UI design and UX design are two of the most often confused and conflated terms in web and app design. And understandably so. They’re usually placed together in a single term, UI/UX design, and viewed from the surface they seem to be describing the same thing. It’s often hard to find solid descriptions of the two that don’t descend too far into jargon. But fear not!
UX/UI Design plays an essential role in achieving this goal. The UX/UI Design of the application improves the user experience and customer satisfaction that ultimately helps increase the number of users of the specific application.
With users having lots of choices and alternatives for the products and/ or services you are offering them, the span of time you get to grab the attention of your users is quite less and you have to hit the bullseye in this short span of time.
The UI and UX Design help to win the consumers’ confidence and make them use your application or website providing them what they are looking for. The number of consumers you are getting on your website/application can measure the success of the great UI and UX.
For a start-up or a small venture, the importance of UI and UX Design becomes even more crucial as the first impression lasts long and using UI and UX designing can make or break the brand recognition.
After following this resource what you will learn.
Summary of what learn to get started.
The “UI” in UI design stands for “user interface.” The user interface is the graphical layout of an application. It consists of the buttons users click on, the text they read, the images, sliders, text entry fields, and all the rest of the items the user interacts with. This includes screen layout, transitions, interface animations and every single micro-interaction. Any sort of visual element, interaction, or animation must all be designed. This job falls to UI designers. They decide what the application is going to look like. They have to choose color schemes and button shapes — the width of lines and the fonts used for text. UI designers create the look and feel of an application’s user interface.
“UX” stands for “user experience.” A user’s experience of the app is determined by how they interact with it. Is the experience smooth and intuitive or clunky and confusing? Does navigating the app feel logical or does it feel arbitrary? Does interacting with the app give people the sense that they’re efficiently accomplishing the tasks they set out to achieve or does it feel like a struggle? User experience is determined by how easy or difficult it is to interact with the user interface elements that the UI designers have created.
So UX designers are also concerned with an application’s user interface, and this is why people get confused about the difference between the two. But whereas UI designers are tasked with deciding how the user interface will look, UX designers are in charge of determining how the user interface operates.
They determine the structure of the interface and the functionality. How it’s organized and how all the parts relate to one another. In short, they design how the interface works. If it works well and feels seamless, the user will have a good experience. But if navigation is complicated or unintuitive, then a lousy user experience is likely. UX designers work to avoid the second scenario.
Research is vital for both UI and UX designers. It’s important for both disciplines to gather as much good information as possible to assist them in crafting appropriate designs, and both follow a similar approach. Both will research what users want. What they expect from applications of the sort being developed. This research is often iterative, involving usability sessions, where real users will interact with scaled versions of certain functionality or visual designs being tested to determine whether the designers are moving down the proper path. Feedback is integrated with each iteration. This process involves generating low fidelity prototypes, like wireframe renderings of interface elements in order to gauge a user’s response strictly to the functionality being tested. This can also involve fast visual prototypes and A/B tests of different possible versions of the look and feel of the interface to determine which one users prefer.
UI designers need to make sure the visual language they choose fits the class of application they’re writing. They’re trying to predict user expectations. If your team is designing a travel app, it’s important to research how other travel apps have been developed in the past. Which ones worked? Which ones didn’t? There are design lessons to be learned from the work others have done before.
Research might indicate that people prefer outlined icons instead of bold shapes. This is a visual shorthand that people are comfortable with and enjoy. UI designers would then do well to incorporate that lesson.
The exact aesthetic they choose is up to them, but the basic “rules,” or the need to conform to user expectations, is something designers ignore at their own risk.
Not to say risks shouldn’t be taken. UI designers want their interface designs to stand out and be memorable. But this must be balanced against making sure people recognize the purpose of the elements you’re placing on screen.
UX design is particularly interested in user expectations. All of the experiences and interactions that users have had with every application they’ve used in their lives have helped set their expectations for how interfaces are supposed to work. If a UX designer isn’t intimately familiar with these expectations, they could inadvertently design an interface interaction that seems logical to them but breaks commonly accepted conventions. Users don’t like when an interface behaves very differently than they were expecting, and this could negatively impact their experience.
The experience of a user on a website is arguably the most important part of any successful design—which means it’s important that you understand the main principles of UX design.
UX design focuses on creating a delightful experience through meeting user needs and wants, as well as through user psychology.
Understanding why users perform certain actions and what makes them continue using a site (or abandoning that site) is key to creating a digital product that meets user needs as well as business goals.
Luckily, there are plenty of affordable (and free) UX tutorials, courses, and resources all at your disposal as well as tons of books on UX. A good place to start is with Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think. Krug is widely regarded as the godfather of UX design.
“Watching tutorials is a smart addition to your learning process. Just remember it’s not all about learning colour theories, or UI patterns—tutorials on how to train your mind to think like a UX designer and understanding user’s needs are also key.” — Bojan Novakovic, Self-taught UI/UX designer
Learning the basic principles of design will only take you so far. To really take your skills to the next level, practice studying the designs of websites and mobile apps you love with a critical eye.
Next time you see a website you love, for example, take a few minutes to analyze what about it works so well for you. Is it the colour palette? The interaction design? The typography?
Look at every part of the design: the spacing between elements, the grid the site is designed on, the visual hierarchy of the site, and even the specific images and icons used
Next, you’re going to want to invest in UI/UX software to start bringing your designs to life and start applying what you’ve learned so far.
There are plenty of great tools available on the market, but we suggest trying out a few industry stalwarts such as Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD to get a feel for which you prefer.
Here’s a quick rundown of what each software has to offer:
Bottom line is, there’s no one right tool for UI/UX designers. It’s really up to you to decide which software feels most intuitive and user friendly to you.
Reading books and articles or watching design tutorials will only get you so far. What you really need to do to become proficient at UI/UX is actually design digital products and start accumulating a solid body of work.
At this point you might be asking yourself—how do I build a portfolio of work without any real-world experience?
If you’re starting from scratch, we highly recommend downloading some free UI kits (or user interface kits) to help get your designs started. A UI kit is a set of pre-made design components containing essential visual elements for a specific UI design (think buttons, icons, fonts, menus, etc.).
Use these UI kits to design your own website or mobile app for starters. But also consider doing redesigns of existing sites. Pick some of your favourite websites and explore how you could redesign them to look and function even better.
Contrary to popular belief, negative feedback can actually be much more useful than positive feedback. It can help you grow as a designer, level up your skills, and create better products.
Learn to seek and embrace negative feedback and use it as fuel to improve your designs. Post your work on Dribbble and ask for constructive criticism—the community is here to help.
In the end, negative feedback can be one of the most positive things that can happen in your design career. Just remember, you don’t need to overhaul all of your skills overnight. Trying to become one per cent better every day will bring steady progress to success.
https://theymakedesign.com/top-ui-ux-design-inspiration-99-e1a9712744e2
https://www.behance.net/gallery/73751929/Top-UI-UX-Design-for-Inspiration-1
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UI Design Works for Inspiration - mobile, web, apps, iOS -November 2021
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