Even though user experience (UX), user interface (UI), and web design are used interchangeably, there are differences among them. But what’s the difference between UX, UI, and web design? This article will discuss their core dissimilarities and how they can create exceptional digital experiences.
UI/UX design shapes how digital products look, feel, and function for users. Even though both UX and UI designs aim to create user-centered digital products or websites, there are subtle differences between them.
UX design shapes the user’s journey, ensuring every step feels natural and intuitive. It involves research, wireframing, and testing to optimize usability.
UI design, on the other hand, enhances a product’s visual appeal by crafting layouts, color schemes, typography, and interactive elements. It ensures every detail is aesthetically pleasing and functional.
To clarify the difference between the two, you can remember that UI design is intended to make the elements on the website appealing, like menus, buttons, and icons. On the other hand, UX design is intended to learn overall user experience, like creating a seamless user experience and learning user behavior.
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Web design involves crafting a website’s appearance and functionality. In the past, UI and UX design were integral parts of web design, making them its subdivisions. However, they have since evolved into separate disciplines, allowing for a more specialized focus on user interaction and experience, ultimately leading to more efficient and effective designs.
Web designers are responsible for planning, creating, and presenting the front-end elements of a website. The aspects they need to work on vary, such as web page layout, graphic design, and content production. Web design professionals must also consider technical constraints and evolving user expectations.
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To understand what’s the difference between UX, UI, and web design, see the explanations for each point below.
The aim that web design needs to work on is quite different from the UX and UI designs. Web design is intended to create exceptional websites for the internet. Therefore, web designers are more focused on technology so that they can follow the latest specs required for responsive website designs.
On the contrary, UX/UI design focuses on the users. For instance, UX designers always try to perform optimizations so the users can get what they need on a website. As for the UI designers, they will work on the visual aspects of a website or digital product, like its appearance, interaction, and layout elements.
When discussing what is the difference between UI/UX and web design, you need to understand that web design is only tied to web browsers. This means that web design can only be applied to web browsers on desktop or mobile devices.
However, the UX and UI designs are not tied to specific platforms. Hence, the design can be applied to almost all applications that rely on human interactions. For instance, the platforms needing UX and UI designs are games, mobile applications, retail spaces, or desktop software.
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The strategy is the last aspect differentiating web design from UI/UX design. Web designs will emphasize the site’s aesthetics and won’t deal with what the users think about the design. Conversely, UI or UX design will try to improve the digital product by interacting with the users.
To make it simple, web design is only responsible for fixing the common issues of the website, such as slow loading times and unresponsive layout.
When this happens, a web designer compresses files and optimizes content to save bandwidth. For unresponsive layouts, they adjust CSS, breakpoints, and grids for smooth adaptability.
However, the case is different for UI and UX designers. The UI/UX designers will focus on improving interactivity with users. They will try to learn the users’ experience and focus on building a better product.
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Looking at the explanations about the dissimilarities between UX, UI, and web design above, do you now understand the difference between them? But, even though they have dissimilarities, UX/UI and web design are both important. You can refer to web design as the foundation, UI as the architecture, and UX as the wiring needs.
Since you have figured out what’s the difference between UX, UI, and web design, you should now assess whether the UI design of your digital product is visually compelling. UI designers are responsible for creating an engaging experience, from typography to color scheme.
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