It is a rudimental saying that when diving into a business, you must operate, administer, deliver and produce keeping your end audience in mind since their satisfaction or customer experience is the key to success. It is a pervasive statement for all forms of business irrespective of their target market and type be it B2B, B2C, and even C2C or aggregator model. Therefore, in keeping up with the tandem of the current age of digitalization, if a business builds its brand through the web or mobile application, then carefully and creatively curated UI & UX design is the key to success. But what should one emphasize, the site or the appeal? We will answer one of the most pressing questions of website design, right here. 

Many people perceive that designing is all about appeal, how good one is with the design, colors, objects, elements, etc, but this is not the case. Similarly, people have this misleading notion that UI and UX are synonymous and are interchangeably used the majority of the time. However, there lies a critical difference between them. 

What are UI and UX Designs?

In the basic understanding of UX design, UX or User experience of your end-users while using the product. Hence UX is all about the ease of use of the product or in our ambit, the website or the application. Therefore when we talk about UX designing, we are talking about all the steps taken to give users a good experience in terms of ease of usability so that they do not switch to another alternative, your competitor brand. 

On the other hand, UI design can be understood as the visual and interactive elements you incorporate in your product or in our ambit again, your website or mobile application. When we talk about UI or User Interface design, we address the aspects like how well the end users are able to rightly navigate through the website or mobile application, without needing external aid. 

Difference Between UI and UX Design: Which One Is More Important?

Both! Yes, you read that right. There is no wrong answer to that question. UI and UX are complementary to each other and therefore should be designed together with equal emphasis. Both of them work together to make your website or mobile application usable or saleable. 

Let us elaborate on this perfectly short but not-so-simple analogy for you – 

Amazon.com was ranked the most popular website in the eCommerce & Shopping category in September 2023. The average amount of time that users spend on the website or the mobile application is 7 minutes, and they see, on average, 8.85 pages per visit. 

Now consider this, Amazon provides great UX to the customers with daily discounts, redeemable offers, vast stock/inventory, and genuine customer reviews that are media enabled, i.e customers can post their reviews with the help of pictures and videos. This is something that keeps Amazon ahead of its competitors in the status quo, in fact, it has been a pioneer in the online shopping circuit because of the customer experience overall. 

Now, on the UI front, Amazon has a briefly structured and well-navigated website and mobile application. The visual elements for the product, categories, and product variants are impeccable and products are categorized per use, material, gender, color, price range, and size. Even after showcasing thousands of products, it is able to declutter the product segment from the offers segment which is designed to attract. Irrespective of which device one is using, everyone is able to find their way through the store and shop easily on Amazon because of its UI. This too adds to the customer’s experience and satisfaction.  

Now can you prioritize UX over UI or vice-versa? No, right? Because they are complementary on an intuitive level when it comes to customer interaction and engagement with the website or mobile application to an intuitive level. 

Thus once you start designing your website or mobile application, keep in mind that UX and UI go hand-in-hand, and you will see how well-structured and visually appealing your platform turns out to be. Both UX and UI are important for you in 2023 to develop a web or mobile application that turns out to be captivating, creative, useful, and enjoyable for your audience and turns out to be profitable and lucrative for your business.