The importance of UI and UX in mobile apps
The good thing is people have started talking about UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) but the bad thing is most of them don’t have a proper understanding of what they are exactly. They get confused between UI and UX. If we go by the definition of UI and UX-here it is.
User Interface: As the name goes the design which we see for the app is the UI, like the header, buttons, body, drawer and body of content or image placement. In simpler words, the design that we see is UI andit is all about technical aspect and aesthetics.
User Experience: Again as the name goes. The experience a user fares when coming to the app and operating it. Like how he feels about the app. Is he able to do what he wants from the app? Is he able to operate the app while on road?
I have tried to make it simple. Now to make it look simpler, I would cite one example of an app that we are designing for one of our clients in India. There is this client who runs a business for milk producing community in the villages of Haryana in India. Haryana is known for its agriculture and milk production. All the big companies in the field has occupied the milk farms and the people who are in dairy production are not getting the price they should get. Monopoly is also there. Our client deep dived into the issues and decided to foray into the business and started a company. The company has already started to deliver milk to doorsteps from Haryana to New Delhi and they are increasing the production and improving the community of milkmenas well.
Coming back to the discussion of user interface, we have decided to create the app for them. They are not aware of design importance. All they want is people should use it for the betterment and ease. So the app is going to be used by the guy who delivers milk to houses, the people who manage the business and the the guy who consumes the milk. The number of consumers are right now in thousands and will be increasing with time. We decided to make the app as simple and user friendly that anyone who uses it can operate with one hand only. The guy who is delivering milk can update the calendar of the consumer and at the same time the consumer can see if he has updated the calendar or not.
The app is not released yet, hence we could not show the design sample here. This example shows how important is user experience coupled with user interface for any kind of mobile app. Instead of following what other people are doing, we need to focus what we require and how our customers would respond to that. Once we understand all of this, we are able to make the difference. Obviously the app should work for the consumers.
There are hundreds of cases where a good mobile application failed just because of bad user experience and incompetent design. There should be a proper balance of user interface and user experience. These two components normally act as differentiators and could add value proposition to the brand and its concept. An app is successful only when it has active users. It is imperative for the business owners to understand that investing in design is as important as investing in the technology.