The term UI/UX (for User Interface/User eXperience) has been in circulation for quite a while now. The slash between the two acronyms indicates that they are considered to be two sides of the same coin. They are not. In fact, the term UI/UX makes about as much sense as Bricklayer/Architect.
UI deals with the technologies, processes and techniques involved in building user interfaces. According to Don Norman, who coined the term, UX “encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”1
I can build user interfaces. I’ve built them using React, Angular, JQuery, Vaadin and even Struts. However, if you want me to design your user interface, and it isn’t something quite trivial like a simple CRUD application, you’re in for a world of hurt. While I’m competent in building user interfaces to spec, I have no real insight into what those specs should be.
That’s where UX comes in. UX designers use their understanding of how users interact with products to determine the best design of a user interface that will satisfy the requirements. And their scope extends beyond user interfaces, since the user’s complete experience encompasses more than the UI, even though the UI is probably the biggest part of it. For example, if we’re building an application that recommends restaurants to users, a UX designer may point out that the target user demographic tends to enjoy niche culinary experiences such as those provided by food trucks, and if the application only provides information regarding mainstream restaurants, the user experience will be poor even if the user interface is on point.
Thus, UX represents a different skillset than UI. UX taps into subjects such as psychology, sociology, communications, graphics and visual media, and market research. UX designers also have a good grasp of UI, even if they can’t build user interfaces themselves. For example, they have an understanding of CSS and component frameworks such as Material and Bootstrap, and they know when and how they should be used to optimize the user experience.
UI developers probably don’t have those skills; they have the different skillset needed to build user interfaces. Similarly, an architect understands enough about bricklaying to inform her architectural design, even if she has never laid a single brick, but a bricklayer probably doesn’t understand architecture.
Let’s stop using the term UI/UX. There is UI and there is UX, and yes, your project needs both.