I'm an Australian UX & UI designer with more than ten years of experience designing intuitive products for clients such as Commonwealth Bank, NABERS The Office of Environment & Heritage, and NSW Parks & Wildlife Service.
I have a multidisciplinary UX/UI skillset but I mostly enjoy (and specialise in) AI, prototyping and responsive UI. I also enjoy collaboration and regard communication as a cornerstone of successful product design.
WHAT IS UX DESIGN?
Put simply, User Experience (UX) design is the practice of designing products or services that are meaningful and intuitive. It considers every element of the experience and how easy it is for the user to accomplish their desired tasks.
“User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.” — Don Norman, Cognitive Scientist & User Experience Architect
There are many UX design methodologies and most concentrate on a discovery, ideation, testing, feedback loop that is based around iteration. It involves conducting user and business research, designing personas and user journeys, designing and testing fidelity prototypes and validating user feedback. This design loop is used continuously throughout the development of a digital product to ensure it is usable and meaningful to end-users and the business.
The goal of UX design is to create an all-round pleasant experience for the end-user while, at the same time, addressing business needs and goals.
WHAT IS UI DESIGN?
User Interface (UI) design and UX design go hand-in-hand and share the same goal in aiming to provide a positive and engaging experience for the end-user, but they are not the same thing.
UI design is focused on how the product looks and feels; the actual design of the screens, the colours, fonts, animations and navigational touchpoints that the user encounters.
The aesthetics of a digital product, be it an app, a website or video game, can have a huge effect on how users engage with that product and as such UI design plays an important role in the overall experience.