Getting the target audience’s attention and engaging them on your website are two critical factors that decide your sales, and growth. But this is not as easy it seems.
You need to focus on the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of your website. However, many people confuse UI with UX. Do you also consider them the same?
For example, the actual features of the website such as colors, fonts, scrolling features, buttons, and images, fall in the UI category. On the other hand, the overall user experience throughout the website comes into the UX category.
Since users tend to spend most of the time on UI, it is considered a key to the overall user experience. However, it doesn’t cover the entire experience.
Take an example of a restaurant, and assume UI is the napkins, silverware, and plate, and UX is the music, customer service, and lighting that facilitates the overall dining experience. If you visit a restaurant where customer service is not good or plates are not hygienic – do you like to eat there or return to such a restaurant. Of course not!
Most businesses overlook these two factors, and this is where they make mistakes. As per a study, 52% of users say that they won’t return to a website because of its aesthetics. Another study states that 74% of visitors are likely to come back to a site with an excellent mobile user experience.
You can now imagine how important it is to provide a good UI and UX to translate prospects into loyal customers. It’s best to hire an experienced web design agency in California and know about the difference between these terms to get the user’s attention.
What is UI?
A user interface is an approach that deals with optimizing the interaction between people and software. It includes anticipating users’ needs and building specific inputs to help the user easily navigate throughout the website.
UI is a part of UX. User interface mainly deals with visual design, interaction design, and information architecture. A web development company will help you make the interaction with the digital device as smooth as possible. They will also help you keep things consistent, updated, and simple.
Examples of UI include designing a sitemap with a clear content hierarchy, brightly colored buttons, specified call to action (CTA).
What is UX?
User experience (UX) refers to the experience felt by the user when visiting your site. If you design your products keeping in mind the user experience, it impacts your customers’ hearts better. Depending on the design, the user’s experience on any website can be neutral, positive, or negative.
These days, many businesses have adopted a new type of strategy to improve their UX, i.e., emotional targeting. They have created their user experience in a way that can emotionally align with their customers. It helps businesses relate to the website’s practical usage.
But how to design a positive user experience?
Well, all you need to do is understand your customers and their needs, struggles, and goals. Once you know these key points, you can better create UX. Does your website have good UX? To know about your website’s UX, try to answer the following questions:
- Is the website easy to navigate?
- Is finding a product easy on your website?
- Does your website have a seamless check-out process?
Once you find the mistakes, you can easily make the changes. To provide a good UX, you need to work on the following things:
- Well-designed project management system
- User research information architecture
- Content strategy
- Visual design
- Analytics
- Accessibility and UI
Difference between UI and UX
While UI and UX seem similar, they are different.
| User Interface (UI) | User Experience (UX) |
| It means how users interact with the digital devices and the user’s ability to use them. | It means the interaction of the user with the service, product, or brand. |
| It is about how your product looks. | It is how your products impact your customer’s mind |
If you are looking to hire a web development company, it’s best to ensure they have different skill sets to work at different stages in the process. Whenever it comes to designing, UX tends to come first.
A web design company will start researching your user’s needs and goals, mapping the entire user journey. And they will create a wireframe of their findings. Then, the web development company will implement the changes across the website based on the customer journey and wireframes.
A UI designer will also consider the UX designer’s feedback and strategies when developing designs to meet the targeted customer’s requirements and expectations. Also, there is a feedback loop between UX and UI designers; once the UI designer creates the user interface, the UX designer will test the interface.
Takeaway!
UI and UX are two different terms. share some similarities, but they are not entirely the same. A UX designer utilizes user research, content development, and strategy to develop the end-to-end customer experience. On the other hand, a UI designer uses design research, responsive design, and branding to enhance the look and feel of your digital product across devices.
Do you also want to improve the UI and UX of your website to boost your user interaction and sales? Hire an experienced and knowledgeable web design agency in California to ensure that you design what your customers like and can work for your business.