The difference between UX and UI should be obvious, right? Yet many find themselves having this conversation repeatedly with people who honestly should know the answer, including some product managers and UX managers, unfortunately.
It’s okay to not know everything, we are all learning together. It’s important to have an environment where people are comfortable admitting what they don’t know. But this is important, so let’s make sure this is the last day not knowing.
UX is User Experience, which is the end to end general experience a user has while interacting with or using a system. UI is User Interface, the mechanism presented to a user to operate the system they are trying to use.
Let’s illustrate by highlighting these two concepts in context of a car. In the case of a car, the car’s user interface would include a steering wheel, gas pedal, brake, turn signal, windshield wiper controls, radio controls, etc. Let’s contrast two examples: In the case of a really nice car, let’s say a Ferrari, I assume it has all of these interface controls. In the case of a really not so great car, let’s say the 1990 Pontiac Grand Prix I owned for my first car, all of these interface controls are also present. The same interface ideas are present in the Ferrari and my 1990 Grand Prix, but is the experience of driving these cars remotely similar? Absolutely not at all!
A Ferrari is obviously a hugely different experience than my old junky car, even though their interface controls might be similar. Why are they different? Well, Ferraris are optimized for speed, comfort, style and are extremely luxurious. A ton of work and planning and strategy goes into giving the top of the line driving experience, whereas my old junky car is outdated, more budget friendly and only intended to give a baseline experience, transportation from point A to point B. So, the two, while having similarities in their interface, have a huge difference in their experience.
Sticking with our car metaphor, which experience is better? Well, for me – as a young college student, a cheap car that provided baseline transportation really met my user needs. If I were a wealthy business tycoon, the Ferrari experience might be better suited for me. The quality of user experience always depends upon the individual needs of the user; it’s very situational.
So, let’s tie this to web systems.
We said car user interfaces are similar, is that true for web systems? Yes. In most cases, you’ve got the same 20-25 form elements that every other website has, the same scroll bars, the same paragraph blocks, you get the idea, the same elements! UI is typically not particularly innovative, websites generally have the same UI building blocks ( there are some exceptions, and honestly, creativity and innovation in UI is a deep topic, perhaps a great topic for another article, eh Joy?). But ultimately yes, UI does not vary greatly.
However, UX does vary greatly from site to site. Why is that? It has to do with the overall experience. Is the web system luxurious, fast and sleek, like the Ferrari? Or is the web system budget conscious and hyper focused on performing one simple task to baseline standards, like the 1990 Grand Prix? And which one is superior?
Many who don’t understand the difference between UI and UX really begin to lose their way at the question “which interface is superior?”
A UX manager who doesn’t understand the difference between UI and UX might get caught up thinking “All UI has to be sleek, gorgeous and expensive!” why? Because that’s better than budget conscious, in their mind. But remember the car metaphor? As a poor college student, the 1990 Grand Prix served my needs better than a Ferrari would have. A Ferrari would have been a huge burden on me. So, UX and Product managers who don’t understand that sometimes simpler UIs provide a better UX for the situation will likewise burden their teams with unnecessarily complicated work.
A person who understands what User Experience is will understand the fundamental truth: the better user experience will always depend upon the needs of the user, it’s situational. Don’t get caught up making UI for UI’s sake, but always keep what the user needs and doesn’t need in view.
In closing, user interfaces are just the bits we use to interact with the system. The user experience is the beginning to end interaction, the complete encounter with the system and how that system meets and addresses the user’s needs.
The user interface absolutely plays a part in the user experience, but it is just a part, it is just a tool in weaving the larger user experience. Confusing the two and emphasizing the UI over the UX means that the user needs will largely fall by the wayside, you’ll burden your team with unnecessary work and you miss the entire point of User Experience.
Until next time, remember to keep your users joyful!
