The difference between UX and UI designer. Surveys and feedback. Conducting user testing

29.09.2017

User Experience(interaction experience) or UX is a currently popular term in technological and design industries. As UX continues to evolve and be defined, many people are still unsure what UX means and how to properly use the term.

You probably often hear about UX when it comes to the interfaces of websites or mobile applications. This is partly true, but a deeper look at UX is necessary to fully understand why user experience is so important and why it is so important to know about it.

What is User Experience (UX)?

UX stands for “user experience”. Experience is how people interact with a product.

You encounter UX everywhere. The idea is that everything you touch, from the software to the on/off button and its shape, is an example of the elements that create UX. The sum of your interactions with a product becomes the experience you have using that product.

All objects around us have an experience of interaction - from touch-screen kiosks in the subway to elite coffee machines that allow you to pour yourself a cup of gourmet coffee. Possibility to use mobile phone or any other device on the go improves the UX, just as interacting with the car using the touch screen and voice commands makes driving easier and more convenient.

The success of a product is based on how users perceive it. When using a product, people typically rate their experience as follows:

• Did I benefit from this product?
• Is it easy to use?
• Is it pleasant to use?

Whether people will become regular and loyal users of the product directly depends on the answer to these questions.

UX elements

Don Norman, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, was the first to coin the concept of “user experience” in the 90s, saying “The user experience covers all aspects of a user’s interaction with a company, its services and products.”

“I coined this term because I thought that human interfaces and usability were too narrow concepts. I wanted to capture all aspects of the human experience with the system, including industrial design, graphics, interfaces and physical interaction.”

In this video, Don Norman shares his thoughts on the origins of the term UX.

To sum it up, UX is almost everything that influences the user's interaction with a product.

• Interaction experience is based on sensations. It goes beyond ordinary human-computer interaction (HCI) and focuses on Special attention human side. People value interaction as a personal moment.
• UX depends on the context in which the product is used. The conditions under which the product is used are constantly changing. UX involves understanding the broader context in which users operate and determining what role the product plays in their lives.
• The user experience evolves over time. The experience of interacting with your product is dynamic. For example, when New Product hits the market, or when a user first experiences a product, they may be disoriented and have mixed feelings because they don't know what to expect. Later, when users become familiar with your product and define it benefit, their interaction experience will grow positively and cause emotional attachment.

From a technical perspective, UX includes the practical, experiential, affective, meaningful, and value aspects of interaction. Peter Morville's Honeycomb is a tool that can help you find the right balance between the different areas of effective UX.

• Usable: The product should be simple and easy to use. It should be designed to be familiar and understandable.
• Useful: The product must satisfy a need. If it doesn't do that then the user has no reason to use it.
• Desirable: The visual aesthetics of the product should be attractive. Design elements may cause positive emotions and sympathy.
• Findable A: If the user has a problem with the product, then they should be able to quickly find a solution.
• Accessible: The design of the product should be such that even physically disabled people can have the same experience as everyone else.
• Credible: The company and its products must be credible.

When a product design combines these 6 elements, then it will be valuable to users, and maximizing value is the main goal of UX.

What is UX design?

UX is almost always accompanied by the word “design”. People working in this field are UX designers.

In simple words, User Experience Design (UXD or UED) is the process of creating a physical or electronic product, which is useful, easy to use and enjoyable to interact with. But in reality, everything is much more complicated:

01. UX design is more than usability

There is a misconception that UX design is the same as usability. And this misconception is understandable: usability assumes that the product is useful and easy to use.

Usability is a quality attribute of a user interface that determines whether a product is easy to learn, how effective it is, and so on.

Yes, usability is one of the most important factors in effective UX, but if UX is limited to only this element, then your product will be one step behind.

02. UX design is not visual or UI design

UX design is often mistakenly classified as Visual/UI design because for many people the word “design” is immediately associated with colors and graphics. But UX design is different.

User interface (UI) is defined as the means of communication between a person and a system. With increasing popularity personal computers And mobile devices this term is usually equated with a “graphical user interface (GUI)” - appearance and the feel, presentation and interactivity of the product.

Although user interface is an obviously important part of the user experience, UX designers don't create things that feel comparable to a designer's visual interface. UX designers create the functionality that sits behind the visuals: the process that makes a product work well for the people who use it. UX bridges the gap between how something looks and how it works and feels.

The graph below shows that UX brings together all aspects of product design and use, while UI is mainly limited to the visual part of the design.

03. UX design is about people

UX is a design approach that considers all aspects of how a person interacts with a product or service. It is strongly linked to an understanding of user behavior, his needs, goals, motivations and the context in which he will use the product. The ultimate goal is a solution that satisfies these areas of experience. UX design is the art of serving and creating value for people.

User experience does not take into account every situation for every user because everyone is different. What works for one user may have the opposite effect on another. UX design is about achieving the best and most reliable solution for your target audience.

So, to create a great user experience, a designer needs to empathize with the people who will use the product.

04. UX design has different dimensions

From smart watch to the widest TV screens, the content must be viewed well on all devices. But development under different screens– this is not just changing the size of the content, but much more difficult process: The designer needs to maximize the user experience for each device so that the user understands that the application truly designed for their device, instead of just stretching across the width of the screen.

05. UX design is an ongoing process

Product UX design continually evolves over time as new technologies emerge and feedback is received. The product evolves and changes, and UX must move along with it.

The role of a UX designer is extremely complex. The responsibilities of a UX designer may vary depending on different companies, but an effective design team always focuses on creating user experience through information architecture, interaction design, information design and visual design.

What do UX designers do?

When a UX designer develops a new product, the first thing he does is study the audience. The target audience is the most important and it is important to know what their goals and needs are.

The designer then tries to satisfy these needs by focusing on the following areas:

• Visual design. Creating an effective visual hierarchy for the UI.
• Information architecture. Satisfy user goals by analyzing key user tasks and behaviors.
• Interactive design. Optimizing interaction between people and interfaces.
• Usability. Analysis of how people use the product.
• Content strategy. Aligning content with overall product strategy.

UX designers also spend a lot of time communicating with each other. Design is a team sport, and it is important to effectively communicate decisions with your team from the start of a project through to completion. final stage. The ability to empathize and understand the motivations of developers, product managers, marketers, and other designers is essential for a UX designer. Their work covers many areas and they must interact effectively with many departments to create successful product. For example, a user behavior study prepared by a UX designer may contain a lot of useful information for the marketing team so they can develop their content strategy.

Finally, UX designers spend a lot of time working on . Prototyping is a critical part of a UX designer's workflow, creating sample products that can be tested before launching the final product. A prototype can be anything from a sketch to a pixel perfect interactive interface. The essence of a prototype is to test a product and ideas before creating the final solution. Prototypes help fix usability bugs and reveal areas that need improvement. You can create quick prototypes, for example, using Adobe XD.

Naturally, UX aims not only to meet user needs, but also to meet business needs. There's no point in creating a product that users love if it doesn't help achieve business goals. A UX designer must find a balance between users and business to create the optimal solution.

Ideally, the main objective is to combine business goals and user needs through research, prototypes, testing, and find something that satisfies both sides. This is achieved by following the principle of placing the user at the center and taking into account his needs at every stage of product development.

Examples of great UX design

Jared Spool, UX design expert, said: “ Good design, when done correctly, is invisible. We only notice him when he is bad.”

When looking at examples of less effective UX design versus very effective UX design, three important rules emerge.

01. Provide enough correct information

Let's take a look at the car's dashboard. The state of UX design in most modern cars is constantly criticized for its lack of intuitiveness. Car manufacturers are slowly introducing quality design into their industry.

Bad UX: The car informs the driver about the breakdown.

In the example below, on the left, the system tells the user that there is a problem with the machine, but does not provide any additional information about the source of the problem or its solution.

Effective UX: Informs the user about the problem and provides all the necessary information.

In the example above, on the right, dashboard communicates the problem in a language that is understandable to all users without further explanation.

02. Avoid visual clutter

The news industry is a perfect example of an industry that has undergone digital transformation over the past few years. Many news companies have abandoned print and moved to online platforms, and are keen to ensure that visitors spend as much time as possible on their websites. Conflicting visual hierarchy and excess advertising are two of the most common problems news sites. These issues irritate and slow down users.

Many news sites strive to maximize their revenues whenever possible. Addition large quantity advertising is a natural reaction, but in most cases advertising worsens the UX. In the example below old version CNN site. It is difficult to find news content on it due to the abundance of advertising.

Effective UX: Focuses on what is important to the user

By focusing on the content that matters most to readers, news organizations deliver experiences online readings to the very center. This approach is good for readability because the reader's attention span is limited. The example below demonstrates a clean visual hierarchy, where the most important content has the most visual weight and distracting elements are minimized.

03. Make the user journey as smooth as possible

Various obstacles prevent users from achieving their goals. This hurts conversions and irritates potential customers to the point where they are ready to abandon the site. One of the clearest examples of such obstacles is logical walls - pages that ask the user to log in or register. Let's take a look at the confirmation process in an online store.

Bad UX: Forcing registration without offering benefits

E-commerce sites often use logical walls. Requiring registration has a high interaction cost because it forces the user to waste time creating a new account and remembering information. More than 85% of visitors leave the page due to forced registration. Even Amazon does this. It forces users to register before purchasing selected products, which is why a huge number of visitors leave the site.

Effective UX: Give guest access

The registration process can be simplified using guest access. It is normal for e-commerce sites to ask for payment information, but not to force users to register.

When a user has an easy and smooth purchase, they can create an account as a thank you for a great experience (especially if the data they entered earlier is transferred to the account creation form).

04. Eliminate user uncertainty

Let's take a look at the online purchase form. It’s easy to pay for something online with a card, right? Yes and no. Yes, because many users have this experience, and no, because no two forms are alike.

Bad UX: Doesn't help the user

In an ideal world, the user can easily enter all necessary information into the form and makes a payment. IN real world this is usually not the case. Look at the example.

The user will probably have the following questions:

• What cards can I use? Can I pay with American Express?
• What is this “Name”? Name on the card or your full name?
• What format should the date be in? MM/YY or MM/YYYY?
• What is “Security code”?
• What happens if I click “Next”? Is this the final payment step or will I be able to check the entered data?

Effective UX: Visualize everything you need

Sometimes simply improving the UX of your data entry process can earn you millions of dollars.

There are many ways to eliminate uncertainty through design. Below you see modified version forms from the previous example. Each input form now has an informative title and visual cues for the types of cards supported.

Below is another great example. The form visualizes the results of user operations and makes it clear what data is needed.

Why should you care about UX?

User experience plays a critical role in shaping your customer and user base. People perceive products emotionally, and negative emotions, unfortunately, are remembered better than positive ones.

When the experience of interacting with your product leaves a bad impression, the user will go to do his business elsewhere. This way, bad UX turns into a weak foundation for your business. At the same time, the most effective UX generates user interest and, most importantly, attachment.

Good UX for good business

In the case of business, UX – the most important criterion survival. Modern user expects a lot from your brand, which means your product must deliver good experience interactions. UX design is a major investment. Forrester Research reports that every dollar invested in UX generates an average of $100 in profit and return on investment in 9,900 percent.

Demand on the labor market

UX designers are in high demand. According to CNN Money, UX design is one of the top 50 jobs in the United States. The average salary for a UX designer in the US is $70,000 per year. entry levels and $100,000 per year for experienced designers.

Hiring Trends in UX Design

According to Adobe survey, most companies hire UX designers to work with web and mobile applications. Expected within 5 years mobile industry will become the most popular. While desktop-to-mobile (cross-platform design) will remain important, nearly half of companies plan to hire UX designers who can work with virtual reality (VR) in the next 3-5 years.

Conclusion

UX is essential to the success of your product or business. Focus on UX throughout the entire development process. Make the user need your design. The essence of UX is to provide best experience. Get feedback from your customers to ensure you're on the right track and never stop on your journey to the right UX.

When asked what is the difference between a UX designer and a UI designer, people like to answer in the negative. You know, such a literary device. Like “UX is not about the interface, not about graphic design, this is not usability, not analytics, not a prototype.” Today we will briefly show the difference, tell the history of the appearance of the terms and explain why the two concepts, even after so many years, are so willingly merged into one - UX/UI.

Briefly about the difference

A UI designer (user interface) is an interface designer in an ideal environment who draws buttons, icons, forms, selects fonts and makes a harmonious and beautiful layout out of everything. A website, an application, anything that the user will interact with - even the screen of a station terminal. And he doesn't think about anything else.

A UX designer (user experience) is not a designer, but a designer (it’s just that in English the word designer has just the second meaning). He studies user needs, builds logic interface work, tests prototypes on living people, writes technical specifications for the design. In other words, this is such a marketing engineer: the input is analytics, the output is the principles of creating an interface, the logic of work, layout, content. It does not concern drawing as such.

That's all.

Why did it have to be complicated?

As it was before: the designer received the task of “drawing a website.” All sites were more or less the same: home, about the company, catalog, then down the list. The designer asked: “When will they give us the content?” Never, comrade spirit, this is an army.

And the designer was simply called “designer.” Without overseas prefixes.

What happened later: agencies wanted to receive more money, and the world gradually began the transition from “just websites” to complex web services. And a service is not only a unique interface, it is also a special business process behind it. For example, remember the Airbnb website - without deep study of the subject, not a single graphic designer could immediately create an interface.

Since there was more work, there was a need to divide one profession into several. Now the UX specialist (let's call him that to avoid confusion) researched and designed the information architecture, the prototyper did the functional part, and the graphic (UI) designer created the final product: modern and pleasing to the eye.

The same thing has already happened in the industry. For example, “programmers” were simply divided into “frontend” and “backend”. And frontenders into true frontenders and “just layout designers.” By the way, .

The reason is always the same: one person is not enough for a large process. Let's move on.

Who is a UX/UI designer

What’s funny: job vacancies often include UX/UI designer positions, just like that, with a slash. Even Tinkoff is looking for such a combo specialist:

On the other side of the barricades, designers all began to refer to themselves as UX/UI. Because being just a designer is ugh, unfashionable.

Who is UX/UI in an ideal world? A superman who carries out the entire cycle of UX work, and then still manages to draw everything with several iterations of edits (make the UI).

What exactly is UX/UI? Just a good designer. For those who consider it their duty not just to “make mock-ups”, but to approach each project individually, starting with analysis, questions, clarifications, sketches, diagrams, etc. This is not a full-fledged UX examination, but, as a rule, it is enough to support a ready-made service or develop “just a website.”

So if you see an amazing UX/UI mutant, know this:

1. This is a designer who approaches a project with his head, and not just clicking his mouse and beak.
2. This is a guy who has read a lot of smart words and now calls himself UX/UI.

It can be checked simply: ask the designer to tell you why he chose this particular arrangement of elements, this sequence of screens, etc. U good designer Not a single interface decision is made just like that - there is a logical justification for everything.

How to remember what is UX and what is UI

We offer two simple memory cards.

For those who know English:

For those who don't know:

By the way

This article is the second in the series “how one web specialist is different from another.” What prompted us to the idea of ​​making a directory of all professions from the web, with different options their names. So that the client (and all of us, for that matter) can live more clearly.

There is a lot of misunderstanding among designers and developers. Also a lot stupid questions related to UX and UI for beginners. Often simply due to the fact that people do not know the essence of the concept of UX/UI and, not knowing what they are talking about, call things by other names.

I want to put an end to it once and for all and simply in clear language explain what “UX/UI design” means.

Different types of interfaces for sharpening blades.

Whether you're pressing buttons on an adding machine, turning the handle of a whetstone, or swiping across a smartphone screen, these are all interfaces through which you interact with machinery. At the same time, the interface does not necessarily have to be digital. It’s just that the word “interface” itself was borrowed from English quite recently and came to us only in the digital era.

The goal of a UI/UX designer is to bring the user to some logical point in the interface. Make sure the user achieves their goal.

What is UX/UI, in plain text

(this section will contain banal phrases)

UX- This User Experience(literally: “user experience”). That is, this is what experience/impression the user gets from working with your interface. Does he manage to achieve the goal and how easy or difficult it is to do so.

A UI- This User Interface(literally “user interface”) - what the interface looks like and what physical characteristics it acquires. It determines what color your “product” will be, whether it will be convenient for a person to hit the buttons with his finger, whether the text will be readable, and so on...

UX/UI design- this is the design of any user interfaces in which ease of use is as important as appearance.

What is UX and UI design, in other words

The direct responsibility of a UX/UI designer is, for example, to “sell” a product or service through an interface. It is on the basis of the work of the UX/UI designer that the user makes the decision: “To be or not to be?” Like it or don't like it. To buy or not to buy.

In fact, a designer's goals may vary. You don't have to "sell" anything. But I specifically do not want to use too abstract phrases so that this text is understandable to beginners; so that the presentation style does not turn into a textbook on a programming language from the 90s.

UX/UI design doesn't just apply to smartphones and websites. Moreover, the profession of UX/UI designer has existed since time immemorial. It just wasn't called that before. More precisely, before it was not called anything at all, but was part of other professions.

Here's the first example: when Wilhelm Schickard invented the adding machine in 1623, he was already a UX/UI designer.

Because it was he who came up with which toggle switches and in what sequence a person should turn in order to get the result of the calculations. And he figured out in what logical order they would be located. And in general I was figuring out what all these pens would look like. He created an interface to interact with the machine.

Another more ancient and primitive example is the whetstone (wheel). Even in the early Middle Ages there were many varieties and mechanisms of such a wheel:

• it could be turned by hand
• the wheel could have been turned by another person
• or it could be untwisted even without hands, pressing the pedal with your foot
• and others...

These were all different types of interfaces.

So, when the inventor of the next whetstone thought:

• Will he sit and press the pedal himself?
• or he will simplify the mechanism, but assign a slave who will spin the wheel by hand,

then at that moment he was UX designer.

And the person who thought what size the stone would be, what color wood to choose for the stand and how to fasten the wooden poles (with nails or leather cords?) and how long the handle would be was UI designer.

And the way you would sharpen a sword would be called interface.

Difference between UX and UI is that a UX designer plans how you will interact with the interface and what steps you need to take to do something. And the UI designer comes up with what each of these steps will look like. As you can see from the examples above, UX and UI are so closely related that sometimes the line between the concepts is blurred. Therefore, both UX and UI are usually handled by one designer and his profession is written through /.

IN Lately The popularization of the profession of UX/UI designer is rather related to the development of digital technologies. But precisely that “boom” (when we began to see the term “UX/UI” in every second job advertisement) is associated with the name itself, which someone came up with quite recently.

UI/UX design is now one of the most in-demand professions in the digital industry. How long it will be in demand depends on the development of this industry. And, apparently, it is only gaining momentum.

UX and UI are not trends. Technologies are developing. The demand for sites is growing. Digital applications appear like mushrooms. And design and development tools are being simplified so much that almost anyone without programming knowledge can create a business card website on their knees. But this site should look something like this. And not just as an abstract frame of text and buttons. This is where programmers need the help of a UX/UI designer.

The division into web designers and UX/UI designers appeared with the development of the Internet. Over time, more specialized specialists were needed to make interfaces specifically for websites.
Yes, UI/UX design is a broader and more comprehensive concept than web design.

P.S. Some people write UI/UX, but I prefer to write UX/UI. And this is only because in the workflow, UX is done first, and then UI. But it doesn’t matter - write as you want. The main thing is not to confuse this order during the work process itself. Because many novice designers first start thinking about what cool buttons and features will be in their interface. But they don’t think about how the user will generally move from one step to another.

The term “design” can seem deceptively simple. At the same time, it is quite vague, and if you ask different people explain this concept to you, their answers will be very different.

For example, when someone says, “Oh, I work as a designer,” most people may not understand what they mean. And all because behind this, it would seem, in a simple word there are a huge number of meanings hidden.

Today the market is experiencing growth in the sector technical enterprises, which tend to focus on producing a variety of screen interfaces, which in turn leads to new design features.

A profession such as a UX designer may seem strange and even a little complicated at first glance, for those who have not encountered it before - moreover, some experienced developers do not understand what is meant by it and may wonder: Who are UX designers and what do they do? Do they even work?

However, the UX industry is growing rapidly now. Just look at how much the number of UX (or “User Experience”) specialists has grown.

Not all of them are new experts, if only because the job market in the field ranges from complete beginners to people who have always been UX specialists but never knew it.

The above circumstances can create certain problems, for example, not everyone who calls themselves a UX designer is actually a UX specialist. Because this is a special kind of profession that cannot be clearly defined, as if we were talking about dentists or nurses, moreover, in UX it is quite difficult to distinguish a good specialist from a bad one.

Who is a UX designer?

The work of a UX designer, as a rule, is related to the perception of a product or service, so design problems in in this case are not always obvious.

They are subjective and may have more than one solution. Essentially, it is the UX designer's responsibility to ensure that each step of the product design process flows from the previous one.

This can be achieved through the use of face-to-face user testing in order to evaluate the actions taken. If users can complete both verbal and nonverbal tests, then the conditions for effective UX have been created. For example, creating a convenient onboarding experience for new users would be a good solution.

What does a UX designer do?

A good UX specialist can combine all aspects of a great user experience into one product.

This can only be done if you are convinced that the above aspects work well together and not separately. The professional we are considering bears full responsibility for future results and in particular for the ux itself.

But still, this is only the beginning of a career for a qualified UX specialist, because in the future they can be used various methods that allow you to do this job well.

To be a truly good UX designer, you will need excellent communication skills, passion, a love of innovation, a flair for creativity, and the initiative to know when to experiment and when to stick with it established framework. However, all UX professionals should start at the lower levels of their career if they want to be marketable in the future.

In order to become a successful UX designer, you must be able not only to describe, but also to competently use communication mechanisms, algorithms for performing tasks, and requirements for interfaces.

You must be able to explain to investors the user experience from start to finish, as well as the features and context involved. With the support of a strong team, a UX designer can transform the characteristics of any well-known platform, such as Facebook, into a valuable and accessible toolkit.

Wireframes and sketches are just a small part of the work

Wireframes and visual plans are the result of the extensive preparation that goes into creating a product. It is really important to present the preparation process in a visual form, such as PowerPoint presentations, For further use similar materials by designers and programmers.

It is quite easy to obtain data on product prototypes during usability tests, or even create screencasts. These tools can be just as important as wireframes.

UX designers can also be recognized by the way they focus on a carefully crafted plan to improve a product's design to make it more effective.

However, there is no proven method for choosing a good UX specialist because their responsibilities may vary. The latter have a very large spread, and cover interaction with individuals, legal entities, as well as with new technical developments.

Conducting user testing

There's a lot more to UX design than just sitting down with your customers at your online platform or app, periodically asking them for their opinion on a feature.

In fact, the assessment process should include observation of the client's ability to carry out the activities that have been designed for them. This way they can give you their unedited answer about their own user experience.

For this type of assessment, the number of client assessments, individual assessments, and the selection of test participants mainly depends on how much money you are willing to invest in conducting it on early stages product creation.

Luckily, customer-centric testing is actually as reliable and simple as observing how users interact with your product online.

Defining and Creating Personas

The term persona is used to refer to a fictional character who represents one of the categories of users for whom you are developing a product. This type of personality assessment can be the object of careful study, if of course it is appropriate.

Although it may be very tempting to do this - to completely invent a character, however, if your “persona” is not based on statistical data about your real users, then, unfortunately, it will be useless. Creating a character will also have no meaning if it has nothing to do with your business.

The best way to create a character is to use various types research, e.g. user tests, surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, as well as other methods.

When You Can't Call Yourself a UX Designer

You can't become a truly skilled UX designer unless you learn how to interact with the people who are supposed to help you shape your strategies.

The name of this profession includes the phrase "user experience", but if the user does not exist, then your activity has no value. If you're creating a design based on little more than interesting idea, but do not take into account data about the actual needs of users, then you are definitely not a UX designer.

The same can be said for those UX specialists who cannot define their target audience. If you think that your online platform perfect for anyone and everyone, you are not only making your job impossible, you are also neglecting the true principles of web design - there should always be a target audience.

Another disadvantage is trying to solve the problem immediately, rather than making sure it actually exists and then finding the cause.

If your boss asks you to design an online platform, and you don’t even ask why it needs to be done, then you are most likely an ordinary (and not necessarily talented) web designer, and not a UX specialist.

Making decisions based solely on personal experience is also a bad idea. If your boss asks, “Why did you decide to use label fields instead of another alternative option feedback in your last survey?”, you should answer something better than simply: “I chose them because I like them.” This definitely doesn't work in UX design.

If you want to become a successful and qualified UX designer, it is very important to use all design tools - from interviewing clients, to usability tests, creating personas, contextual assessments, conceptual models, site maps, product prototypes, wireframes, A/B assessments and much more.

For skilled UX designers, it is necessary to not only figure out the specifics of their target audience, but also have the ability to demonstrate this information to their team.

The product must always evolve

The first thing to accept is that your product will never actually be finished. Moreover, a product should not be considered only in terms of its intrinsic value, for the methods required to develop it are also important.

Many UX professionals may find it difficult to stay within strict boundaries or follow a plan, however, most companies stick to this path. However, the only thing that remains constant is change, and it will always be that way.

If you are trying to design a product, you must strive to improve the methods needed to produce it, as well as continually improve the end result.

In fact, it can be helpful for UX designers to periodically look back on their past projects (successes and failures) to figure out what they learned and how it can be applied to their future work.

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UX/UI design is effective tools designing any type of user interface, where there are two main criteria: ease of interaction and appearance. The main purpose of the tools is to sell potential client product or service through a user interface. Therefore, its visual part should attract people, and the operating mechanism should be intuitive, with certain instructions and tips for further actions.

UX/UI design: what is it?

Despite the fact that their main task is the same - to increase the efficiency of the web resource in general and the level of sales of goods and services in particular, these are different concepts with different functions. At the same time, they are closely related and are rarely used separately. To understand what these tools mean and what uses they have, you need to know what each of them is intended for, its capabilities and methods of use.

UI design and its types

Let's start with the UI. It is an interface designed to ensure maximum transmission complete information: from the software components of the site to the human user. Simply put, a user interface is connecting link, through which the audience of a web resource contacts software.

The UI serves to achieve several goals: first, to create interactive elements controls, where a site visitor can independently control the system by clicking on buttons, going to sections, etc. Secondly, to provide feedback on the user’s actions, that is, to demonstrate to the system that the actions being performed are correct and quick way implementation.

UI design serves precisely these purposes: it the main task is to implement comfortable conditions interaction between a person and the system, creating an intuitive and effective model. Example perfect solution It is considered an option in which a person needs to make a minimum amount of effort, be it clicks, text input, or transitions between sections. The desired result is obtained in shortest time. There are many various types. However, the main part is presented in the following forms:

1. Graphical control shell (GOU). Here a person has access to all elements visible on the monitor in order to control them. This is done through an input device: keyboard or mouse.
2. A collection of web pages. Through them, interaction with the web resource occurs. They can be executed based on programs software platforms or programming languages.
3. Touch screens. These are special screen devices for entering information using your fingers or a stylus.

When developing a UI, we focus on the following parameters:

• The most important elements are placed in a prominent place and marked in large, beautiful font.
• Minimizing guide elements and aligning them (edge ​​or center) to make the interface more visually pleasing.

UI is the work of introducing simple, convenient and at the same time effective ways interaction of the target audience with the final product. An important part The work here is to observe, collect and analyze data on the behavior of site visitors, on the basis of which responsible decisions are subsequently made. Important tools for user interface specialists are programs such as Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Cinema 4D and other types of graphic editors.

What is UX design

This section of design is a multifaceted concept that includes a huge variety of different disciplines: from interactive and visual design to usability, that is, the ability of a web resource to be understandable and attractive to the user under given conditions. The fundamentals of UX design as the experience of human interaction with a system are exclusively subjective in nature, since it is associated primarily with individual preferences huge amount of people. Because of this, trends in this area are constantly changing. The main aspects of developing a quality product are:

1. Usability, that is, ease of use and ergonomics. Here it is necessary to minimize the number of steps that a person must take to obtain the desired result.
2. Characteristics of the average user. You need to know your audience and the purposes for which the web resource is used.
3. Forms and functions. If you have a choice: make a beautiful diagram or layout, but sacrifice functionality or give preference to function at the expense of appearance, preference is always given to the second option - functionality plays the main role here.
4. Intuitively clear interface. People on the internet don't like being offered a product that is too confusing to use. UX design should decipher for a person the algorithm of actions that he must perform.

Creating UX begins with analyzing and developing a single characteristic of the average user. Based on the information received, the developer can create individual requirements for the project. At the next stage, specialists are engaged in the creation, organization and design information architecture in such a way that a person can immediately understand the principle of operation of the interface and distinguish where the main components are and where the secondary ones are. Next comes the process of predetermining the future interface of the resource and the ease of use. Usually, this stage carried out even before the code is written.

The main differences between UX and UI design

As already noted, in practice it is quite difficult to distinguish between these two concepts - in the development of a web resource they are quite closely related. Very often, the user interface and experience act as elements that feed into each other. In the most simplified scheme, their differences are expressed as follows: UX is the appearance of an object, and UI is how it functions. In practice, you can distinguish one from the other using the following examples of UX and UI design:

• If a person sees a well-built internal structure, the design of information and the construction of a hierarchy of elements in such a way that a site visitor can easily determine where the main thing is and where the secondary thing is - this is UX.
• When links that have already been followed are highlighted, the search results in the search bar are indented relative to each other, and the ability to open the “Cart” section in the online store is available on any page - this is the UI.

In the first case, the main goal of the specialist is to ensure comfortable interaction between the site’s audience and the software; the second option implies that icons, buttons, inscriptions, pictures and general style the design was as convenient and visually pleasing as possible.

Useful books on UX and UI design

Become good specialist it is very difficult in this area: you need to have theoretical knowledge, practical skills and constantly be aware of the latest trends and market changes. The professionals have own ways studying the subject - books by famous designers. List useful literature quite wide. But to gain basic knowledge, you need to read:

“100 main principles of design. How to Stay Attention" by Susan Weinshenk. This is a set of fun and effective rules.

"Smashing UX Design". Although a UX design book is intended for experts, it will teach beginners a lot. In particular, the principles of organizing work processes are presented here.