Top 5 Differences between UI and UX Designer
UI and UX design seem like they are the same thing, but they are different. UX design focuses more on the functionality of an app, website or software. On the other hand, UI mostly focuses on the look and the aesthetic features that design has. These aesthetic features make the end-user get attracted to a site. Like the processes themselves, there is also a difference between UI and UX designer. Despite that their end goal might be the same, they work differently. Continue reading the article to understand the major difference between UI and UX designer.
5 Differences between UI and UX Designer
Here are the top differences between UX designer vs UI designer.
1. UI designer focuses on the look while the UX designer focuses on the functionality of a site.
One of the top differences is that UI involves more about the feel and look of a site. It is the personality that the site presents. On the other hand, UX designers pay more attention to building a site that offers value to end-users. Thus, they focus on ensuring that the needs of the users are met by the designed site. Despite that the roles interact at some point, UX designer acts as the architect of macro-interactions.
In contrast, UI designers are the makers of micro-interactions and attend to the fine details of the site. UX designer, designs the steps users take to get what they want. UI designer refines the interactions by adding colours and other visual effects.
2. UX designer helps users attain their goals while UI designer provides guidelines towards meeting the goals.
When you look at visual designer vs UX designer is that UX expert is involved in making a competitive analysis, creating personas and then develop a valuable interface to the end-users. The process is validated through tests throughout all steps. Once the designer tests and prototypes the wireframes and user flows, UI designer makes them appealing to the eyes of the users. They select the typography and colour scheme that will be simple to use and appealing. A UI designer does not choose his or her own preferred typography, interactions or colour. They choose these elements based on the personas developed by UX designer. UI designer implements a visual hierarchy that serves as a guide to the end-users, allowing them to understand what to do and when to do it to meet their goals.
3. UX designer works first, then UI designer follows.
Generally, UX designers do much of the research needed to create a useful design. The research they do is the one that either validates or invalidates initial product ideas and gives guidelines to the design development. After the prototype goes through a wide range of iterations and is almost completed, UI designers come in and start working on the micro-interactions and visual design of the site.
4. Tools and color they use
Another difference between UI and UX designer is that UI designers usually create prototypes using full-colour; on the other hand, UX designers apply only three colors in prototype design. They use gray, black and white. This difference can be seen in the creation and use of icons. For instance, when creating the bottom navigation bar, UI designers will put a lot of efforts to make it look as real as possible. UI designers will insert the button in the right place and then leave a note. The other distinction is in terms of the tools they apply. For a UI designer, creation of images is of critical importance. UX designers might prefer using wireframes to save time and make the designing process more efficient. There are a lot of tools they use, but Wondershare Mockitt is the best and has become more popular among many UX designers because of its ease of use, efficiency and its valuable in testing.
The Best Tool for UI/UX Designers
This tool has various features that make it easy for UX and UI designers work efficiently and develop designs that meet the objectives of the end-users. It allows you to switch between screens and choose text copies by applying the sharing and preview mode. For designers working as a team, the tool allows team members to work together more efficiently. It also allows doing animation with screen states. This is a top feature that makes it possible for designers to design animations using state transition of the same screen.
This tool has a lot of resources for you to use during the UI/UX designing process. For instance, it has an icon library with more than a hundred icons you can always use when you are performing future designs. You can also import a template directly for quick prototyping. Designers are also presented with all screens in a single place. This is the top feature that makes it possible for you to view entire workflow, do editing and then to share the URL of flows. It also has a rich text editor you can simply use by double-clicking. When the text editor opens, you can change text colour, choose italic, bold and set all other styles you would want to apply.
For all your graphics, the tool makes it possible for you to filter them the way you want. The tool makes it easy for you to adjust effects such as brightness, blurring and many more. The other great thing is that you do not get stuck as you do the designing work. It offers brief guides that give insights on all the basics you should know from the start to the end of your UX/UI design process. It allows you to know all the basics before you start applying its features. It also allows you to share your design with others and get suggestions to help you make improvements.
