What is the Difference Between UI, UX, and UI/UX Designers?

What UI, UX, and UI/UX Designers Do

Due to the increase in demand for new mobile apps and digital products, the need to hire UI/UX Designers and related roles has risen exponentially. The digital world has become very important, so businesses and other organizations are always looking for the best IT support to add to their teams so they can stay ahead of the competition.

The Short Version: What is the Difference Between UI and UX Designers?

People frequently believe that UI and UX Designers are the same, but there is a clear difference between UI and UX roles. Essentially, a UI Designer makes an app or website look good. You would hire a UI Designer to build a user interface (UI) for your digital product.

On the other hand, the UX Designer is focused on the website or app’s functionality and increasing user engagement. The UX Designer ensures that the UI provides an ideal user experience (UX). A UI Designer makes changes to the interface based on suggestions by the UX Designer.

Meanwhile, the UX Designer utilizes data and key metrics to improve the UI of a product. Success depends on both the UI and the UX. Therefore, you need to hire both UI and UX Designers or someone with knowledge of both areas: a UI/UX Designer.

Use this chart to compare these roles:

That’s the short explanation, but let’s dive a little deeper…

What is a UI Designer?

A UI Designer, or a User Interface Designer, creates visual interfaces for digital products such as websites, apps, games, and more. They focus on delivering an intuitive experience for users by designing the look and feel at the visual and interactive level. They ensure the interface is visually appealing and easy to use. One of the core skills a UI Designer must exhibit is an understanding of human nature when it comes to designing. Their work is often supported by a separate role – the UX Designer.

Key UI Designer Responsibilities:

• Visual Design: Choose color palettes, typography, icons, imagery, and other graphic elements.
• Interaction Design: Define states for buttons, form fields, transitions, micro‑interactions (e.g., hover effects).
• Branding Integration: Ensure the interface aligns with brand guidelines and voice.
• High‑Fidelity Mockups: Produce pixel‑perfect screens ready for handoff to developers.
• Design Systems: Create and maintain reusable UI components and style guides.

Specialist UI Roles Include:

• UI Artist
• UI Developer
• UI Engineer
• UI Architect
• UI Manager

UI Artist

A UI Artist focuses on the visual style of user interfaces by creating polished, visually appealing elements like icons, buttons, menus, and HUDs, especially in games and apps. These enhance user immersion and aesthetic experience.

UI Developer & UI Engineer

These titles are sometimes used interchangeably depending on the organization, but there are key differences:

A UI Developer builds the front-end of web or app interfaces using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and front-end frameworks, focusing on functionality, responsiveness, and visual accuracy.

A UI Engineer bridges design and development by coding user interfaces. They turn design mockups into responsive, interactive, and performant front-end components using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and frameworks like React or Angular.

While a UI Developer focuses on front-end implementation, a UI Engineer handles the front-end architecture in addition to the front-end implementation.

UI Architect

A UI Architect designs the overall front-end architecture and strategy, ensuring that UI systems are scalable, maintainable, and performant across large applications. They set coding standards, choose frameworks, and guide the technical direction of the UI team. Their responsibilities may touch on important aspects of security, functionality, the structure of the system, delivery time, and ease of future modifications.

UI Manager

A UI Manager leads and manages a team of UI Designers and/or Developers, overseeing project timelines, maintaining brand standards, mentoring team members, and aligning UI work with product and business goals. They balance people management with process improvement. A successful UI Manager has some experience in numerous related roles, enabling them to determine appropriate timeline and delegation of tasks.

What is a UX Designer?

The UX Designer, or User Experience Designer, focuses on how a product works and how users interact with it end-to-end. They are often responsible for product research, analyzing user engagement with the product, and implementing necessary changes to facilitate a better user experience. They are often in charge of deliverables such as user personas, journey maps, wireframes, clickable prototypes, and usability test reports.

Key Responsibilities:

• User Research: Conduct interviews, surveys, and usability tests to understand user needs and pain points.
• Information Architecture: Define content hierarchy, navigation structures, and user flows.
• Wireframing & Prototyping: Sketch low‑fidelity and interactive prototypes to map out layouts and interactions.
• Usability Testing: Iterate designs based on real user feedback to optimize ease of use.
• Accessibility & Inclusion: Ensure the product is usable by people with a wide range of abilities.

Specialist UX Roles Include:

• UX Researcher
• UX Architect
• UX Copywriter
• UX Analyst
• Product Designer
• UX Strategist

UX Researcher

The UX Researcher’s primary role is gather and analyze user insights through interviews, surveys, and usability testing to inform design decisions and improve user experience. This data is essential when it comes to designing for specific industries, for example.

UX Architect

A UX Architect structures the user journey and information flow, focusing on navigation, layout, and content hierarchy to ensure intuitive and efficient user interactions.

UX Copywriter  

The UX Copywriter role is a relatively new one in the UX field. This person is responsible for crafting clear, concise, and helpful interface text like button labels, error messages, and onboarding flows to guide users and enhance usability. The UX Copywriter role is focused on practical, concise information so that the app or webpage functions effortlessly.

UX Analyst  

The role of UX Analysts is crucial because they are responsible for improving engagement and UX. They use data and metrics such as user behavior analytics, A/B testing, and heatmaps to evaluate the effectiveness of UX designs and recommend improvements.

Product Designer

A Product Designer takes a holistic, end-to-end approach to designing digital products, blending UX, UI, research, and strategy to solve user and business problems. They supervise the entire design process of the user interface and can frequently do everything from UX to UI to coding to solving issues related to the design of the site or app. Since they can do it all, this role may eliminate the need to hire a separate UI Designer.

UX Strategist

A UX Strategist defines the long-term UX vision and roadmap, aligning user needs with business goals through planning, stakeholder collaboration, and research insights. In large companies, the role of the UX Strategist includes making sure that the UX Designers keep the needs of the consumers and the company in mind.

What is a UI/UX Designer?

A UI/UX Designer is often the best of both worlds because they focus on both the structure of the experience as well as the look and feel. This role combines user experience and user interface design to create products like apps or websites that are easy to use and visually appealing. They handle everything from user research and wireframing to high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes, ensuring the design is intuitive, functional, and aligns with user needs.

Key Responsibilities:

• End‑to‑End Design: Take a product from concept (user research and wireframes) all the way to polished visual designs.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Work closely with product managers, developers, and stakeholders to ensure that both usability and aesthetics are considered at every stage.
• Full‑Stack Design Thinking: Balance user needs, business goals, and technical constraints across both UX and UI disciplines.

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