User Interface (UI) is one of the essential parts of the web designing process. There are many misconceptions regarding UI. Most of the people think that drawing a mobile icon is UI design and one who draws the icons are UI designers. But unfortunately, that’s not the true case.

What is the difference between UI and UX designer? The UI design refers to the graphic design and UX design refers to the analytical and technical practice regarding the User experience on the website. These both are important elements of the web design and are inter-related . But here in this blog, we will be looking at the UI design in detail. Let’s get started:

UI Design

 

You may be wondering; how do I design a UI? UI refers to the complete design of the human-interaction, computer interaction, operational logic, and graphical user interface (GUI). In our daily life, we are using many electronic devices like computer, mobile, TVs, ATMs, industrial control system, and many more. The electronic devices that are having display screen will have UI to interact with the devices.

Generally, UI can be termed as a visual portal that enables us to get the information, control device operation, and call device resources. If you are looking to get an attractive UI design for your website, and to get the services you should contact professional web design companies in Boston MA.

Functions of UI Design

 

The functions of the UI design are divided into three aspects:

Graphic Design: It is the visual design of the software product. This design is completed by the Graphic Designer.

Interaction Design: The design related to the tree structure, software operation flow, operation specifications, and etc. This design is completed by the Interaction Designer.

User Research/Testing: This is done to test the rationality of the aesthetics of graphic design and interaction design. To measure the rationality of the UI design, target user questionnaire is used to complete the task.

Types of UI Designers

 

Four types of UI designers are listed below:

Mobile UI Designer: It is the most important type of mobile UI designer because many of the companies focus on mobile app design and themes for mobile phones.

PC-side UI Designer: It mainly focuses on computer software interface design. It includes web button design and software.

Game UI Designer: It focuses on the interface of mobile games and online games. It is one of the challenging tasks because the requirement and expectation for game UI are high.

Other UI Designers: There are some other types Of UI designers that are less in demand.  The category included in the list includes Bank Cash Machine Interface, AR, VR, smartwatch, and ticket machine.

Workflow of UI Design

 

There will be some of the common questions that may come in your mind:

• What is the development process involved in digital products?
•  What is the UI designer role in the Workflow?

The development process of internet products like an app can be divided into four stages listed below. The user interface design falls in the second stage.

Research and Project: This is the first phase. In this, you will be preparing the Product Requirements Document. You need this to prepare the UI interaction design. This work is completed by the product manager.

Design and Development: In this stage, the following processes take place: 

As per the product requirement document, the UI interactive prototyping is completed. Then the graphic design and UI is completed. It also further involves a technical understanding of the R&D designer. The Front-end designer works for the reconstruction of the UI graphic interface and the Back-end engineer work for the data processing of the business logic.

Publishing and Testing: In this stage, all the developers in the team sit together to resolve the bugs regarding the visual, interactive and technical elements. The product manager will control the quality of the product and ensure that the product is delivered on time.

Launch and Promotion: At this stage, multi-model, multi-channel, and various media advertising is done to reach the target audience.

To enhance the user activity and increase your target audience you should do the following three things:

•  You should accept the feedback from your customers.
• You should optimize the product experience.
•  You should also update your product.

 

Work Content of UI Design

 

What is your understanding of UI design? You might be wondering about the role of UI designers? The main work task included in the job of UI designers involves icon production, graphic design, interface design, app brand production, and more.

When working on the Internet product development. Mainly they are connected to the product manager and in downstream they are connected with the front-end designer. The graphic visual design of the UI interface is completed according to draft given by the product manager. After the completion of the visual draft of UI interface, the UI designer will complete it and will deliver the product to the front-end developer. Furthermore, if necessary you may use some UI effects to clarify the designer’s intent. At this point, a little knowledge about the UI animation design will be a plus.

Significant Skills of UI Designers

 

 

You might be thinking, what skills do you need to be a UI designer? The UI designers should have the following skills:

Designing Icon: A UI designer should master this skill. The most widely used icons are linear or silhouette. As the requirement may differ so you have to design the icon according to the need and style of the project.

Designing Graphics: The designers should be able to meet the graphics need of the project. For instance, the app interface needs many startup pages and guide pages. The graphics can be drawn using a mouse and a graphic tablet.

Designing the Layout: UI designer provide the icon illustration to represent the idea. A designer should ensure that the icon or graphics should be connected with the overall layout of the product.

Designing Proposal: The designer should be able to design a proposal. The elements included in the proposal include color, text, design, and selection of graphic.

Designing Poster/Banner: A UI designer should be able to design a banner or poster as it will be used for the interface design.

Interface Designing: A UI designers should work carefully because they need to concentrate on the graphics, color and all the small details.

Interactive Thinking: UI designers should be able to think interactively. You have to design the interface by logic instead of just focusing on the aesthetic of the design.

Ability to Collaborate: The development process is completed by collaborating with another team member as well. A UI designers should understand their place in the work cycle.

Essential UI Tools

 

Some of the essential UI tools are listed below:

Adobe Illustrator (AI): This tool is used to create standard vector illustration used for multimedia, publishing, and online images.

C4D: It is a high computing speed and powerful rendering plug-in. This tool is used in Films. It was previously known as FastRay.

AE: Adobe After Effects is software for graphics video processing. It is used by the organization for designing, video effects, Tv stations, animation productions, multimedia studios, and personal post-production.

Axure: It is a professional rapid prototyping tool. It will enable professionals to outline the requirement, specification, and design features. You need to create the flowcharts, wireframe, prototypes, and specification documents for websites and applications. 

Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop is an image processing software. You can use the editing and drawing tools to edit the picture properly.

Sketch: It is a drawing software. Users rotate the knob left and right to control the brushes on a panel to paint and color images.

Some other tools that you can use include Cutterman, Mockplus iDoc, and XMind.

This was detailed information about the UI. If you are wondering to design the UI of your website in an effective manner, then you should hire expert UI designers to get the job done.