UX/UI Explained
UX/UI design impacts everyone’s everyday lives. From when we wake up in the morning and snooze the alarm on our smartphones, to sending multiple emails every day on our laptops, the digital media we interact with is all a result of UX/UI design. UX/UI design is the core of what we do at Five Acres and we have over 10 years of extensive knowledge and experience in the field. We’re passionate about sharing our knowledge and understanding of why great design is so valuable. To start off this blog, we wanted to break down UX/UI in the simplest way could. Our ultimate goal is to empower you and your team to make great design decisions. Here we go:
“UX” stands for User Experience.
“UI” stands for User Interface.
On the foundation, UX and UI are related to the field of graphic design, specifically for digital media. Everything we interact with that has a screen has a user experience and user interface. So what we see on our phones, laptops, tablets, smart TVs, kiosks etc. were all designed by someone or a team of someones. As you interact with a screen, you (a user) are having an experience. If your experience is positive, the media was designed well, if you got frustrated or couldn’t complete the task you wanted to, it was not. How you move throughout a system and the feeling you have while interacting with a digital product or system is the UX.
As a UX team, we follow a rigorous process that anticipates user goals and needs and ties them back to the business goals to create the most positive experience when interacting with the system. Our process is highly strategic and includes research, strategy, goal definition, diagraming, and testing etc. and is based on interactive design principals and best practices also known as UX heuristics.
A digital interface is a screen that displays digital content. Again, your phone, laptop, tablet, kiosk at the gas station, etc. (they are everywhere)... The look of the screen you are interacting with is your UI (user interface).
As user interface designers, we practice graphic design principals and skills to make the screen look engaging, and depending on the product or brand strategy will design it a certain way to achieve specific goals. Design choices are made depending on the brand we work with, the users who are interacting with the product, and how the screen is being used. We adjust the look and feel of a user interface design based on visual components defined by color, typography, photography, shape, scale, texture, and more.
In later posts we will get a bit deeper into the difference between UX and UI and why both are necessary for great interactive design and best practices when making important UX/UI decisions for your website, product or system. Sign up for our email list and follow along on Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop!
Get in touch if you would like to learn more about the benefits of working with an expert UX/UI team.