UI and UX – The Designer’s Guide to the Technology Industry

UI and UX – The Designer’s Guide to the Technology Industry

What is UI and UX designing and who are UX/UI designers?

Do you often get confused and wonder what people mean when they say that they are designers?

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Well, don’t worry you are not alone.

Design is certainly a vague and broad term.

When somebody says that they are a designer, what exactly they do on a day-to-day basis is not quite clear.

Designer is an umbrella term, which encompasses a number of various responsibilities.

So, what does a UX designer do?

Roles related to UX and UI designing exists across different industry sectors from print and publications (magazines etc.) and industrial designing (furniture, cars etc.) to technology (mobile apps and websites).

Besides, with the relatively huge influx of technology companies which focus on developing interfaces for screens, several roles for new designs and UI UX designs have now emerged.

Job titles such as UI and UX designers are often very confusing, unfamiliar and uninitiated even to the UI and UX  designers, the ones who are from different industry sectors.

In general, any given design related problem will seldom have a single right answer. So, let us now distill out UI and UX designers, user interface developers, user interface designers.

We will see what is UX designer job description, what is a UX designer, difference between UI and UX and what does UX design meaning signifies?

User Experience Designer/UX Designer

If you are looking for UX design definition, then it is nothing but user interaction design.

UX designers are the ones who define user experience before it is developed.

UX designers will primarily be concerned with the feel of the product.

So, design problems will often not have a specific solution or there will not be just a single approach to go about it.

So, user experience designers are known to explore all the possibilities to address the problems faced by the users.

When it comes to user design experience, UX designers will have broad responsibility of ensuring that the product will logically flow from one step to another without any glitches.

One way in which UX designers often do this is by carrying out in person user tests.

This helps them to observe and understand the user behavior.

They will then identify non-verbal and verbal stumbling blocks, refine and iterate to develop the best possible user experience.

An example for this kind of project would be to create a delightful on-boarding flow for the new users.

User Interface Designer/UI Designer

Unlike the UX designers who are responsible for the overall product feel, UI designers are not concerned with the feel of the product.

They will be responsible for looking into how exactly the product will be laid out. And also responsible for the design of every page or screen with which the users often interact.

They should also ensure that the user interface visually guides the path which is laid out by a UX designer.

For instance, UI designers who create analytics dashboard will front-load the valuable content at the very top.

Or, they might also decide whether a control knob or a slider – which one of these will make intuitive sense for adjusting a graph.

Next, they are also responsible for developing cohesive style guides and making sure that consistent design language will be applied throughout the product.

The profile also includes maintaining consistency in the defining behavior as well as visual elements also come under the purview of UI designers.

These include displaying the warning or error messages.

While the boundary between the UI and UX designers is mostly blurred, it is common for businesses to combine both these roles for the better.

Graphic Designers/Visual Designers

Being the ones who sweat out on minute details that are mostly overlooked by the users, visual designers are the ones who push pixels.

Graphic designers are not worried about how the screens are linked to one another or how the users interact with the products.

Instead, they hugely focus on designing beautiful visual elements such as controls, icons etc. and choose suitable typography.

They mostly work on minute details that others overlook and often work at a zoom level of 4X to 8X in Photoshop.

Motion Designer/Interaction Designer

Do you remember any subtle animations that bounce when you refresh the mail app on the iPhone.

That is the function of an interaction designer.

While visual designers work on static assets, motion designers develop animations within the apps.

They handle the interface and look into what it does as soon as the users touch it.

For instance, they decide the look of a menu, types of transition effects and the way in which the buttons fan out.

When it is done in a pristine way, motion will be the integral part of the interface.

This provides as many visual clues as possible to the viewers to guide them about using the product.

User Researcher/UX Researcher

They are the champions of all the user needs. The primary role of these designers would be to address the twin concerns – “what do the users want” and “who are the users”.

Basically, the role includes interviewing the users, analyzing market data as well as collecting findings.

As design entails constant iteration, researchers regularly conduct A/B testing to identify best designs that satisfy user needs.

UX researchers are mainstays at large organizations and will have access to enormous data which enables them to draw critical statistical conclusions.

UI Developer or Front-End Developer

These developers are solely responsible for developing function implementation of product interface.

In general, these developers receive static mock ups from UI designers and translate it to functioning experience that is interactive.

These developers are also involved in coding visual interactions which are suggested by the motion designers.

Product Designers

This catch-all term defines designers who are associated with the designing of the feel and looks of the products.

While the role of product designers are not completely defined, it differs from one organization to another.

Product designers carry out user research, basic front-end coding, develop visual effects as well as design interfaces.

Right from the beginning to the end, product designers will help to identify initial set backs, set benchmarks and design tests along with iterating different solutions.

Companies that need more fluid collaboration across different design roles will often choose this title.

This motivates the design team to collectively take the leadership and own user research, visual design elements and user experience.

However, some companies might just use “designer” or “UX designer” on the whole.

So, different companies define exact roles and assign it to design teams based on their design requirements.

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