Within the first a part of this weblog, I seemed on the blurring of strains between UX and UI design, and the implications of this. Partially 2, right here
is a deeper dive into easy methods to interact the 2 sorts of designer.
So how do you inform the distinction between a UX designer who’ll have the ability to do the job you want doing versus the UI designer that’ll do the job that you just suppose is UX?
Initially, let’s check out what UX is definitely all about. The diagram beneath is an efficient illustration of the kind of UX actions that go on in a typical undertaking. You’ll see the dependencies between the duties of their overlaps and high to backside signifies
a timeline through which every job is tackled; though in an Agile surroundings this isn’t truly a linear course of, typically requiring small, and generally even giant, loop-backs to earlier duties as extra is realized concerning the wants of the consumer, the enterprise and
the factors to be met for acceptance for launch.
Determine 1: Abstract of most important actions in a typical UX undertaking
You’ll have observed that UI Design is a bubble on this diagram outlining UX (by the best way, this isn’t an exhaustive record of UX features, but when we did a type of you most likely wouldn’t have sufficient pixels in your display screen to suit all of it on in a single go and for
it to be legible!).
UI design is half of the UX course of, but it surely’s not the be-all and end-all. In actual fact, it happens after many different duties within the general UX course of, and for good motive. Good UI design depends on the designer having been briefed completely on what the appliance
is to do, why it has to do it, why it has to do it a particular manner, issues to pay attention to which can be immutable (eg. both by regulation or company branding causes) and the place they’ve latitude to create, to pour their coaching and expertise into the
combine and, because the phrase goes, “make it pop”.
The simplest approach to see whether or not you’re coping with a UX practitioner or a UI designer is to ask to see their portfolio. Somebody who exhibits you solely interface designs is just not a UX practitioner as a result of their portfolios embody scans of hand sketched diagrams,
photographs of card sorting workouts and workshops, consumer journey and workflow diagrams, personas, wireframes, even display screen grabs of spreadsheets exhibiting analysis or testing outcomes that inform their work.
Now to reap the advantages
At GFT all of our UX practitioners have UI design abilities and equally all of our UI designers have some good UX abilities. On the naked minimal they work in UX/UI pairs to ensure that the shopper will get the perfect of all choices within the work that’s performed for them
– thorough analysis, workshops with stakeholders, testing with customers, working with the builders to make sure they perceive what’s wanted type the interfaces and why.
There was a rebalancing within the market over the previous three or 4 years and the overwhelming majority of UX designers are genuinely doing the work a UX practitioner ought to, however there are nonetheless a number of rogue UI designers round who solely focus within the
UI and fail to do all the things a great UX designer ought to.
Hopefully you’ve bought some thought of easy methods to spot them now!
Footnote
The terminology has change into a bit of complicated over time and has largely settled on the time period UX Designer that means an individual with the skillset of what was once referred to as a UX architect – a practitioner of UX duties and processes. A UI designer is recognised
to be the one that designs the screens however is in any other case not deeply, if in any respect, concerned within the UX practices. Each are beneficial property, however do ask to see portfolios to test whether or not your UX designer actually is what they are saying they’re.