UI vs. UX design
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- mydo0
to me it makes more sense if you you don't think of these jobs as digital. You could have a UI and UX designer for packaging too. The experience of opening an box is somewhat different to "open here" interface.
Both important rolls of a designer. And both make more sense than information architect - a title I loath.
We have a design director in our studio, mostly because the ambiguity is useful to cover all ux,ui,ai,la,la,las
- orrinward20
@mono - I agree that a good designer will be capable of doing it all, but separating the roles can (not always) really help reduce the risk of unsuccessful design iterations.
If you have the responsibility of creating a webpage for someone and you roll your UX/UI into one iteration and either aspect is a failure point then you have to do both processes again.
I think when small/medium shops start recruiting a 'UX Designer' and a 'UI Designer' they are simply recruiting 2 'Designers' that when under stress specialise in either making the buttons look nice or making sure the user can always see how much money they're spending.
- Hombre_Lobo0
I thought the difference was quite simple, to me its exactly as orrinward put it -
UI: Visual design of layout elements
UX: Conceptual design of a users flow through a system or product.
I think some confusion comes from how these terms and disciplines are often touched on, without consciously thinking about them. Most good designers will consider both if these even if when doing so they don't actively think of these terms. As mentioned previously good design encompasses these elements naturally.
- graham0
UI is part of the UX
- or you could think of it as there is no "I" in "UX" ;)alicetheblue
- monospaced0
So, that being said. What qualifies one as a UI or UX specialist? Do web designers/developers move into these areas, or are they just given to people who say, "I browse the web all the time, so I trust that I know how to recognize a good user experience and interface?" Is this taught in school, or are the titles self-appointed?
- dijitaq0
@ukit
that's very true. my last two interviews i was asked if i had any experience in creating website flow diagrams and wireframing skills before they ask to see my portfolio.though i think it's a buzz word that employers have caught on to. i think even before the term was coined, i always have included
- dijitaq0
^
flow diagrams and wireframing in the process. just didn't have a name for it
- ukit20
monospaced, I guess a human-computer interaction degree or human factors would be the closest thing. I've also met people working at places like Microsoft and Google who have degrees in cognitive psychology or ethnography or apply that to user experience.
But a degree is really not required...for the most part employers are just looking for a demonstrated understanding of the concepts involved. And some portfolio work that shows the ability.
- gramme0
So you could say that UI is a part of UX, but not the other way around.
Again, I think any designer working in any medium should be able to discover both the why and the how.
That said, I do like the focus on psychology and anthropology one sees in UX theory. I think these studies should be required for design students. In my experience, they are conspicuously absent from design curriculum, as are courses in business and sales.
- sted0
- sted0
- kona0
ux and ui design should go hand-in-hand, never in silos. our ux team here starts the what happens discussion, then creates use cases, wires and testing environments, multiple iterations of the process. this usually happens with ui taking a secondary roll. ui then takes over and gives the wires a visual life, making any adjustments as needed. ux will then come back and if needed test the visuals here and there.
they really are two separate things. you can get a guy to do both, but what inevitably happens is they start making ui design decisions during the ux stage thinking visually, before they solve structurally and functionally.