Have you ever heard the terms user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) and wondered if they mean the same thing? In web design, these terms are often used interchangeably. However, they mean very different things.
The way your site visitors perceive your website and engage with your site’s content is crucial to your overall success. That’s why having a clear understanding of user experience vs user interface design is something all website owners should prioritize, whether they hire a professional web designer to help build their site or learn website design and go it alone.
The Difference Between UI and UX
One of the main reasons UI meaning and UX meaning are confused so easily is because the terms were coined at very different times. In fact, the term user experience was first revealed by Don Norman in the 1990s while he was working at Apple.
It wasn’t until sometime later, though it remains unclear when, that the term user interface was coined. Adding to that confusion, user experience and user interface are often thought by people to be the same thing by some, overlap in some ways, or mean completely different things.
Let’s take a look at each.
UI Meaning
User interface (UI) is considered the environment in which humans and machines (computers) interact. The end goal of the user interface is to ensure the people interacting with your website designs can do so effectively.
In other words, UI is any design element that your site visitor may interact with while on your website. This includes things like:
- Screens or touchscreens
- Keyboards
- Audio or video
- Animations
- Images including logos, photographs, and colour schemes
- Buttons and links, including icons
- Typography
- Spacing
- Responsive design
In all, the user interface of your website relates to web design and has an artistic feel to it. The way you design your websiteTop Australian Payment Gateways for Your eCommerce Shop affects what your site visitors see, hear, and even feel while browsing your site.
What Makes for Good User Interface Design?
No matter what type of website you have – a blog, an online business, or even an eCommerce shop – the way you design your site’s interface makes a difference in whether people will enjoy visiting your website or even convert.
Here are the things your UI design should always have:
- Clarity: your site visitors should never have to guess what you’re trying to tell them or encourage them to do. It should be clear what the next action to take is.
- Consistency: your website, and any extensions of it such as social media profiles, should have a consistent feel when it comes to overall layout and design. This breeds familiarity and boosts brand recognition.
- Familiarity: as people interact with your website, no matter the platform, they should be able to use previous experiences with your site, products, or services, to continue their interactions easily.
- Efficiency: good UI does not require site visitors to put a lot of effort into their results. Whether you want them to read your blog, click a call to action (CTA) button, or finalize a transaction, it should be quick, easy, and seamless.
UX Meaning
On the other hand, user experience (UX) is the experience your site visitors have as they interact with your website, products, and/or services.
When it comes to creating a good user experience on your website, the following characteristics should be considered:
- Usefulness: whatever you’re providing your site visitors must fulfill a need. If there is no purpose for what you’re providing, you will not be successful.
- Credibility: your brand should be trustworthy. People want to do business with those they feel are established and credible.
- Usability: your website must be simple and easy to use and there should be no misunderstandings.
- Desirability: the overall look and feel of your website, products, and services must be visually appealing, without being overwhelming.
- Accessibility: everyone should be able to access your website regardless of disability. In other words, the user experience should be the same for all site visitors, no matter how they access your site’s content.
- Findability: being able to find important information on your website is the key to building a bigger audience. If there is a problem, your site visitor should be able to find an easy solution.
- Value: there should be value in everything you provide site visitors. Every detail matters.
This “usability honeycomb,” developed by Peter Morville, is helpful in remembering how to create the perfect user experience for those visiting your website.
User Interface vs User Experience
Now that you know the meanings behind UI and UX independently, it’s safe to say the following:
- UI design is related to the overall look and feel of a website – the more visually appealing, the more draw the website has.
- UX design is related to how people interact with your website – the easier it is to navigate your site, the higher the likelihood of landing a conversion.
It’s important to remember that despite being two completely different terms, user interface and user experience do relate to each other as well, albeit in a tangled way.
You can have a beautifully designed website and attract a lot of traffic. But without a stellar user experience, it won’t matter how great the UI design is, you won’t reach your potential as a website owner.
The Role of Web Designers
If you’re ready to build a new website or give your existing one a facelift, understanding the differences between user interface and user experience will help a lot. This is especially true if you’re thinking about hiring an Australian web designer to help you out. After all, if you invest in a professional to help you out, you’ll want to make sure they know the meanings of UI and UX.
The Role of a UI Web Designer
Here are the things you should look for in a web designer that’s focused on good UI web design:
- Ability to create highly responsive web design that looks good on all screen sizes and device types
- Attention to detail when it comes to all things visual – branding, graphics, user guides, and design research included
- Expertise in how the overall look and feel of a website appeals to a target audience and convinces them to convert
- Experience in turning wireframes for websites and turn them into a reality
The Role of a UX Web Designer
Here are the things you should look for in a web designer that’s focused on good UX web design:
- An understanding of your target audience and what their needs are in terms of site usability, products, and services
- The ability to create a design strategy and follow it through, while also taking into consideration your needs
- Expertise in how people behave and interact with elements on websites as they follow your expected customer journey
The Power of User Experience (UX) in Website Design
The UX industry has achieved significant momentum in recent years. It is because the bond between the brand loyalty and user experience is getting stronger day by day. Have you ever thought how much people rely on the screens and its ability to connect people instantly?
We can realise the importance of the screens when we encounter lousy experience, and as a result, it is inevitable to face hindrance in completing our job successfully.
If the potential customers of your company meet the same issue, they will quickly give up out of frustration and just switch to any other company which provides the same services with better screens. So we can easily understand the significance of good UX.
It’s primarily a user-centric approach that guides the users to get practical solutions as expeditiously as possible. This simple design is created according to the users so that they can receive the answers quickly such as locations, products or different other answers etc.
An excellent UX design orchestrates the journey of the users. This one is the most crucial step if you intend to have any digital product in future. That is why most of the business giants like Google, Woolworths, Apple, BBC and so on has an accomplished UX team of experts.
Not the business giants but also the small-scale businesses concentrate on it because of the power of UX. It helps them to get the get reward while they can be circumspect with their resources.
Now let’s check out why the business giants focus on UX design. What are the advantages of them?
The importance and advantages of UX in web design
Think about a site you visit, and you get confused with its navigation system because of its inadequately laid out homepage and various misplaced button. What will you do? Out of frustration, you’ll quickly leave that page. The same thing can happen with any site. Misplaced button, lousy navigation system or any other this kind of hurdle can be proved to be fatal for any website, especially for a new business. If the users get upset, they will never revisit your site.
It is not only applied to small-scale or new businesses, but various big brands have lost their grasp on a once monopolised market also. It is because they didn’t pay the required attention to customer’s requirement.
After all, you have to keep in mind that the internet is better known to be a full democracy where people prefer to be treated in the best possible way. They expect that the best experience will be served to be them all the time, within just fraction of seconds.
If their experience is not valued, they will gracefully choose the one who gives them their desired result. In short, they are going to pick your competitors instead of you.
Even in the small unsaturated market, someone can sprout up with slightly better services. So don’t lose your customers just because of this little ignorance.
Here are some top graded ideas
Are you trying to make your website work for your business? Improve the user experience, and 80% of the problems will be solved instantly. However, now, here the question is how to get a website that provides the best user experience. It’s not so hard. Its just need some extra effort and planning.
At first, you need to understand that looks or design of your site is not everything. There is a bit science behind designing an excellent webpage which makes it UX friendly.
Don’t annoy your customers
Focus on the services you want to offer the most to your valuable customers and prepare your blog accordingly. It should be relevant and informative as well. If you go excessively far off the beaten path, that too with irrelevant articles and blog, you may end up with annoying your valuable customers.
It should be mobile responsive
Nowadays, millions of people love to access the internet through mobile. So it’s natural that most of the time they will navigate your site through their mobile. Therefore, a mobile responsive website increases the chances of success spontaneously.
Update your site according to the customer’s experience
People usually prefer to create a website that actively meets the customer’s need. If you have been running a website for quite a long time, and if your clients are habituated with the links and the navigation of your site, it’s time to conduct a survey. With the help of this study, you can easily find out what they don’t like about your website, and you can update your site accordingly.
User action
You may of have a business goal of selling a particular product or you may have created a website to educate people, good UX design can always improve user action. For example, so many users are there who selects various products and keeps them on their wish list. You never know, they are may be interested in the return policy before purchasing all these items. So, if you put relevant information on your site, it will improve user action, and as a result, you’ll start getting maximum productivity.
People sometimes think they don’t need UX focus in website design because they know their customers well. It’s entirely a wrong idea. Always keep in mind that customers are brutally honest. You may have a definite opinion about the steps the users will take but influencing them is not an easy job.
You need to have a meticulously crafted digital experience which can guide them throughout the pathways. Various accomplished professionals are there who can ensure the best UX design with the smallest expense. So if you need any guidance, feel free to contact Keen to Design. Our services have benefited hundreds of customers, and the best thing is these services are available in the throwaway price range.
How can User Experience (UX) Lead your Business Website to Success?
Are you about to get a website for your business? Then you must have an idea about the importance of the user experience. In that case, a user experience expert plays a vital role while developing a website. The user experience expert has designed a new objective perspective. It is requisite in both design process of a site and for information architecture. The integral role of this perspective cannot be denied or revoked.
Website development is a creative process which is accomplished online. While developing a website, people usually confer an interest on the designing and the brand reputation. The look and feel of a site are truly important for anyone. However, often we forget to concentrate on the principal thing that is the usability. The sole purpose of designing a website is increasing the trustworthiness of the brand in the market as well as the ROI generation. Both of these purposes depend on the usability of a site. So it is substantially detrimental to make a website successful.
Only a user experience expert can amplify the competitive influence of a company dramatically. It will directly hit the perception of the users. As a result, their interaction, as well as understanding with the brand, will start changing gradually.
User experience is synonymous with customer service. So to provide aesthetically gratifying experience to the customer, you need to concentrate on providing valuable information to them. It will gradually increase the traffic on your site. Along with that, it has a profound effect. It will create a definite brand predilection among your potential customers. As a result, the abandonment and bounce rate will be diminished significantly. However, for that, you have to provide complete latitude to the user experience experts so that they can arbitrate according to your business preferences. In that case branding, unique content, spontaneous functionality and excellent usability are crucial.
The influence of different social media on website design
Few people know that social media integration has a significant impact on website designing. That is why major social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and others have permitted the business owners to publish the live content directly to their website with the help of XML feeds and APIs. It helps to integrate different social media platforms seamlessly. Along with that, you can efficiently manage the content of your site too.
People also include the link to their website on the official page of social media. It is done because the audiences share their experience directly with the owner through the social feed. It has different side effects too. Always keep in mind that your potential customers will see these conversations and feedbacks and according to that they are going to judge your brand. So if the feedbacks are not in your favour, it will go against your brand too.
So never drop random feedbacks on your website. Before integrating those feedbacks on your site, you need to take time to analyse it. In this way, you can create a favourable environment for your audiences. Apart from that always ponder over relevant content. The videos, posts or images posted by you should be related as well as entertaining for the visitors.
How to utilise Social Media for Customer Experience?
Users are no longer interested in company’s perception. In this era of Social Media, they love to join a direct conversation and also dig deep into the perspective of other customers about that particular company. So if you integrate the customer’s feed to your website, it will exhibit the company’s willingness to know their customer’s outlook. Now, if you check it from the technical point of view, you will get many advantages if you integrate the content of social media directly into your website.
It will help you to improve the SEO too. TweetDeck is an excellent tool. Utilising this tool, you can quickly identify the chatter in the social media group and also respond to the customers efficiently. Apart from that YouTube or Flickr are excellent tools that come with Flash players. If you want to have a media player to display the photos or the videos, don’t forget to utilise these tools. It will save your time and also reduce the development cost.
Responsive Design for better User Experience (UX)
In today’s world after the invention of the responsive designs and because of the burgeoning influence of social media, Content management system or CMS has turned into Website Management Systems. Responsive design is always preferable as it offers the better user experience. People now prefer to access the internet with the help of their smartphones. So, if your website works well on smartphones and tablets, the sheer amount of people will access it frequently. Responsive web design not only provides a better user experience but also boosts the ranking of your site and diminishes the bounce rate.
A right tool can make you the boss of your website. With the help of a scalable and well-featured interface, you can control your site, the customers and most importantly, the campaign management can also be done. However, you have to have an idea about the right features of the Website Management Systems which includes
- Content management with drag and drop facility
- Video player integration
- Social media integration
- Content updates from your phone
- The functionality of creating a mobile-friendly or responsive version of your site
- Rich-text WYSIWYG control
- SEO friendly content output
- Campaign analysis with Dashboard
- Visitor profiling with Dashboard
- Rollback control as well as Website versioning
Final Thoughts
Choosing a web designer with experience in both UI and UX can be tough if you don’t know what you’re looking for. It can be even harder when you take on a task of this size on your own, even if you do know the differences between user interface and user experience.
Luckily, here at Keen to Design, we have what you need whether you want to spruce up the visual appeal of your website or improve the user experience and land more conversions. So, contact us now and see how we can help.
Not only do we know what it takes to design a beautiful website people will love from the moment they arrive, we know that the user experience is what takes things to the next level. Guiding your visitors through your site and taking action in the way you want them to is what we do best. And with affordable web design packages available, you can trust there’s an option for everyone, regardless of budget.