Why UX is more important than UI

Lakshman Sharma
UX Planet
Published in
3 min readMay 1, 2020

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“User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are some of the most confused and misused terms in our field. A UI without UX is like a painter slapping paint onto a canvas without thought, while UX without UI is like the frame of a sculpture with no paper mache on it. A great product experience starts with UX, followed by UI. Both are essential for the product’s success.”

In some cases, we might all have learned about the word UI / UX. You might also have heard people say this app’s poor UI, or that this app’s UX is excellent. You might as well have wondered what UI and UX are. What do people mean by UI and UX of an application or a website?

So what, correctly, does each role do? What are the differences? And is UX more critical than UI?

What is UX?

User experience (UX) design is less about the look and feel of a web or product, and more about how it functions, and how users interact with it. UX designers rely on data on how people are currently using a product, website, or application. They concentrate on generally generating a constructive emotional reaction from the users. They are based, in other words, on delighting consumers.

“User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”

And what is UI?

The user interface design is a complement to it. The UI consists of the look and feel, the product appearance, and interactivity. How they look, what they do, all is colored by their shape size. UI designers focus on esthetics. UI designers want to delight users by the look and feel of the app.

The fundamental difference between UI and UX

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UX design is all about the overall feel of the user, while UI design is all about the look and functionality of the product interfaces. UX design typically comes first in the phase of product creation and then the UI. The UX designer maps the user journey’s basic structure; it is then loaded with visual and interactive elements by the UI designer. It’s important to understand that UX and UI do go hand-in-hand; you can’t have one without the other.

“UI is the saddle, the stirrups, & the reins. UX is the feeling you get being able to ride the horse.”

So, is UX more critical than UI?

Though in the comparision on UI and UX, UX has a slight upperhand because you can overlook a lousy UI, but you can’t ignore a bad UX. A good UI is fine for a while, but if an application has a bad UX but still solves your reasoning easily, you’re going to keep that application because UX helps users achieve their objectives. UX needs coordination and contact with stakeholders that go beyond desk comforts. This helps you get noticed when you team up with stakeholders to achieve business goals in the organization. UX is essential in that it seeks to satisfy the needs of the consumer. This aims to have meaningful interactions that keep the product or company loyal to consumers. UI and UX, to be clear, are two things, and yet are very interdependent on each other for a successful product.

UI and UX designers each have their part to play in the design process.

To conclude, I would say that a great product starts basically with UX, followed by UI. UI and UX are both essential to any application’s performance. You could still find millions of examples of great apps with a great user interface, but missing on the UX and vice versa, but imagine how good they could be getting the best of both fields!

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…fascinated with how a creative outlook plays a vital role in life…