Difference between Web design and UX design

nimap September 24, 2019 0 Comments

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When someone I met at a party, “What is your daily job?”. I usually say that I am a web designer. This is the answer that most people understand, and it is accurate to some extent, although it is not the full story. But if I respond to people that I am a UX designer (short for User Experience designer), then the conversation that follows is more or less straight forward. People either think that I am trying to put a big note on myself to sound more important by using a fancy title, or they are just genuinely confused and are unable to grasp the idea behind it, even when I go on to explain it, “I am a web designer” is just much easier in every way.

But when it comes to having a chat with clients, recruiters as well as coworkers, I make it to the fact that I state that “I am a User Experience Designer”. Why should anyone believe that it is even more important to make this objective and distinction for the audience instead of calling myself a web designer?
Here are the major differences between a Web Designer and a User Experience Designer.

1) It implies a strong command of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

I used to keep myself about the latest happenings in all of the latest technologies for achieving cross-browser compatibility as well as the elegant separation of markup, styling, and behavior. But as time passed, I simply was not able to catch up with the upcoming of the latest technological happenings in the field of web designing. I benefit from having a reasonable knowledge of how to write best-practiced code, but I just don’t spend much time doing it. And I’m OK with that.

2) It ignores all the other platforms

The web is wonderful as well as a delightful platform to design for, and this is the one I know best, but it is not the only platform. These days I also apply my designing skills to desktop software as well as native mobile apps. The technologies, constraints as well as conversions as stated for each of these platforms may differ, but the processes that I follow as well as many of the principles that guide me are usually identical in nature. These skills are transferable because they are derived from the user and not from technology.

3) It comes with additional baggage

The immediate image that generally most people conjure for a web designer is that of a 14-year-old with a pirated copy of Photoshop and DreamWeaver. Describing yourself as a web designer is known to undersell the professionalism as well as the experience that you bring to a project or a client. The very term is able to invoke both generalization and specialization because it is what is required. UX designers are specialists at being able to be generalists. And they may be specialists at some other things too.

You may also like to know: UI vs UX – Knowing the Difference

4) It is known to ignore the processes, techniques as well as disciplines upon which UX design is based

The term UX design is most often used as an umbrella term that is able to span all the stages of a product’s lifecycle, from research to post-launch to everything in between. There are several activities done by a UX designer that is able to inform a design but are decidedly not designy. Techniques such as collecting user research, able to create an information architecture, creation of user profiles as well as user stories, these are all the skills that specialists have developed through their entire career span but are not reflected in the term “web designer”. If you are doing some of these activities under the umbrella and not effectively communicating that fact with your clients or in your marketing activities then you are underselling your skills. Likewise, the user-centered design process is well established, having evolved years ago from the fields of psychology, sociology as well as ethnography. The fact that it is broad by definition encourages practitioners to step back as well as appreciate a project from afar, to fully understand and comprehend the bigger picture.

5) It is not how more experienced roles are advertised

Companies that do not utilize the web in a big way as a part of their business are probably the ones who do not need a UX designer, they need a web designer. The requirement for online presence is not that complex, they may be a restaurant that needs a simple informative website that displays contact details, a map to the restaurant and a downloadable menu, Other than a blog in order to complement the content , the website is largely static, the basic pages do not change over time.

Of course, the focus on UX designer is more important than that of a typical web designer. The web designer knows how to construct the website but does not have the proper knowledge of making a website user-friendly such that the user experience of anyone who visits the website is enhanced and pleasant. This is the job of the User Experience designer to design elements of the website to be user-friendly as well as enhancing the experience of the user who visits the website. This is the main difference between a web designer and the user experience designer.

Read More: UI/UX Strategies For Mobile App Design in 2019

Conclusion

There are subtle differences in the approach when it comes to comparing the two distinctive fields. If you’re looking for any requirements for designing a website or the UI interface for a mobile application then do share your requirements with us, we have the best UX designers who have a vast amount of experience and skills for developing applications and interfaces that your users will like and appreciate. If you’re looking to hire UI UX designer for designing great UI interfaces then drop us an email on enquiry@nimapinfotech.com to discuss your requirements. I hope you have found the article on Web design VS UX design useful.