You have just launched your new website. It has the perfect colors, incorporates the latest design principles, proves strong character, and it speaks your brand.
However, your customers cannot figure out how to find your products or services, how to sign up for your newsletter, how to contact you, add products to cart, make online payments, or comment on your blog. This means you have a wonderful UI and a poorly done UX.
In the process of attracting more customers and increase your online sales, keep in mind that UI is not efficient without UX, and UX is always enhanced by smart UI.
But enough with slang, let’s discover what and how UX and UI are relevant for your business, especially your business website.
UX means “User Experience” and it refers to the overall experience a customer has when visiting your website. A professional UX designer identifies and solves problems, and imagines the entire journey a customer can take on your website:
- steps they need to take to get informed about or purchase your products or services;
- the tasks they need to complete in order to reach the goals of their online visit;
- the interactions they have with customer service;
- the follow-up they receive;
- the community or network services they subscribe to, etc.
UI refers to “User Interface” and it is all about how your website’s interface looks and functions. A UI designer considers all the visual aspects of the previous journey designed through UX:
- Color schemes, typography, spacing;
- Icons and buttons, and imagery;
- Responsive design, but also intuitive, accessible, and inclusive design.
To emphasize UX and UI’s roles and how they’re complementary, here are some key points to remember:
- UI attracts and invites potential clients to explore your website, while UX solves their problems and smoothly guides them through your website.
- UX design usually comes first in the website development process, followed by UI. UX maps out the journey, and UX fills it with intuitive visual elements.
- UI plays an essential role in the customer’s decision to stay on a website or leave it immediately. However, UX is responsible to provide a satisfying customer experience that makes them return on your website.
Here at Runningfish, we see UX and UI as inseparable. Smart business websites or other digital products need both UX and UI professional designers.
Get in touch with us and let’s start with the experience you want to create for your customers!