UI vs. UX Design: What is it & how it is Profitable?

What would you choose if you are in a strange city and need to navigate? The answer is rather obvious, Google Maps! But interestingly, the reason behind this preference is UX and UI as the interactive and visual elements that Google Maps provide are all factors that have been coded in by the design team’s foresight.

And more interestingly as per user research people with Apple phones use Apple Maps much less than Google Maps which are deemed to have more interactive elements.

Hence, instead of thinking of UX vs UI as which is more important, it would be more profitable to reap the benefits of both as they combined to provide a unique and hard-to-resist product.

At the same time, good UI designers understand the difference. And understanding these differences and how they complement each other is integral to creating design solutions with a difference

A UX designer (User Experience) focuses on how the user experiences the application or product during the user’s interaction with the same.

Thus, the UX design focuses on simplicity (no, point complicating things) and reducing the learning curve (the easier the user interface design is the better!).

Therefore, UX designers think of the user and their needs and based on this understanding they create suitable design solutions. Over the course of our decade of experience with clients, at Sunflower Lab we’ve found that digital solutions consist truly of meeting a client’s business needs while balancing the end user’s needs as well.

For an application to run smoothly with proper balance of UX and UI a UX designer has to create a user interface that the application user enjoys. But for this, the designer needs to be sure what will make the UX design tick. Here, are a few points along these lines:

Research – without proper user need analysis and research it would be a vague assumption on which the UX design of the application would be build.

Interactive elements are one thing, but what primarily matters to a user is the identification of goals, behaviors, needs and more importantly pain points.

User personas – The visual design and UX design depend on the target audience which is why having that persona chalked out at the onset is integral.

Interaction / Journey maps – How a user interacts with the product needs to be clear so as to improve the UX and UI design as this is how the designer becomes aware of redundant steps and complexities.

Wireframes/Prototypes – Graphic design cannot be created without a proper prototype as the UX and UI design of the final product can be viewed through this allowing the product owner to experience the look and feel of the application.

Our team at Sunflower Lab has found these steps to be integral in building an application that is appealing as well as suited to the user’s pain points.

User Testing – To identify problems and validate the set design plan through user testing and feedback of the interaction design.

Collaboration – To coordinate with what the UI designers create as well as the Stakeholders and developers.

Therefore, as you can see, a UX designer responsibilities start with researching on the user’s needs while UI, as we will read below, focuses on how those needs are met.

UI design is the overall look of a particular website or a mobile app. UI Design contains Typography, Colors, Visual Hierarchy, and Visual Design.

Usually, UI designers design mobile apps, websites, or any digital assets which will be part of digital media. UI Designers need to be up to date with the latest design trends, and current tools and must be familiar with tools and technologies ongoing.

Creativity is the main skill; a UI Designer can fix real problems with creative ideas.

A UI designer’s main focus is on simplicity, appeal and easy navigation. Thus, their common range of tasks include:

• Working on the organization of page layouts
• Choosing the font and color palettes
• Working on the interactive design like buttons, text fields, drop-down menus, toggles, and scrollers
• A UI designer needs to create wireframes that are high-fidelity and also, layouts that indicate what the design will finally look like
• Just like UX designers work closely with the developing team, a UI designer focuses on converting the designs created by the developers into the working product

When it comes to an application there is no single user experience architect as both UI and UX designers bring different yet equally important aspects to the table. For instance, while a UI designer will focus on the visual aspect, a UX designer will look into the interaction.

How the user navigates in the application matters to a UX designer while what color and type of font is to be presented is handled by the UI expert. Furthermore, how the application’s information will be laid out falls under UX while the visual aesthetic comes under UI.

UX designers are experts in protypes, wireframes and research while UI designers are experts in graphics, layouts and mockups.

UX design is more about the user’s experience of the application. Thus, UX designers focus on the accessibility and functionality of the product. The user’s journey therefore, is a part of the process a UX designer has to be prepared to envision. Furthermore, both UI and UX focus on making the experience an enjoyable one for the user.

However, UX design skills are not merely fundamental for digital products are they apply to services and non-digital products as well.

A UI designer has to look after the graphical aspects of the website, mobile application, and etc. UI design, therefore, is more orientated towards the interaction element. Also, it is digitally specific as UX design can be about anything.

Our UX and UI team at Sunflower Lab work in collaboration towards our goal of providing clients with digital solutions. User experience design is very important but at the same time, when dealing at a digital level, the interface too counts.

Thus, here is a handy checklist sure to aid a serious UI designer. When working on a UI design project, our team at Sunflower Lab ensures that they keep these points handy as this creates a structured process flow.

• Research
• Why start this project and what are its goals
• What are the problem & challenges
• Qualitative and Quantitative research
• User Persona
• Empathy Map
• User Flow
• User Journey
• Information Architecture
• Low-Fidelity Wireframes

• UI design consists of colors and Typography
• White space, Negative space, Design hierarchy
• Usability and Readability
• Iconography, illustration design
• Responsive design across the devices
• High-Fidelity Wireframes/Design

Knowing what your target users want is fundamental to having a winning application along with of course, a good user interface. When looked at this way it is obvious that the creation of user interfaces are best left to the experts.

Thus, when on the look out for both UX and UI designers you need to ensure you find personnel who:

• are keen on product strategy & user research
• firm in testing and proper informative architecture
• know how to create a graphical user interface that pleases
• as well as have their points checked on prototyping & design thinking

While it is difficult to put together a team of experts, having a qualified team with the right experience is even more difficult. At Sunflower Lab we understand this and thus, after studying the digital needs of over 200+ clients we’ve realized on-demand teams can be the best solution.

For more on how an on-demand team can help do reach out to us by clicking here. We would love to partner with you to begin your journey toward digital
transformation.