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You would have heard about UX and UI where by UX stands for User Experience and UI stands for User Interface. You would have also noted that people using these two terms interchangeably or you may have even used these terms interchangeably. However, someone who knows what they are talking about would know that these are not terms that could be used interchangeably and that there are vast differences between these two. 

The internet or the world wide web is inundated with millions and millions of websites. There is cutthroat competition in every niche and in every industry. All the websites compete aggressively to get the attention of their target audience and to retain that attention for long enough so that they could enjoy adequate conversions. Impressive UX design or User Experience design has an important role to play here in terms of getting and retaining the attention of the users who are already in your website. A good User Interface design is also equally important in reaching your conversion targets. Even though these two terms sound very similar they are not the same. 

UX and UI – Know What They Do

UI design or User Interface design refers to things that the users see in a website or in an app. It also refers to the functionalities incorporated in the interface. UX design or the User Experience design on the other hand refers to how the functionalities of the interface and the visual appeal of the interface make the users feel when they are in your website or app.

UX designers should keep the UI in mind and UI designers must keep the UX in mind when they are creating the designs. 

What Does An Effective UX Design Comprise?

A good UX design has the potential to increase your conversion rates anywhere from 300% to 400%. Let us explore some of the key qualities of a good UX design.

Structure Matters

A good structure is always  an important aspect of a good UX design. Decide on the hierarchy of your website keeping the end users in mind. A good website hierarchy will be intuitive and it will make navigation through the website easy and natural. While deciding on the structure and the hierarchy of your website it is not enough to just limit yourself to the current needs. Keep future expansions in mind and you need to plan at least for the next five years so that your website users do not feel out of place because something has changed each time they come to your website.

Aesthetics Count

All that you have is just a few quick seconds to win or lose your visitors. You need to make sure that your UX design is aesthetically appealing. Use only relevant images and ensure that the typography is legible, sophisticated and invites engagement. Always step into the shoes of the end users and do not review your website as the website owner because the UX design is all about the user experience.

Keep User Interaction In Mind

Plan for user interaction when they are in your website or in your app. List various ways through which users can interact with your website. It could be something as simple as posting a poll in the landing page or adding an additional functionality such as adding customer support chat feature. If a visitor is on your website for the first time, how engaging will the website for the user? Does your website have answers to all their questions before they could make that buying decision? How easy it is for your website visitors to get connected with you? Does it provide multiple options to connect with you such as email, phone, live chat, social media pages and so on?

Keep The Next Steps Simple And Clear

Do the users know what to do next when they are in your landing page? Are the calls to action clear and self-evident even for someone who is not a tech savvy person? Does it have clear and easy to follow steps and buttons that they could click? Continually monitor the navigation of your website users once they are in your website and this will give you enough insights on what needs to be changed or tweaked for better user experience and or higher conversions.

No Complex Data

Always keep the uninitiated in mind when you are creating the UX design. For someone that is totally new to the field what you consider the very simple itself could prove to be very complex. Add as much visualization as possible to simplify the data in your web pages. 

What Does An Effective UI Design Comprise?

Whether you like it or not the User Interface design or the UI design will have a definitive say on the UX or user experience. The UI design should incorporate all the functionalities and features of a website in such a way that it is easy for the users to access them and use them when needed. The UI design has to make sure that all the features are accessible from the relevant pages but at the same time ensuring good user experience. 

Quality Standards

The UI design is all about the features and functionalities. If the user clicks a button or clicks a link, something should happen. If nothing happens then it leads to user frustration. This reflects immediately on the quality standards of your website. As a part of ensuring good quality standards in your website you must also maintain consistency all through the website. 

Choose Colors For Legibility

Colors are not only to reflect your brand color theme but they should also aim for legibility. Along with branding, you must make sure that you focus on readability and ease of use. When selecting the colors, you may want to run a number of tests to learn what colors the users respond the best. More than what you think or I think it is more about how the users respond.

No Cognitive Overload

The UI design must ensure that there is no cognitive overload. The users cannot process more than five things at a time in their short-term memory. So, you need to make sure that you are using the same cues on all the pages such as same colors, same position, say shape of the button and so on so that they do not have to process the data individually each time they visit a new page. 

Keep it Error Free

You need to test your website, all the links, buttons and features thoroughly so that there are no errors. Do not make your website live until you have adequately tested your website, its features and all the functionalities. This is even more crucial if you are offering SaaS – Software as a Service. Users do not want to run into frequent errors when using such services. 

The Dynamics Between The UI And the UX

The dynamics between the UI and UX will determine the overall experience of the users when they are in your web pages. When you are aiming at interaction, you must also make sure that all the features and functionalities are easily accessible to the users. When you are focusing as a UI designer how the interface fairs in terms of its appearance, the UX designer will assess what kind of experience the design offers the users. 

The UX design will focus on how easily the users are able to follow through the call to action and achieve their goal and your target. UI design will focus on how well the buttons are placed and how they appear to the users. The UX designer would feel the need for an additional button in a page and it would be the UI designer to determine where that extra button should be placed. 

Both UI and UX make up your website and what and how the users are able to achieve when they are in your website.