The Difference Between UX and UI Design and Why it Matters

Originally published on the Scalable Path website, by Felipe Lebrun on March 2, 2020

Throughout my career working as a UX/UI designer, it has been a challenge to explain my profession to non-tech people. There are two reasons for this. For one, it can be difficult to explain because there is a common misconception that software is only made by engineers, and so, the role of a designer is relegated to digital marketing and aesthetics. The second reason is that the concept of UX/UI design is an ongoing conundrum. It’s not widely understood that this term is two roles intertwined, both with very different and equally important functions for building a successful product. This is generally because UX and UI design fall into the category of jobs that everyone has heard of — because they’ve entered the common lexicon — but that many people don’t fully understand. Another example of this is a Blockchain developer. You have probably heard of them, but could you explain what they do day-to-day?

What’s more significant is that because there is a gap in understanding the roles of each discipline, UX/UI design does not always get the attention it deserves in software projects. The temptation to “dive in and start coding” has led many teams astray. This oversight often results in a product that may have an excellent UX design, but a…