User interface (UI) is the means by which a user interacts with a computer system using input devices and software.
What is User Interface Design?
User interface design is all about the aesthetic experience of your product. It is the presentation and interactivity of your product. It can refer to only digital products, like a mobile application, website, or software. UI design includes the images, buttons, typography, and anything that you need to make up the visual aspects of a product.
What’s the Difference Between User Experience Design and User Interface Design?
These terms are often used in conjunction with one another, but they do have two different, distinct meanings. User experience design focuses on all of the elements that come together to make up that user experience. It’s about the journey and feeling that users get while exposed to your product or brand. Unlike UI design, UX design can be used in reference to digital and physical products. UX design contributes to the building blocks of a user’s journey and UI design contributes to the paint on those blocks!
How are UX and UI Design used during app and software development?
How does UI and UX design get implemented into the development process? There are 3 different types of deliverables that assist in bringing mobile applications, software, and websites to life. Wireframes are built by a designer focusing on user experience design. It’s the blueprint of how the user will adventure through the product. Next comes the mockups. Mockups are where user interface design gets involved. They show off the colors, images, icons and more using the blueprint laid out by wireframes. The final deliverable that is used in development is a prototype. It takes the UI and UX from the wireframes and mockups and makes an interactive experience. You are able to click and interact with a prototype to see how a user will eventually experience the build. While a prototype has interactivity, it is not built using code, rather made in a program like Adobe XD or Sketch.
