What is UI / UX Design?

UI (User Interface) Design refers to the "mechanisms such as the input and display method used when the user needs to interact with the viewing device" , and UX (User Experience) is "the experience obtained by the user using such services."

UI and UX are sometimes confused as the words are used in a similar context, but in reality, it has different meanings. However, UI and UX work hand-in-hand with each other. For example, in order to enhance UX, it is necessary to enhance the quality of the UI. Also, if you adopt a UI that is difficult for users to manipulate or difficult to understand, the quality of UX will fall.

UI is an important factor to determine the UX. For example, in the case of e-commerce sites, the time required from the purchase of the product until the item arrives at hand, the user correspondence during this process, the quality of the product and the service itself are included in contributions to UX.

In order to improve UX, it is necessary to not only pay attention to the UI, but also to be conscious of the feelings of the users who use the service.

The IT Industry Guide is a collection of articles and resources by Internet Academy, Japan's first learning institute specialising in the Web. Here, we introduce you to industry insights in an easy-to-understand manner.

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Why do I need a UI / UX Designer?

Recently "IoT (Internet of Things)" has been in the limelight. IoT works on the premise of connecting various "things" to the Internet.

For example, imagine having controls on your smartphone to operate different devices in a smart home or smart car.

Recently wearable devices like watches and wristbands with portable information terminals have been on sale in the market. With the widespread use of wearable terminals, IoT will become increasingly popular in the future. Since the penetration of IoT increases the opportunities to connect to the Internet, companies are demanding UI / UX designers who can design interfaces and services that are easy to use.

Tips for UI / UX Design

The most important thing is to develop it from the user's perspective. Even if they are excellent designs aesthetically, if it not beneficial to a user, it is close to meaningless.

If the site is beautiful, but you cannot immediately access the information you want to know, or the reply to site inquiries is slow, you will not be able to grasp the user's interest or attention.

In order to effectively design for the user, it is important to accurately grasp what kind of users potentially use the website and what they may be looking for.

To grasp the psychology of users using a site or service, you can create "Personas" or fictitious personality profiles to simulate their possible needs or interests. You can create virtual users by assigning the age, sex, occupation, hobbies etc of the target user groups, and then anticipate their behaviour and cater to it.

To summarise, through UI / UX design, you make the users that primarily visit the site and how they use it a priority. This will then help you create products of a higher quality.

In conclusion

In order to create a website that can produce results, it is essential to consider both the UI and UX. And as IoT advances, it is expected that the demand for UI / UX designers will increase rapidly.

In addition, it is recommended that programmers learn UI / UX design as well, because user viewpoints are required now more than ever. Even if you design from a developer's point of view, it is enough, as long as you consider the needs of the user first.

In conclusion, UI /UX is an element of design that everyone involved in Web production should know.