The interview question: UX vs UI

Back in 2015–2017, one of the main interview questions was: “What is UI/UX, and what’s the difference?”

I used to memorise articles explaining the terms. It came from a lack of experience — I wanted to look more advanced in front of employers and freelance clients.

Today I’d answer like this. UX is everything we do to reach the result we need. UI is the set of tools that helps us get there. You can open a door just by pushing it, but a great handle makes it easier.

Put differently, UX is the user’s path from start to finish, where the start is a problem and the finish is its solution. UI is the bridges that help along the way.

The pencil example

Your pencil is blunt, so you sharpen it. The path to that is the user experience: a knife, a manual or electric sharpener, or your teeth if you must. The UI is how sharp the knife is, whether the sharpener is shaped well, how fast its motor spins. Those are the bridges.

In an interface

One calculator just adds numbers. Another also shows the history of your calculations. Both solve the same problem, but the second has a better interface: it remembers what you did.