User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) designing has become very popular in the 21st Century. The goals of these 2 design elements is to make websites and programs more efficient, faster or rather respond quicker, easy to understand, and effortless to use. Note that during the design phase your focus should align with the goals mentioned above.
When designing UI you should be focusing on improving how information, functions, and events are displayed. This could include using familiar icons and colors to convey a message to users. For example, using a red color when warnings appear or using a Facebook icon instead of the words “Go to Facebook” or a open door icon to “Log Out”.
Some changes may seem good, but in fact make it worse.
When designing UX you should be focusing on which emotion and feelings you would like your users to feel while using the website or program. This does not only include visual aspects, it could also include the processes or steps that needs to be followed to do something. For example, a banking website would like to make their users feel safe, secure, and in control; Thus you would like to ensure the login process is 100% secure while preventing the process from becoming too long or frustrating.
Most of the times you don’t notice BAD UX unless you experience it.
The importance of UX and UI becomes clear when users find your website / program very satisfying to work with. How many of you use your fingerprints to unlock your phones? Have you ever considered going back to using a pin? Or how about mobile phones compared to wall mounted phones? Or a new smart phone compared to one of those Motorola flip phones?
Now imagine your website or program is using some smart feature or process that none of your competitors have? Or designing a 2 step payment portal compared to your competitor’s 5 page ledger of information that they need to fill in. Users will find it a lot more satisfying to use your website making it more popular and sought after.
That is why it is crucial to have amazing UX and UI design.