As you might know, digital products need to deliver exceptional User Experiences to thrive. However, they also need to be sustainable, cost-effective, profitable, and generate conversions. In other words, digital solutions need to reach established business goals!
And that brings us to the main point of our article. In terms of design, should you focus on user needs or business goals? How to know which to choose? That’s the difference between UI UX and Product Design!
UX UI Design: Designing for Users
If you’re wondering about the difference between Product Designer and UX Designer, let’s start by defining both concepts.
UX/UI Design focuses primarily on users, so that's the keyword here: users. The goal of UX/UI Designers is to deliver products with stunning designs that are pleasant to interact with.
While this idea may sound easy, it involves a deep understanding of user behavior, which considers acknowledging pain points, weaknesses, preferences, and needs.
This scope makes it key to consider not only the visual aspects but also all interaction elements to deliver the products that users love.
As mentioned in another post about UI/UX Design basics, empathy and understanding are key as designers go through deep user research to build intuitive and stunning products.
Some of the questions teams leverage to understand better users include:
After the research stages, UX UI Design teams contemplate all edges of a product and test their assumptions with different approaches, with a strong focus on customer satisfaction.
Product Design: Designing for Business Goals
After defining the core focus of UX UI Design, the next step to better understand the main difference between UX Designer and Product Designer is to explain Product Design as well.
Among crucial decisions, the Product Design process considers business requirements and technical feasibility when building products.
Sometimes mixed with Industrial Design, Product Design also includes responsibilities surrounding the business side and market viability of a digital product. That’s why they need a sharp business mind to ensure the product will drive enough revenue!
In terms of work, Product Designers work closely with cross-functional teams, which include Project Managers, Product Developers, Graphic Designers, and, of course, UXUI Designers.
Likewise, there are some things Product Designers should consider.
UI UX and Product Design
Just as important as acknowledging the difference between UX UI designer and Product Designer, it’s key to recognize the main things these roles and fields have in common.
In terms of soft skills, both areas need critical thinking and attention to detail. Likewise, empathy and communication skills are key to building end-to-end products.
Both areas must have expertise and experience in visual elements and composition, including typography, color scheme, and color theory, as well as specific tools.
Yet, skills in UX/UI Design and Product Design also include user research, wireframing, and prototyping to ensure products work smoothly regardless of device or platform.
Lastly, both areas harness Design Thinking principles and work toward Product Strategy!
Product Design vs UI/UX Design
With a more profound understanding of these two areas, let’s discuss the critical differences between Product Design and UI/UX Design. The first key difference is the focus: UX/UI Design focuses on users, and Product Design focuses on business goals.
The UX UI Design process seeks user satisfaction throughout the design process and focuses on visual identity and user-friendly navigation to ensure users get what they want.
Conversely, Product Design strongly focuses on the company’s business end, ensuring profitability whether it’s about developing a new product or improving an existing one.
Conclusion
The concepts of Product Design, User Interface, and User Experience Designers may be almost identical. Their roles, tasks, knowledge, expertise, and skills are alike.
Nonetheless, the key difference is that while UI/UX Designers are hyper-focused on user flows, Product Designers prioritize business goals and product sustainability.
A great mindset to deliver the products users love includes having some members work on the product from scratch while others work on refinements to have a fresh perspective.
In the end, having some team members focused on users while others focused on business goals can be the key to building end-to-end digital products!
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