By Ethan Head, interactive art director
Let’s clear up some confusion.
Fitting firmly in the esoteric category of design discussions, the difference between user interface (UI) and user experience (UX), is, in practice, something most people encounter daily. So, what is the difference between these two concepts, and how might we come across it in the real world?
User Experience and User Interface in Everyday Life
Let’s start with a common scenario: grocery shopping. You pull up to the store, park your car, and walk inside through the sliding doors. Once you grab your cart, you notice the produce to your left. You begin picking out the freshest cucumbers and ripest bananas. What are you planning on whipping together with these diametrically taste-opposed items? Only God knows, but at this moment, they both sound delicious.
You stroll through each of the remaining aisles, filling your buggy, until you eventually arrive back at the front of the store at self-checkout. Preferring the self-checkout, you scan each item and place it in the bag. Using the touchscreen, you choose to pay with a card. As is done, you enter your pin on the touchpad, take your receipt, and exit the building with your groceries.
So, what part of this scenario involves UI? Just the very last part.
What part of this scenario involves UX? Literally, all of it.
User Experience: How You Feel About a Product
From grabbing your parking spot, to walking through the produce, to using the self-checkout, all of these interactions contribute to how you feel about that store. And all of them have been intentionally designed to influence that feeling. In web, it is the goal of a UX designer to look at an entire process, identify the pain points, and use data to come up with solutions to alleviate them. UX is a study in human psychology and how we interact with a company and its products.
User Interface: How You Interact With a Screen
UI, however, is much more specific. It may be controlled by a touch screen, like the self-checkout kiosk or by a number pad like the credit card reader, but it must happen on a screen. It is the smaller, visually interactive element of the larger UX process. A UI designer’s job is to have a firm understanding of visual design principles so that a user’s interaction with a screen is as easy and thoughtless as possible.
Mad Genius Understands Users
While these two disciplines may require different areas of knowledge or understanding, they are inextricably linked. You cannot have a successful user experience when a difficult user interface is involved. Here at Mad Genius, we specialize in providing user interfaces that are beautiful, functional, and, most importantly, easy to use. Check out some of our favorite examples over on our work page, or give us a call, so we can build you an interface of your own.