What is UX UI Web Design?

At One2create, we constantly have to think about UX UI when we start a web design project. From creating the site map to final web launch, UX UI plays a crucial role in the development.

UX UI might seem like a complicated (and slightly confusing) acronym, but once you learn the difference between UX and UI, everything becomes clearer. So we’ve created this article explain the different between the two.

It’s handy to know about these things if you’re planning on getting a new website, so that you can understand the process behind it (and sound super intelligent when you mention it!)

What is UX and what is UI?

First let’s start with UX. UX is short for User Experience and encompasses the overall feel of the website, covering all aspects of the user journey.

A UX designer is going to be concerned with how a user interacts with a website, and how the overall site feels. They aim to make the user journey as simple as possible.

For example, a UX designer would want to make it easy for customers to contact the company; so will design the page to make the contact details stand out.

Now we move onto UI. UI is short for User Interface Design and covers how the web pages are structurally laid out, including any navigation menus and individual sub-pages.

A UI designer will aim to create a consistent style guide throughout a website, ensuring that all pages have the same basic structure.

To keep the difference clear in your mind, take a look at the image below.

What is UX UI design?

Put simply, UX UI design is the combination of how your website feels, the physical structure of the site, and the design structure of the pages.

Due to the fact that the lines between UX and UI often become blurred, it’s not uncommon for web designers to create sites using both roles and utilising both approaches.

Why is a UX UI web design important?

The user experience is crucial to the success of a website. If a potential customer visits your website and can’t find the information they need, they’ll leave. It really is as simple as that, so you need to have a website that has this information within easy reach.

You need to think about your websites’ structure, and what information your customers are going to be looking for on their first visit.

If you have an ecommerce website, are you going to have a “New In” section at the top of your home page? Where are you going to place your Offers and Discounted items for maximum exposure? Will you place it above the fold or under the fold?

If you’re a school or nursery, are you going to have the most recent OFSTED reports highlighted for potential families to see? Where are you going to list information about recent events and updates from the faculty? Think about the fold; remember the fold!

Top Tips for UX UI Design

The infamous “fold”

If you’re unfamiliar with the fold, then we’ll explain. As long the user doesn’t have to scroll anywhere when they land on a page, the information is above the fold.

The bottom of the fold is essentially the bottom of the screen, regardless of whether it’s desktop, tablet or smart phone. Under the fold is the opposite, it’s further down the page and the user will have to scroll down to find it.

Don’t worry if any information or content get’s cropped at the bottom of the fold. A user’s eye will subconsciously understand there’s more content, and explore further.

Link your content

This doesn’t mean that you have to have one long piece of content. If you’re canny with your web design, then you could use discreet lines to link each piece of content.

This continuity allows users to easily read a design, and helps to improve their journey down a web page.

Be consistent

A consistent design is always essential when designing a website. Web users often user prior knowledge of a specific website to navigate further, so you need to make sure that all your pages match.

Aspects of a web page to keep consistent should include:

• Navigation menus
• Page headers and footers
• Corporate branding or company logo
• Social sharing buttons

Call to Actions

Make sure that they stand out on the page, and contain convincing language that encourages the user to take a specific action. This could be anything from signing up for a newsletter to buying a specific product.

To find out more about writing a call to action, take a look at this blog post here.

Contact information

Try to keep this above the fold, and make it stand out on each page. This means that regardless of where a user lands on your website, they still have a way on contacting you for more information.

So there we have it, our guide to UX UI web design. We hope that you understand the concept a little bit more now, and we’ve got two questions for you.

What aspects of UX UI do you think are most important? How do you think that web designers can make a users’ journey even easier?

We’d love to hear your thoughts, so let us know in the comments below. You can keep up to date on all the latest news and developments from One2create on social media too. Simply like us on Facebook here, or follow us on Twitter here.

If you think that your website could do with a facelift, or you need help with expanding your social presence, then we can help. We’re experts in web design and content marketing, so get in touch with us here today to find out how we can help.