Updated 1st August 2026. First published in 2017.
You've overheard discussions about how product X has great UX, or the poor UI of product Y's website. However, what exactly are those people talking about? Are UI and UX design really that different?
UX design is how a product works and feels to use. UI design is how it looks and responds on screen. UX shapes the whole journey, UI shapes every screen along the way, and a product needs both. Get either wrong and customers leave, as 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned and a third of customers will walk away from a brand they love after one bad experience.
Post summary
What is the difference between UI and UX design?
What is user experience design?
What is user interface design?
How do UI and UX design work together?
How bad UI and UX lose customers
Why brands should take UI and UX seriously
UI and UX design today
Need help with UI and UX design?
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between UI and UX design?
These two design processes are often banded together. Although both are part of the design process, they're actually very distinct, and relate to different parts of it.
UX design is the more analytical and research-led field. UI design is closer to what we call graphic design, though the responsibilities are more complex.
UI and UX are some of the most puzzling and misused terms in the tech industry. Yet a great product experience starts with UX, followed by UI, and both are essential for the product's success.
Put very simply, the user interface is the part of the product that faces the user when they look at it. The user experience is how they feel when they use it.
| UX design | UI design | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | How the product works and feels to use | How the product looks and responds |
| Main question | Can people do what they came to do, easily? | Is every screen clear, attractive and on brand? |
| Typical work | User research, journeys, site structure, testing | Layout, typography, colour, buttons, animation |
| Outputs | User flows, wireframes, prototypes | Mockups, design systems, interface components |
| Common tools | Figma, Maze, Hotjar, GA4 | Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, Framer |
| Measured by | Task success, conversions, retention | Clarity, consistency, accessibility |
What is user experience design?
User experience design (also called UXD or UED) is the process of increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty by making a product easier to use and improving every interaction between the product and the user.
This means that, whatever the medium, UX design covers any and all interactions between a potential or active user and a company. As a design process, you can apply it to anything, from cars to online tools and mobile apps.
Despite being a design term, it has been used almost entirely within the digital industry since it began, possibly because the two gathered momentum at the same time.
A UX designer's responsibilities usually include the following.
Strategy and content
Competitor analysis
Customer analysis and user research
Product structure and strategy
Content development
Wireframing and prototyping
Wireframing
Prototyping
Testing and iteration
Development planning
Execution and analytics
Coordination with UI designers
Coordination with web developers
Tracking goals and integration
Analysis and iteration
So part marketer, part designer, part project manager, the UX role is complex, challenging and multifaceted.
Ultimately, the aim is to connect a company's business goals to its users' needs, through a process of testing and refinement that satisfies both.
What is user interface design?
User interface design is harder to define, because it's interpreted in so many ways. While UX is a mix of tasks focused on making a product effective and pleasant to use, UI design is the look, feel and interactivity of a product.
If you look at job posts for UI designers, you'll find roles that sound like graphic design, sometimes with branding and front-end development added. Sounds like UX design all over again, right?
Wrong. UI design turns a product's research, content and layout into an attractive, guiding and responsive experience for users. It's mostly a digital discipline, covering websites, apps and the screens in cars, kiosks and smart devices.
A UI designer's responsibilities usually include the following.
Look and feel
Customer analysis
Design research
Branding and graphic development
User guides and storyline
Responsiveness and interactivity
UI prototyping
Interactivity and animation
Adaptation to all devices and screen sizes
Accessibility, such as colour contrast and readable text
Implementation with web developers
As a visual and interactive designer, the UI designer is crucial to any digital interface, and to whether customers trust a brand. The brand itself is never solely the UI designer's responsibility. However, how it translates into the product is.
UX designers rarely need to code. UI designers increasingly work closely with developers, building design systems and reusable components, and some write front-end code themselves.
UX is a good place to be if you want to build great products from the user's point of view. If you understand those principles and are more visually inclined, you might prefer UI design.
How do UI and UX design work together?
On a web or mobile project, the UX designer is often effectively the lead designer, working closely with the UI team or leading it. They oversee the project from start to finish.
Ideally, that person wouldn't be a joint UI and UX designer, unless they're exceptionally talented in both. That said, many designers can do both roles when needed, especially in smaller teams. It's these talented people who further blur the line between the two.
A typical project follows the same rough path.
UX research into users, competitors and business goals
User journeys, site structure and wireframes
UI design of the look, layout and components
A clickable prototype, tested with real users
Build, with designers and developers working together
Measuring results and improving
UX designers should be involved from the very start to completion. Without them, the product can drift away from both the company's business goals and what users need.
UI designers bring that plan to life. Always choose designers who work well together, even if you believe UX is more important.
Good UX also helps your search rankings, since SEO and UX share the same goals of fast pages, clear structure and helpful content.
How bad UI and UX lose customers
Poor design rarely announces itself. Customers just leave quietly, and the numbers show how often it happens.
The average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.22%, according to Baymard Institute. Many of the reasons shoppers give come down to UI and UX.
Why shoppers abandon checkout
Share of US online shoppers who abandoned an order for each reason
Source: Baymard Institute, checkout abandonment survey of US adults, excluding shoppers who were just browsing.
Being made to create an account, a checkout that's too long, site errors and hidden costs are all design problems. Even the 19% who didn't trust a site with their card details are often reacting to a site that looks outdated or unprofessional.
Baymard estimates that the average large ecommerce site could increase its conversion rate by 35.26% through better checkout design alone.
One bad experience is often enough. In PwC's customer experience research, 32% of consumers said they would walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience.
Speed is part of the experience too. Research by Deloitte and Google found that making a mobile site just 0.1 seconds faster increased conversion rates by 8.4% for retail sites and 10.1% for travel sites.
Why brands should take UI and UX seriously
UI and UX aren't just about making things look nice. They're a business decision, whether you're designing a product or a website.
When McKinsey studied the business value of design, it tracked 300 listed companies over five years. Those in the top quarter for design grew revenue 32 percentage points faster than their industry peers, and delivered 56 percentage points more in shareholder returns.
Good experiences also let you charge more. PwC found that customers will pay a premium of up to 16% for a great experience.
For a website, that means a clear structure, fast pages, easy forms and a design that builds trust in the first few seconds. For a product, it means fewer support tickets, less training and customers who stay.
Fixing problems early is also far cheaper than fixing them later. If you skip UX research and UI design at the start, you'll pay for it in redesigns, lost customers and developer time.
UI and UX design today
The basics haven't changed since I first wrote this article. However, the tools, the rules and the technology have.
Figma and design systems
Figma is now the standard tool for UI and UX teams, letting designers, developers and clients work on the same files at the same time.
Many brands also use a design system, a shared library of colours, fonts, buttons and components. It keeps every page and product screen consistent, and makes new pages much faster to build.
Accessibility is now a legal requirement
About 1.3 billion people, one in six of the world's population, live with a significant disability, according to the World Health Organization.
Yet the 2026 WebAIM Million report found accessibility errors on 95.9% of the top million home pages. Low colour contrast appeared on 83.9% of them and missing image alt text on 53.1%, both of which are UI problems.
In the EU, the European Accessibility Act has applied since 28th June 2025. It covers many digital products and services, including ecommerce, so accessible design is now a legal requirement as well as good practice for brands selling into Europe.
AI in UI and UX design
AI tools can now generate wireframes, layouts, copy and even working prototypes in minutes.
In Figma's 2025 AI report, a survey of 2,500 designers and developers, 78% said AI makes their work more efficient. However, only 54% of designers said it improves the quality of their work.
AI is useful for speeding up early drafts. Understanding users, testing with real people and making good design decisions still need skilled designers.
Need help with UI and UX design?
We design websites and digital products that look great and are easy to use, for brands across the USA and Europe. Take a look at our UI and UX design and web design services, or get in touch to talk about your project.
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UX design is about how a product works and how easy it is to use. UI design is about how it looks and responds on screen. UX plans the journey, and UI designs each screen along it.
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UX usually comes first. Research, user journeys and wireframes decide what the product needs to do, then UI design gives it a look, layout and interactive elements.
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Yes, many designers do both, especially in smaller teams. On larger projects, it's usually better to have specialists in each who work closely together.
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Poor design loses customers. 70% of online carts are abandoned, often because of design problems, and 32% of customers will leave a brand they love after one bad experience. Good design increases conversions, trust and loyalty.