There are a lot of acronyms and abbreviations out in the technology industry.
Someone recently asked me what are the primary differences between UX, UI, and XD? Well UX and XD are very similar I would say. But wait, what the heck do those mean anyways?
UX is also known as User Experience and XD is known as Experience Design. They usually fall hand in hand, it is more based on one’s desired explanation or title choice. Right now, I’m currently going by User Experience Designer, so you could call me a UXD, but please don’t… Just call me Patrick Hansen.
UI is simply User Interface. This is related to design as well and you could be referring to a UI designer, or the actual UI of an application. You could even be referring to the UI of your car’s dashboard.
So, how do we distinguish between all of this and make any sense of it?
Well, UI is pretty straight forward. It is the actual user interface. Here is WIKI’s definition: “The user interface (or Human Machine Interface) is the aggregate of means by which people—the users—interact with the system—a particular machine, device, computer program or other complex tools.”
here is WIKI”s explanation of user experience: “User experience design is a subset of the field of experience design which pertains to the creation of the architecture and interaction models which impact a user’s perception of a device or system. The scope of the field is directed at affecting “all aspects of the user’s interaction with the product: how it is perceived, learned, and used.”
The latter is a little more abstract and not an exact science. Designing a great user experience requires a very thoughtful approach in not only design, aesthetics and functionality, but also you have to take into account the human emotions. As every human is individual, you can see why this can complicate things. Everyone will not react or behave in the same way, so to gauge experience is slightly difficult. You can however, gather feedback and create from there. Pulling feedback on existing systems for a new iteration is even better. That way you have a foundation to go from, and you can not only aim for what will make a great experience, but you can note what has NOT made a great user experience so far.
One example I provided my friend was a simple Google image search and Pic Lens plugin for Firefox.
Both are user interfaces, that’s obvious. Now the experience of using either one is significantly different. Now, I’m not saying either one is better than the other, as they both have pros and cons in dependent scenarios.
Just a quick demo. Install Pic Lens if you haven’t yet. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you or your browser, just provide a new feature. You can uninstall it whenever you choose.
Now first, run an image search in Google. You get a list of image results that you can paginate through. It got the job done, the images are displayed clearly including info and meta data about the image. They even link to their sources. Fantastic! Does the job, simple and easy. Great UI.
Now, I’m going to open the search in Pic Lens by clicking on the little grey arrow that appears over images now.
This will open the search up in pic lens full screen. It is 3D environment, where you can keep moving towards the right to pull in more images. No pagination, but use of scrolling. It immerses you into a full image library wall in a simulated 3D space.
Now again, I’m not saying this is better for all cases, but the experience is quite different from the conventional image search and listed results. The user will decide how great of an experience it is, although I would say in most cases, the Pic Lens route provides a more exciting and unique way to search through images.
You can even relate this to automobiles. You can get to point A to point B in virtually any car, let’s say an economy car like a Chevy Cobalt.
If you had the choice to go to point A to point B in a Bentley, would you do it?
You may not see a need for it, for some practical reasons, gas, or personal feelings on luxury. But, I do not think you can argue that the experience would be dramatically different and possibly even better than the economy car. Again, both are experiences and both have similar UI’s such as a dashboard, steering wheel, etc., and both have user experiences.
Which one has a better focus on the user and reaching into their emotions to provide a great user experience? I’ll leave that up to you, but I can say that both do provide and complete the functionality request, in this case transport the user. All I have to say is I’d much rather sit on leather, have a smooth ride, and enjoy a great sound system, rather than just sitting on cloth, and have a bumpy ride with road noise and interference blending with my music.
Remind you of any contrasting OS’s? 
