If you are reading this article, you have probably seen the UI acronym and you may be wondering what is all this about. You also may have seen the UX acronym, and probably UI and UX together. So, in order to understand them, first of all it is important to differentiate between User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX), two disciplines that are often confused, probably because they work hand in hand and because its similar acronyms. UI refers to the interface creation, which can be graphical or developed mainly with languages such as HTML, JS or CSS, while UX focuses on usability, focusing on analysis and social relationships.

The UI professional will focus on the product design, impacting the first visual impression of the user, something that determines if the user likes a website or application, while the UX expert focuses on usability and navigation ease, creating certain emotions and sensations when using the interface. In other words, the UI designer is mainly responsible for the interface visual aspect, while UX focuses on ensuring that the navigation and actions performed by the user are consistent. UI is responsible for deciding the user's journey, while UX focuses on the processes and actions that trigger use.

UI and UX are two design terms that are often used in the wrong context. Designers who call themselves "UI designers" could be hurting their reputations.

Traditional job titles like "website designer" and "app designer" are much less common today, despite being perfect descriptions of the design services a designer might offer. Isn't the user interface a part of the UX? Why has “UI” become such a buzzword?

UX vs. UI

As designers (and as human beings), we are obsessed with how things look. We know it's "what's on the inside that counts", but we still show up in front of the mirror every morning, trying to appear nice to random strangers we'll never see again.

UI design is no different. Since things that are visually appealing give more thought, this can lead some designers to spend more time on what an interface looks like than how it works. The key difference between UI and UX is that UI is how it 'looks', and UX is how it works.

Calling yourself a UI designer is almost the same as saying, "I'm more focused on how it looks". In reality, UI is just a contribution to the user experience.


To name some important factors that help the overall user experience:

- Does the user flow help the user reach her goal quickly?
- Can any user, regardless of their age or physical ability, access the UI?
- Are design decisions driven by sound data and user research?
- Is the app intuitive enough to guess what the user wants?


Visual Design Still Matters, Colors still matter, branding still matters, and UI animations still matters, but when we start making design decisions based on how something looks, we no longer design for users! In fact, we are not even designing. We are making art.


As a general rule, UI is the way you interact with a product (for example, clicks, taps, and voice interactions) and the feel/excitement felt by the user (for example, is it fast/slow, intuitive/confusing, and so on /or makes the user feel happy/frustrated).


Why you shouldn't design for likes


Social networks are addictive. “Why” it is addictive is a whole different story. People share things on social networks for “likes” because, in short, they activate the reward system in our brain. We seek validation from others in the form of likes and followers, the same way we seek sex or food: it feels good, and when the feeling starts to fade, we quickly seek it out again for our desires.


However, design is about solving users´ problems. If we are not designing with a user in mind, then there is not a problem that needs to be solved. If there's no problem, then we're just displaying UI for the sake of it. Not only will we end up with something useless and impractical, but designing for imaginary ideals won't help us improve as designers.

In order to learn about UI, you can read some amazing books, such as “The Design of Everyday Things”, written by Don Norman, who is considered the founder of the term User Experience Design.

Apart from books, there is also an almost endless range of articles, podcasts and publications to help you along the way.
Also, you can learn some of the most important tools. In recent years, the combination of Sketch and InVision has been a very popular choice for many UI designers, but there are other tools that offer good features and options as well. In fact, the selection of wireframing and prototyping tools is better and wider than ever.