Why I Avoid the Term “UX/UI”

I hear it all the time. Almost daily.

“UX/UI”.

It’s generally synonymous with “the final design” but UX and UI are so different, I can’t really tell what anybody means when they use the term.

UX, or user experience, is all about the strategy, content prioritization, and rationale behind the information architecture, navigation, page layouts, and more.

UX is the social science that goes into the thinking.

UI, or user interface, is how the pages are designed and the creative approach taken.

UI is the art that makes that thinking come to life.

Others may define UI as being the front-end code used to make a page work, like CSS and JavaScript.

Either way, UX and UI are very different disciplines requiring distinct skill sets that may not always overlap.

For example, it may not make sense to expect a creative designer to conduct months of research, interviews, and studies that have little to no implications on the creative solution.

And I don’t think a creative would want to be taken away from his or her job to do tree tests or build quantitative surveys.

Similarly, it’s a tall order to expect a UX researcher to suddenly be able to execute beautiful creatives.

There are hybrids who can do both – or all three if you include front-end – but they are very few and far between. And even they would rather put their efforts into one area or the other, I suspect.

So, next time you hear the term “UX/UI” try probing a bit deeper. Ask if it it’s in reference to things like user journeys, personae, mental models, usability testing, and other pre-design research; or if it’s more about the visual design, creative expression, and aesthetic output.