5 ways to Improve Your UX vs Your UI Design

With any product development, the use of UX and UI is important and should be used equally throughout the process. However, there are some differences between the two, despite them being so closely linked together.

Before going into the various ways in which you can improve your user experience vs your user interface design, there are a few differences that are worth mentioning first. Here are five ways to improve your UX vs UI design.

The differences between UX and UI design

UX refers to user experience, whereas UI is the user interface. They both sound the same, right? Well they do work closely together in order to make a good product, however, the roles they have are fairly different.

The main difference between the two is that UX design is about the overall feeling towards the experience, whilst the UI focuses on the interface’s functionality and look. Dain Miller, a web developer, sums up the difference between UX and UI by saying UI is the saddle, the stirrups and the reins. UX is the feeling you get being able to ride the horse.

As UX focuses on a human approach to the product design, UI focuses on a human approach to the overall aesthetic experience of the product. The user experience design comes first and then it‘s followed up with user interface design. There’s also a difference in that UX can work with any type of product design, but for UI is digital products only.

Both are needed and cannot work without the other, so with that said, it’s worth considering some of the ways in which you can improve the design of each. By focusing on improving both, you’re likely to create a much more polished and well-rounded product.

1. Competitor analysis vs customer analysis

Competitor analysis is important for user experience because it’s good to look at how your competitors are drawing in customers and making their product experience unique. As a UX designer, there’s a lot to be learnt from your competition that can help towards tailoring the experience that the customer has with the product.

There are plenty of competitor analysis tools that can be used such as Semrush or SpyFu as examples. These are great platforms for assessing your competitor’s tactics and the methods they’ve used in their design process. By being able to track competitors and their tactics, you can adapt your own efforts to somewhat mirror theirs.

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Alternatively, UI designers will use customer analysis as part of their influence over the product. The user interface is being used by the customer after all, so it’s clear that the analysis done should be through the eyes of a customer.

What is it that they could benefit from when it comes to the functionality of the product? Is there anything that they’re missing when it comes to features in other similar products? Both are important to have in order to create a product that’s better than your competitors and has everything the customer needs so that they don’t end up looking elsewhere.

With so much competition out there, it’s essential that these questions are asked and addressed in order to enhance your product and make it more favorable. For your customers, there are also focus groups you can conduct, getting feedback from existing customers and doing the relevant marketing that will help you discover improvements to make.

You may discover habits and preferences for your customers when it comes to developing your product. This is important information to know not only to help better the product’s design for the user but also when it comes to marketing.

2. Product structure and strategy vs design research

Product strategy is helping to achieve an overall vision for the company’s goals and objectives. It’s an important part of the process because a strategy is useful for keeping everyone focused and on track, heading in the right direction. Both new and existing products require product strategies and a structure that will hopefully result in the best possible outcome.

A product structure and strategy is a roadmap for all those involved in the UX area of the product team. It’s all about providing value for the users and to ensure that the product itself will do well on the market. So with that being said, the strategy should be focused on who the product is for and why people would spend their money in order to use said product.

For UI designers, design research is necessary to iron out any problems by enriching the knowledge of your team and can help to make user-centred products that are more effective.

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There are a few stages to this design research that are needed, including the primary research gathered through interviews, surveys and perhaps even focus groups and usability testing. From there, more research can be done to validate the design ideas that the individuals have come up with and running experiments to see if it works.

Research is certainly an important part of the design process because it can help to give the product more opportunity to fulfill the user’s needs and wants from the product.

3. Content development vs branding and graphic development

Content is everywhere and it’s a very influential aspect of the user experience overall. If the content provided isn’t engaging or doesn’t provide value to the user, then they’re not going to get much usage out of the product. With 70% of marketers spending their money and time in content marketing, it’s essential that the content itself is high-quality and valuable.

The development of content for user experience is key and so there are plenty of ways in which it can be developed to help better the customer’s overall feelings towards the product. It’s essential that there’s communication between the UX designers and those responsible for the creation of the content.

UX designers, even though they might not be content creators, can still contribute their ideas to what should be created and what perhaps is already in existence and has been done before.

With UI, the branding and graphic development is an important stage of the product development. It’s important that the branding of the product is aligned with all the other products or services you have, as well as your overall brand image for the business.

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Graphic development is critical because the world of graphic design is constantly evolving and if it’s not the very best it could be, then it may feel a little outdated to your customers. It’s necessary for the graphics to be refined and tweaked until they have that wow factor needed for the users.

4. Prototyping and wireframing vs UI prototyping

Techniques like prototyping and wireframing for user experience have helped to transform the design process that many follow in today’s world. With digital prototypes, it can show those on the team a realistic version of the concept and this is something that’s also useful to have for stakeholders.

With prototyping it not only helps save time and money but it gets everyone involved in a collaborative way. Wireframing is good for testing out functionality, which is important when it comes to user experience. A product that doesn’t function correctly, isn’t going to get a great response from the users.

On the flip side, UI prototyping can help the designer bring together visuals, navigational and interaction elements in order to see how the design behaves and feels for the user. This can be helpful in correcting any mistakes or troubleshooting issues within the design of the interface itself.

Both elements on either side are an important stage of the design process because they help to minimize the amount of problems that occur after launching the product and going live. The fewer issues that users face, the better experience and satisfaction they’ll have with the product.

5. Coordination with developers vs implementation with developers

Collaboration is critical between designers and developers because the work doesn’t simply end when handing over the baton. The developer should be seen as the designer’s user, so it’s important to coordinate with the developer to ensure that all the user experience that has been created and developed, is executed successfully.

There are some adaptations that might need to be made and so organizing this between the designer and developer is important. Some elements of the user experience design might not work in the way the designer thought when it comes to the development stage. So that collaborative element is necessary to keep things moving in the right direction.

For UI designers, implementation of the various elements is critical and when it comes to conversing with the developers, it has to be monitored. The reality of design is that it’s never done, regardless of whether it’s done by UX or UI designer. With that said, there’s always progress that can be made even when it’s in the hands of a developer.

For a UX designer, it’s their job to consider the user’s journey from start to finish and to figure out how to make the best experience possible. It’s then the job of the UI designer to bring it to life and to fulfil the expectations that the UX designer sets. So both are needed in the process of making a product as they complement one another.