What's the difference between UX and UI design?

By Morgan Bruggeman

User experience design and user interface design often get confused for one another. User experience design is the process of designing a pleasurable experience while helping users accomplish a task on the site. User interface design is the aesthetically pleasing visuals that make up the site. User experience designers design the user flow and the overall efficiency of task completion. They really work to make the users experience as easy and pleasurable as possible. UX design is also very research based, it uses data and research to see what is working, what isn't, and how we can make things easier and more enjoyable for the user. User interface designers refine the interactions created and add color, graphics, and emphasis. UI designers create the visual look and feel of the site. UX is created before the UI, that way the flow is accurate and it doesn't have to be re-designed visually. UX and UI are extremely integrated, which may be why the two types of design get confused.

            UX and UI are extremely important to one another. Without UX, beautifully designed websites would lack efficiency and be less enjoyable to the user. Without UI design, UX would be boring, not pleasing to the eye, and lose the users interest. Since they rely so heavily on each other to be successful, it is important to remember the difference between the two in order to create beautiful, efficient, and overall enjoyable websites and interactions.