UI vs UX Design: Which Creative Career Fit Best For You?

Created by UI8 Design -

User interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design are starting to skyrocket in recent years. The rising popularity and online user are reasons why the two creative careers are getting more exposure. The design discipline itself sees a lot of possibilities in the current work situation. It makes people start to wonder about their differences. 

The two similar terms themselves are commonly exchanged and misunderstood. The UI and UX might sound alike. However, they are 180 degrees different. It makes the design discipline demand unalike designer responsibility and duty. The two careers themselves can turn into a hybrid job called a UI/UX designer. But then, what makes the creative career so atypical? 

In this article, you will learn how the two design disciplines are dissimilar. It will be a grounding idea that they are two separate designer careers. They are not the same, and the basic or focus are also unalike. For you who are confused about which creative career to pick up, here is the debunking information you need to mark. 

UX And UI Design Are Inseparable 

Before going further into the difference and choosing the best career, it is vital to understand that the two design disciplines are working hand in hand. In other words, you can consider that UI and UX are paired or inseparable. People tend to ask which one is the best and help you work in the industry? Since both are complementary, it is hard to answer. 

You will need to dig deep to understand the two roles. So, you can look at the best suitable creative career. In the creative industry, both are currently in demand. It has the same possibilities for a designer career. There are also times that designers work the two careers for a smaller design project. 

How so? Because both creative careers are related. With proper fundamental knowledge, you can work as a UI or UX designer. Both play a central role in business, which is pretty much playable for the same person. However, it does not mean both careers learn the same design knowledge. Each creative work has its different focus. 

Created by Grace Saraswati

Long short story, UI focus on the look and the feel. People who are making UI careers can only underline their duty to create visually appealing designs for the project. However, it might not be a thing that the user or people want to need in it. In other words, the designer discipline only works for interface visuals, creative elements, and no more than that. 

However, UX focuses on the user's needs and flow. The sense of user experience designers is to make the project meaningful, relatable, memorable, and work perfectly. The main design concentration is the user, which means they might create a less appealing interface or product. It might also end with an unusable product. 

When the designer's career only goes by themselves, it won't create a perfect product. A perfect product such as a web or application needs a creative career. The UI for what the user looks at, and UX for what the user will experience in it. Together they are one, and the design specialties work together. A good UI will always be followed with a good UX as well. 

Created by Lilya Deryabina

The Primary Differences 

From the previous explanation, you can underline that the two designer careers are different but inseparable. The design subjects are highly reliant on each other, especially for bigger projects. A bigger project that has complex details will need the two creative careers to work together. Or else the product result will be under expectation. 

Considering the differently alike career, you can underline some fundamental differences. The primary differences between UI and UX come from the design specialties. Designers focus on different parts, which make them have unalike duties. It sets the two roles apart and makes aspiring designers need to learn separately. 

1. Part Vs Movement 

A very fundamental yet clear distance between the two designer creative careers is the part and movement. Both are the two focuses that make the UI and UX apart. They are not similar in how they work as designers. It also underlines the knowledge and fundamental skills to learn. It makes the two careers separate from individual or talent consideration. 

First, the UI designer career is pretty much only work with individual parts of digital products. What kind of part? In web design, you will find many elements, including color, visuals, and also pages. UI design workers only focus on making the elements appealing and have their personalities without caring about how users feel. 

Again, the focus of UI is the user interface. In other words, what people see and watch on the web is under the UI designer's work. The creative career plays around with every visual perspective and element. They will work around the color selection, layout, the visual representation of the product or company. It is something that is not about the user. 

On the contrary, the UX designer will pay attention to how people move on the web. They don't care about visual design. The main focus of UX is to ensure users are pleased. How? By giving the best experience on the web. The UX designer's work is planning, analyzing, and making the web providing a clear or easy-to-navigate aspect for visitors. 

The creative career does not talk about creative aspects such as visual work by UI. The UX team's duty essentially is to ensure the web design is free from a bottleneck, confusing navigation, or traffic rate. Rather than creative work, you will find that the career mostly focuses on the operational. 

User experience or UX also mostly focuses on creating a better flow in the web. The first thing that the creative career needs to solve is how to make consistency on the web. It does not care about the visual, which makes the designer need to monitor the user's habit from time to time. It means to help the website reach the initial goal (sales or exposure). 

Created by UI8 Design

2. Visual Vs Resolution 

UI designers focus on individual parts, which makes them focus on the visual design. It is one of the best dissimilarities that you need to know. The career mostly works under creative demand, which includes creating aesthetic points of the product. How to create the web or the product appearances are the main jobs of this discipline. 

Most of the time, the UI designer does not care about the flow as long as everything looks good and appropriate for the project or product. Then it is a good pass. However, the design idea from the designer itself needs to solve the problem. How so? Most of the time, the creative career makes a solution through its visual representation. 

The best example is creating creative branding. Designers need to ensure the design represents the correct service or project. It also has to be a design that sets up a function. In short, UI guarantees the visual will enhance the aesthetic point, be representative, and be functional. However, all of the considerations are merely from the designer's perspective, not the user's eyes. 

Underline the fact of designer or user lens. When the UI only works around the project or designer lens, UX takes a further or deeper function from the user's shoes. The UX designer career does not take creative work very much. But they are mostly focused on creating solutions to design problems that eventually fit with the user's needs. 

It goes a long distance with the UI design. The UX designer also needs a very deep knowledge of the users' desires, flow, and demands. The creative career will focus on creating more design solutions to make a better experience for the visitor. It is a resolution that fuels the career journey, which is far different from the creative mind for UI creators.   

Created by Nathan Bolger

The Focus 

As said in the previous details, each of the caritive careers has a different focus. While both are inseparable, the creative career has different duties and responsibilities. The tasks mostly depend on the focus itself. One designer can do both design disciplines. But for sure, they will need to learn two different creative focuses at the same time.  

1. Function And Aesthetic 

From the creative point of view, many people only consider aesthetic points. It is not a bad concept; however, in UI or UX, the terminology is heavily related to the user interface designer. To put it bluntly, you can put all of the creative and artwork for the UI designer. They will take care of all of the aesthetics and functions of the product. 

However, you need to underline that the creative career does not take any perspective of the user. They merely focus on the design for the product's looks and function—no more than that. But a point that makes the career worthwhile is that it is mostly suitable for people that are creative and love doing artwork. 

They will work to make a visual design for the product or the project itself. However, there are times that the designer needs to work along with the UX creator. It is especially true if the UI creative career needs to work in design based on the mockups or wireframes by the UX designer. It will make the career working hand in hand. 

One thing is for sure, and the creative visual interface designer will not merely ignore the user experience or UX. UI tends to work under the principal or planning of UX designers, which are focused on the user experience. It is because every creative visual element in the product can directly affect the UX. To make better UX, they need to ensure the UI is also sufficient. 

The idea is that the creative career as a UI designer will generally make a design that can provide intuitive interaction and enhance the product function. In other words, the UI designer works to make a creative vision without consciously considering the UX. They are more focused on the design pattern that entices users. 

It is not the right definition to put the UI designer too far apart from UX. One of the reasons is since UI teams who focus on the look and visual will also consider strategy made by UX. The designer will eventually create a creative move to make a compelling visual cue that helps to solve problems (the UX focus).    

Created by UI8 Design

2. Experiences

Aside from the creative visualization, pattern, and color, the career focus of UX designers is experience. UX design is pretty much taking more effort into making the users get a better experience with the product. It includes the visitor flows, movement, problems, bugs, and other considerations. It makes the creative career have more than just visual creative knowledge. 

The designer career does not work directly with creative movement or how the product looks. Most of the time, the UX team works in the early stage of product development, such as wireframing, user research, and many more. At the same time, the work done by UX designers tends to be the guideline for the user interface. 

The two symbiotic progress explains how the two creative careers are inseparable. It also explains the UX designer still cares about the product look but from a different point of view. It relates the UX with the visual design of the product. They will plan and make a prototype with the UI designer to ensure both aspects work hand in hand. 

So, both creative careers are pretty much working to make a product based on their point of view. The UX determines their move and creative design through the product function toward the visitor. At the same time, the UX team also considers how the visual design affects the user's behavior and emotion.  

Created by Roman Lel

Responsibilities 

So, which creative career fits best for you? Understanding the focus and the difference will help you know about the work. But you also need to look at the responsibilities. Due to the difference in focus and knowledge, the career leads to separate responsibilities. The takeaway point is, if you love art, go for UI. But if you love systematic processes, go for UX. 

1. User Interface Job 

Most of the time, the UI design job starts after the UX designer makes a wireframe or prototype. It is because the creative visual and aesthetic point should help or be suitable to enhance the UX. In this case, the creative career's main responsibility is mostly to encompass creative and fun works. 

The first responsibility is to make a finished design based on the prototypes and the wireframing. Consistent visual representation, function, and the design that goes well with UX demand are what they need to take care of. To make the design work, the career also needs to do creative research. It is the second responsibility that includes analyzing competitors. 

UI teams need to ensure their visual style design can impact the product and reach the user. It includes some other personalities such as communicating with engineering and the UX designer so they can make an interface design that met the intended purpose. It also means creating a creative design that is feasible with the function. 

One of the UI creative career responsibilities is to make a product or product that is responsive with different screen sizes. It is a new standard that UI design needs to work in many devices, including PC to smartphone. It is also undeniable that the user interface creator needs to be involved in the prior process to avoid any potential design issues.  

Created by Gotoinc Agency

2. User Experience Duty 

Most of the time, the UX design work starts in the very beginning phase. They will need to lay the project's foundation, which later becomes a guide for the UI creator. In this case, designers have to handle at least five responsibilities. The first UX's duty is researching the users' needs, motivation, reason, movement, and experiences. 

They need to ensure the product can solve or provide whatever the user demands. The second responsibility is developing a strategy for the product design that goes well with the user's needs. It comprises details, such as product requirements to journey maps for the users. The UX responsibility also includes creating wireframes and prototypes designed for the user interface. 

It is one of the guides for the UI designer's creative career responsibility. In this case, the UX designer job does not end there. Most of the time, the UX team needs to analyses the user interaction with the product. They also have to address some potential error or problem during the design process. It works by testing the product before or during ongoing status.   

Created by Bettr Studio

Final Words

Regardless of your choice to be a UI or UX designer, the two options are great careers to consider. They are currently in demand and probably immobile for years in the future. All you need to underline is to learn the proper roles and get some fundamental basics for both design disciplines. It will help you lead to better career opportunities and success.