What is UX/UI Design?
We explain what UI UX Design services consist of, what techniques and tools are used professionally and what are the first steps to start training as a UX/UI Designer.
We could say that in our daily lives we are constantly living all types of User Experiences, and not only digital but also analog. What is already known as UX (User Experience) is practically the starting point with which any product or service with which we interact has been created, whether when using our mobile phone or when crossing a zebra crossing. They are all User Experiences that have been thought out and designed as a result of a prior study or reflection.
When we enter the world of UX/UI Design for the first time, the first thing we must learn is the differentiation between both acronyms and concepts: UX and UI.
As we already pointed out at the beginning, with UX we refer to the User Experience (abbreviated UX that comes from the term "User eXperience" in English) which has to do with the most intangible aspect of this matter: it is everything that a person perceives when interact with a product or service. Therefore, we can say that a good UX occurs when a product is designed that is useful, easy to handle, and that satisfies a need that a user requires at a given time.
On the other hand, we have the concept of UI , an abbreviation that you will frequently see linked to UX and with which we refer to the User Interface (it comes from the English term "User Interface") and which refers to everything that has to to do with the design of the interface with which the user is going to "experience" their experience. A User Interface will always be formed by the sum of an Information Architecture, visual elements with which the information is presented and a series of interaction patterns with it (types of buttons, menus, itineraries, etc.).
We will always find that both concepts of UX and UI are linked, since to achieve a good User Experience we will always have the User Interface as a tool to achieve it.
The demand for UX/UI Design professionals (UI Designers, UX Researchers...) has not stopped growing in recent years, becoming a profession that is almost guaranteed a job as soon as they finish their studies. studies.
Currently at Neoland we have close to 98% job placement of all students who take the UX/UI Designer Bootcamp , with a program and learning methodology developed to form UX/UI Designer profiles who in a few months can start working in companies from any sector. As we already pointed out at the beginning, User Experience and Interface Design are present in every product or service that we find, with the digital world having a special role although always also counting on those analog products.
What is UX/UI Design?
As you can guess from the concepts explained, UX/UI Design is the combination of both disciplines to achieve the design of a product or service that works and meets the objectives with which it was created: satisfy a user's need.
In order to carry out the task of creating a product, specialized UX profiles will always be involved, defining what the user should experience when interacting with the product/service. This prior research work is what is known as UX Research and includes various techniques and tools.
In the same process of creating a product or service, it will also be necessary to have profiles specialized in UI , the design of the interface with which the user will interact in order to achieve their objective and following the lines previously defined by the UX.
Last, but not least, is the field of Service Design , which is the compendium of processes that revolve around the creation of a product or service, the complete ecosystem that makes the product viable and developed in the right way. as efficient as possible, as well as that it fits into a specific market, corresponds to certain stakeholders (our target audience) and is communicated appropriately.
What is UX Research?
UX Research or User Experience Research includes all the analysis and research work prior to the completion of a product and the creation of a User Interface (UI). Among the main characteristics of UX Research are the following processes that a UX Researcher carries out:
Research (with the target audience, through interviews, focus groups...)
Evaluation (heuristic evaluations, benchmarks, usability tests)
Data analysis (observations, metrics…)
Creation of the Information Architecture
A professional UX Designer or Researcher usually has a knowledge base that includes fields such as:
Psychology/Sociology
Digital Product Development
Communication
Business development
Graphic and Interactive Design
Techniques and tools
Within UX Design we find various tools that allow us to carry out our design and research work in the best possible way. Among them there are techniques and methodologies such as Design Thinking , for the research, analysis and implementation of UX processes; Agile and Business Design techniques to optimize creation processes; Benchmarks for market and competitor analysis of your product or service (where SWOT- type analyzes play a major role ) as well as a wide range of techniques focused on studying our target audience and defining user patterns.
What is UI Design?
Once the UX Research work has been carried out, the next necessary stage that we encounter when creating a product is the creation of the interface with which users will interact with it. This work, very focused on completing the design and giving it visual and experiential form, is the main task of UI UX Design agency.