What is the difference between UX and UI Design
UX and UI Design are two terms that are becoming more and more popular in the technology world.
But what is the difference between UX and UI Design and when did we start using them?
Let's start by giving these two terms a definition and a place in history.
UI Design
UI, meaning User Interface, is the representation of the visual elements that appear on your screens.
User Interface Design as a job became more and more popular in the 21st century. Still, it was actually born in the second half of the last century. We can date the first User Interfaces as back as 1968 when Douglas Engelbart presented the oN-LineSystem.
The NLS was a computer collaboration systems that was revolutionary as it used for the first time in history, hypertext links, a mouse and a screen that facilitated the user's interaction with the computer.
The next key date was around the mid-70s when another critical moment for the history of UI happened, and the first Graphic User Interface was actually born.
Xerox in 1973 joined the technological revolution that characterised those years and built the Xerox Alto. The first Graphical User Interface or GUI.
However, they were still far from the commercialisation of UI as the Xerox Alto cost about 12k dollars to manufacture.
But we have to fast forward another 10 years to finally see the real commercial application of User Interface.
In 1984, when Steve Jobs presented the Macintosh, set a new milestone where the world would see the commercialisation of digital interfaces.
UX Design
As for UX Design, which means User Experience Design, the history is slightly different.
UX is a process that analyses and facilitates the interaction between humans and machines. Once again, we are not going to go deep down in history as someone may say that the history of UX could be traced back as far as 25 centuries ago.
However, let's try and detach the word UX from its modern on-screen association and identify it as designing for people by putting the user at the centre.
Already in the 40s, car manufacturers explored this concept by focusing on the needs of the user first. And then focusing the design on those needs. Toyota, for example, developed its human-centre-production system then.
Later at Xerox Parc, in the 70s, engineers and psychologist worked together to deliver to the public a machine that they could easily use.
However, it is not until 1995 that the word User Experience was first used. Donald Norman, which at the time worked at Apple, coined the term because he thought human interface and usability were too narrow. He said:
"I wanted to cover all aspects of the person's experience with a system, including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and the manual".
- Donald Norman
Conclusions
So we can say that UX designers will focus on interactions between humans and machines, and UI designers will focus on the aesthetics of the product by designing interfaces.
While the UI world is relatively new, UX studies have origins rooted deep in history. The UX world is always in constant change like it has been for centuries. New fields are continuing to emerge, such as artificial intelligence and voice design or virtual reality, and the availability of jobs has been in constant growth.
So it's definitely an exciting career to start for anyone that likes to adapt to constant changes.
Nowadays, many roles see a combination of UX and UI design skills required by candidates. And this is why you find some many jobs advertised as UX and UI design.
UX for UI designers usually means working on personas, user journeys, user flows and wireframes.
However, it is good to keep in mind that there is so much more to UX design than that, and that's why the roles are still very much separate.
If you would like to know more about UX and UI Design or you would like to change your career you can check out the online course I Mentor Career Foundry.