11

What is difference between Interaction design, Visual Design, Web design, UX design, UI design, UI development?

BTB, link found below answered for UI Vs UX.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1334496/difference-between-ui-and-ux

Community
  • 1
  • 1
rajakvk
  • 9,775
  • 17
  • 46
  • 49

9 Answers9

51

Maybe just a shorter version:

  • Graphic/Visual Design: How it looks
  • Information Architecture/Design: How it's organized
  • UI Design: How it works before I touch it
  • Interaction Design: How it works after I touch it
  • Web Design: How it works in a browser
  • UX Design: How I feel about it
  • Development: Actual coding
Glen Lipka
  • 1,019
  • 8
  • 14
  • 3
    I would go with "how it looks while I touch it" or perhaps "how it feels to touch it" as far as interaction design. But then that gets pretty close to your def for UX. – Anthony Jan 12 '10 at 14:47
  • 1
    I disagree with "development". I think "programming" is "actual coding", "development" is more than that, it's about "building or improving a product" through all or part of its lifecycle. IMO a good development process should include IA, UI, UX, IxD AND coding. – j b Oct 09 '14 at 09:28
  • in his question it said UI Development. I took a literal interpretation. – Glen Lipka Dec 11 '14 at 17:09
  • This is the best explanation of the differences I came across so far. – Michael D Oct 13 '15 at 03:55
6

here is my take, hopefully it helps./

first of all lets clarify design and development

design is a conceptual work, production of a concept for a solution, a process of elimination of things that you think, feel and believe do not fit as a solution to your intended goal

development is a production of finalized specification/idea (at least in theory) or something that makes sense and close to what you are looking for (although in many cases it is not like that), basically a conversion of your design/idea into working end product

note that both things can and do in most cases coexist side by side in production of the product

now that this is out of way, visual, web, ux, ui are just sub categories of a design notion, each although based on design principal also have their own sub universes and their own sub rules and sub practices that apply directly to their respective subcategories and in many cases can propagate seemingly from one sub category to another.

from my understanding and what i have learned over the years,

interaction design (none specific to field) - concept/understanding how one/individual interacts with an entity and how to design the process of interaction of that individual with the entity. that entity can be anything you pick it to be, for example your car, or your toaster, web browser and website that you view in a browser.

visual design (none specific to field) - concept/understanding of aesthetic appeal and impact of an entity with which individual interacts/looks at

web design (field specific) - concept/understanding of an idea that is a technology(s) specific and includes aspects of multiple design concepts such as but not limited to: interaction design, visual design, user experience design, user interface design and so on

user experience design (none specific to field) - concept of designing user experience, which in turn includes visual design and interaction design plus the limitations of the field in which such design work is happening

user interface (some what specific to field) - concept of designing an interface through which user can interact with the product, gui in soft/web app or an steering wheel in a car

user interface development (none specific to field) - is a process of converting user interface design concept into functioning interface that creates physical connection between individual and product.

hope this helps

GnrlBzik
  • 3,358
  • 5
  • 27
  • 37
  • 1
    I would say interaction design is specific to the field of software. Bill Moggridge coined the term while working on the first laptop. He realized that "the program it ran once he opened the thing was just as engrossing as the object itself, and also needed to be designed." http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2009/03/ive-been-objectified/ – Chris Calo Jan 21 '12 at 20:35
1

User Experience Design - how the user thinks and feels
Information Architecture - how the system is organized
User Interface Design - how the content is organized
Interaction Design - how the user and device act and react
Visual Design - how it looks

Some or all of the above disciplines are part of the following fields:
Architecture, when related to buildings
Interior design, when related to internal spaces
Industrial design, when related to tangible objects
Graphic design, when related to text and images
Application design, when related to digital I/O
Web design, when related to the browser

0

My answer for these question are:

  • Interaction Design: the process necessary to a user can done an action, for example buy in a online store. The interaction design improve the user experience in the buying process, for example with a very simple form with few steps with the posibility of return to last step.
  • Visual Design: necessary to catch the user attention, for example iPod design (simple, white, elegant...).
  • Web Design: it's the same for websites. The design of the web for PC, tablet, smartphone...
  • UX design: the whole process for give to the user a very good experience with our products or services. that's involve design (visual, web, UI, interactivity), materials that make a special sense for the user (for example driving a BMW car), make believe the user that he are a special person and of course develpment of service and products.
  • UI design: pay special attention for improve the user interface for make a very good sense to the user (for example, a very simple and easy website for buy).
  • UI development: th other side, the programmer with de UX designers to reach a good UI.
0

I am interested in entering the field of interaction design (so I will only be addressing what this type of design is). I am commenting on this for a co-op class assignment so let me know what you think.

To me interaction design is about the user experience however is also focus's on behavior and understanding the needs of the audience. To me it's not necessarily about the design itself but rather how the design is used. What draws me most to interaction design is the idea that interaction design is not only about designing more of what’s already out there but it’s also about creating design that doesn’t currently exist.

halfer
  • 19,824
  • 17
  • 99
  • 186
  • 1
    Thanks for answering and giving your opinion, but having you thought if this answers the question (what's the difference between the types of design listed)? – Zizouz212 Apr 02 '15 at 20:36
0

The real issue we need to address is the differences among UI, Interaction and UX.

Here comes another WORLD FIRST IN-DEPTH DISCUSSION of such differences.

(1) UI means how the user "faces" the system/app and how the system/app "faces" the user. An app's look, size, layout, colors, fonts, display, just like a store's lighting, shelf height and width, isle width and lengths etc.

(2) Interaction means how the user "acts" on the system/app and how the system/app "acts" on the user. Here, I borrow heavily from the book, "The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphonious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software" by Chris Crawford.

He postulates that a good interaction resembles a good conversation, and that a good conversation has the 3 essentail attributes, which I will explain in the example below. He says a good interactive participant "listens," "thinks" and responds within a reasonable interval.

  1. A person/app just listens. Then, it is not interactive e.g. recorder, book, wall

  2. A person/app just talks. Then, it is not interactive e.g. radio, old time TV, old time cd player

  3. A person/app just talks and listens but without any thinking. e.g. some answering machine, some social bore

(3) UX Given the same UI and the same interaction, do we get the same UX? Can they diifer at all?

e.g. Say, there is a search engine that works just like Google. But you "feel" or "suspect" that this new search engine is collecting your private data too much.

It's like a store that you know or "feel" expoits child labor, that you know or "feel" pays only lip service to the green issues. Same shelves, isles, items. And same staff and services, ... yet, different experiences.

It's the "experience chain," a key concept from the book, "The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage."

halfer
  • 19,824
  • 17
  • 99
  • 186
  • thanks for your time. Of course I'm not naive. But not clear about those phrases exactly. Anyway, I will read what you suggest and confirm about it here. :-) – rajakvk Jun 15 '10 at 15:35
0

Interaction Design - represents the design aspect related to the notion of utility. The choice of visual elements is not determined by aesthetic principles, but by how useful the design will be for the visitor of the website and how much will simplify and optimize his/her experience.

Example of approach: Is a round button more suitable for our target-audience or a square one?

Visual Design and UI Design stand for the aestethic feel. The only difference between Visual Design and UI Design lies in the fact that the first one is more comprehensive, including everything, from buttons, icons and layouts to posters, while the latter doesn't include banners, being focused mostly on the icons/buttons/theme side of an application.

UX design is similar to the notion of Interaction Design, but it's more "hardcore" in this regard, describing the logical approach with regard to usability, like the logical architecture of the website, determined by the user's needs. It is the process of planning, projecting and wireframing, establishing functions and envisaging the system, while Interaction Design is a step further.

In conclusion, UX is associated with the concept of sketching and wireframing, UI is finishing the design accordingly (adding the theme, the web-safe fonts and the color palette), and UI development is the process of recreating the design when coding.

You can find out more about that on the Interaction Design Foundation: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature?ep=mb

Mircea
  • 101
  • 2
0

Interaction design - Research Person, defines the INTERACTION/COMMUNICATION of System/application. Visual Design - Artist, who Illustrates graphics - can be Web media/Print Media/ .etc Web design - Artist, BUT only for WEB APPLICATION UX design - Research Person, Who understands the each and everything from the USER SIDE and make sure of HAPPY/SMILEY EXPERIENCE UI design - same like Web Design UI development - Frontend Developer - HTML, CSS, JS, Jquery, Ajax, YUI,Php, Silverlight .net .etc .etc. Any knd of frontend technologies..

Let me organize it in simple/easiest way UX DESIGN INTERACTION DESIGN USER INTERFACE/WEB/VISUAL DESIGN UI DEVELOPMENT

-2

There are six types of design, they are:

  1. interaction design
  2. visual design
  3. web design
  4. UX design
  5. UI development
Emil Laine
  • 41,598
  • 9
  • 101
  • 157
BALAJI
  • 1
  • 2
    Original poster (OP) asks for the difference. Perhaps you can elaborate on some specifics of the (5) five types of design listed by the OP. – les Jun 21 '15 at 07:02