer.
The same applies to the user interface found in smart watches, phones, personal computers, ATMs, medical analysis tools, and many other devices that are difficult to enumerate.
After you know what the user interface is, and know that it is related to the way we interact with digital devices and their various applications, let’s define the process of user interface design.
What is user interface design?
User interface design is the process that designers rely on in terms of choosing the style, shapes, colors, and icons to design the user interface of a particular computer program or device.
UI designers seek to build interfaces that enable the user to use any application, program or tool easily, and at the same time make him enjoy his time while using it.
That is why there is a continuous development in the various applications and programs that we rely on; Designers always want to improve the user interface and make it simpler to work with.
As we gave an example on Windows, we can also talk about the best design programs such as Adobe International programs… If you compare the Photoshop program in 2012 and today, you will find many changes in the shape and design, and all this with the aim of facilitating the use of the program.
One of the most important and most famous types of user interfaces is the graphical user interfaces (GUI), in which the user deals with visual control panels.
All the examples I gave you previously (Windows – digital clocks – printing machines) are examples of graphical user interfaces. We humans prefer visual handling of things.
There are other types of user interfaces such as:
- Voice-controlled interfaces – VUEs, in which different applications are handled by voice such as Siri and Google Assistant.
- Gesture-based user interfaces, such as virtual reality games and various 3D games.
