UI Designer vs UX Designer: The Ultimate Comparison

UI and UX are unavoidable parts of modern product and service developments, at least those across the digital media. Whether it’s an application, website, software, games, operating system, or just a random chatbot- everything requires some essence of both of these tasks.

In today’s post, we’ve disclosed the differences, similarities, task coverages, and career overview of UI Designers vs. UX Designers. Take a break from whatever you’re up to and go through the whole post.

UI designer vs UX designer — Source: Gst.touro.edu

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“UX is focused on the user’s journey to solve a problem, UI is focused on how a product’s surfaces look and function.”

-Ken Norton, Ex-Product Manager at Google

This simple quote explains the basics of UI and UX design, quoted from one of the partners of Google's venture.

How Should We Look At The Comparison?

Before we break down the differences between a UI designer and a UX designer, we must set the right viewpoints. You must understand what variables matter in between these two aspects and how it affects the designer himself. Firstly, UI is closer to what we refer to as Graphic Design. But the area of work has many differences between them. On the other hand, UX is a bit of a technical and analytical sort of work.

Read Also: UI Designer vs. UX Designer vs. Product Designer: A Comparative Analysis

To understand in-depth, you have to look at the UI from a visual point of view, whereas UX is more about how much comfort and satisfaction a particular product can provide its users. Hope you’ve got that right. If yes, let’s enter into the main discussion-

What Is UX Design?

Simply put, UX design boosts the user’s satisfaction by enhancing usability, interaction, ease of use, etc. The exact definition goes for both, whether a physical or a software-based product. And what tasks does it cover? Well, it’s hard to answer it in one word. But we can certainly give you a categorized list of works that are responsibilities of a UX designer-

Analyze the business competitors.
Analyze the customers of the product/service.
Define product strategy and structure.
Develop text and graphical content.

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Wireframing and Prototyping

Wireframing the product.
Create Prototypes.
Iteration and test run.
Plan the development.

Execution of Process and Analysis

Coordinate with product developers.
Coordinate with UI designers.
Track milestones and monitor progress.
Iteration and analysis.

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Read Also: 6 Elements of A Brand Strategy that Every Business Should Adopt

What Is UI Design?

While UX deals with the usability and ease of a product, UI does the job of complementing it with the visual look, feel, and overall interactivity of a particular product. It also includes branding, visual design, front-end development, etc.

As an interactive and visual designer, the role of UI personnel is quite crucial. To some extent, he has to collaborate, merge, and complement the front-end designer, the UX designer, and even the marketing team. Now, let’s look at the responsibilities a UI designer has to take over.

Product Visuals

Research the design.
Analyze customers’ demands and behavior.
Develop branding graphics.
Interface design for different devices/screens.
Create a storyline or user guides.

Interactivity and Responsiveness

Prototyping the UI.
Animation creation and interactivity.
Adaption of all operating environments.
Collaborative tasking with the developer.
Collaborative tasking with the UX designer.

Can UX and UI Designers Work Together?

By now, we have already established the fact that both designers need to collaborate with each other to create and develop a product.

Wondering How?

The thing about mobile applications where it serves the user with a particular sort of information. To deliver optimal usability, the UX team will work on the app's flow and decide the placement of grids and buttons by analyzing users’ behaviors.

On the other hand, these decisions regarding the interface and structure of the app will be given to the UI designer’s hands. The UI team will work on the interface and make sure that the correct elements appear in the right place correctly. And this sort of collaboration will keep going on even if any particular change is required in the same product.

The Career Comparison Between UI Designers Vs. UX Designers

As long as we’re comparing UI designers and UX designers, it’s evident that the career comparison will take place in the discussion. But the answer depends on the location, experience, industry, and the type of product/project the designer is dealing with.

Glassdoor has done comprehensive research on this concern. According to them, the base(median) salary of an average UI designer is $84,361/yr in the United States. And on the other hand, the salary of an average UX designer is $94,727/yr in the United States. However, if we set out radar into central Europe, we see more precise data on the salary comparison of UI designers vs. UX designers. Have a look-

Bottom Line

At the end of the whole discussion, if you are wondering which career path is better for you? Well, the answer should not be based only on salary ranges because that’s quite impractical. Instead, think about which sort of work excites and seduces you and how much confidence you hold in both sectors. This will eventually bring you the final answer. Good luck!