Web design and user interface design (UI design)

This is the current two very high frequency of use of web design. In most cases, they are replaced by each other. Many people both inside and outside the area consider it to be basically two words of the same meaning. But are they really confusing? I do not have the habit of tangling up for some nouns, for example, I would not argue with others between "art workers" and "designers." But I think web design and user interface design these two words contains a lot of things, the comparison of these two words can be extended to some design process of development and thinking.

Note: The user interface design referred to in this blog refers specifically to the user interface design in the web page without special instructions.

Back to the origin of the user interface design

Do not archeology here, just think back to the initial reference to the user interface in the Internet field, when the term is by the industrial design field of human-computer interface derived from. So when it comes to the interface, there is bound to be the existence of the concept of interaction. From the perspective of the human-machine interface itself, it is the medium through which humans interact with the machine (specifically this article). If the machine as a CPU, hard disk and other hardware, then the interface is a wide range of software (including the operating system); if the object of human interaction is some of the software objects (there may be data ah media files, etc. ), Then the interface (graphical interface) is what we are familiar with the software interface. In the field of software, interface design has been very mature, in a variety of environments, various systems have different GUI Builder, and the reason why the interface, you must be through the interface of this medium to manipulate the "data ". This and web design is not the same.

From the needs of users to look at the web design

What is the need for users to browse the web? Abstracted can be summarized as 1: browsing information; 2: operating data. The data here refers to the data lying in the database. Users simply browsing information, the page will not be behind the "data" caused any operation, but users can click on the link, jump page. This part is the web design is different from the user interface design a major place. The former will spend a considerable amount of energy on how to accurately convey information through design, while the latter only involves a small part of the communication of information. This is why designers of software interfaces face greater challenges in web design and are not very successful (although the "software-like" style is also becoming popular).

Is it possible to think of webpage design as part of the user interface design, which is part of the operational data? In fact, you can see that many of the interaction patterns in web design and user interface design are figured out. But also need to pay attention to the difference between the two modes of interaction. At present, due to limitations of network speed, browser standards and other reasons, there are far fewer interactive modes that can be applied to web pages than the interactive modes in user interface design. However, the gap is gradually narrowing (such as drag & drop, real time edit) In the user interface design, these interactions also seem more fluid.

Web design by the graphic design and interface design

Hard to say web design is derived from the graphic design or interface design. In the earliest years, web design should be done by the browser development company, which is Netscape. As for the field that has now developed into such a flourishing area, it is expected to surpass the traditional graphic design and interface design. In the middle of the process, there is a chaos in my mind. But no doubt, modern web design is subject to many graphic design and interface design. Which I think the impact of graphic design in particular.

As mentioned earlier, an important requirement of a user on a webpage is to browse information. One of the functions of a webpage design is to effectively and accurately convey information, and at the same time, to ensure beauty. And this is an important function of graphic design. For the most common example, the typography and layout commonly referred to in the web design actually originated from the Gestalt psychology theory that is widely used in graphic design:

Proximity. The various parts of the distance tend to form the whole. Similarity. Parts that are similar in a certain way tend to form a whole. Closure. Belonging to each other, the various components that make up a closed entity tend to make up the whole. Simplicity. The parts of a simple graphic feature that have symmetry, regularity, and smoothness tend to make up the whole.

The color theory, composition theory, etc., many are based directly on the graphic design development experience accumulated over the years. Even now many designers directly to the unique style of graphic design into the web design: Print Design Influence.

The biggest difference between web design and graphic design, that is, in the "operational data." In fact, the development of web design has also been influenced by the design of software interfaces. As mentioned earlier, the interactions in web pages are increasingly "software-based". The development of interaction will inevitably affect the "visual" part of web design. In fact, it is hard to say clearly who is the first of these two groups. It is a problem of a chicken or a raw chicken. Another web design is different from the graphic design and user interface design, I think it is css, html, js three body. The development of front-end code has a very big impact on the web design, and even a period of time will lead the development trend of web design, such as one page style easily achieved with jQuery (home front page is the case). In the field of graphic design, there is no code link; in the area of ​​user interface design, GUI Builder innovations are much slower than front-end code. In fact, a bit of a web design based on graphic design and user interface design has begun to reverse its ancestry.

Aesthetically contrasting the development of web design and user interface design

In this dimension, there are so many aesthetic styles that affect web design: Swiss style, Retro style, Minimalist design, Bauhaus, Garbage style Grunge style, Organic style and much more. The user interface design aesthetic style is usually in the texture of exploration, such as Windows Vista style, Apple style, etc., more limited. This is also because the aesthetic style of web design is usually derived from graphic design (of course, has its own unique Grunge style, Organic style, etc.), and user interface design is difficult to learn from graphic design.
Spent so long that their own web design and user interface design ideas, in fact, more are the result of personal practice and thinking. These terms are virtually irrelevant at work, except that the two are essentially different in their design of web pages and user interface designs, and they are not the same in practice. However, in the future, the two concepts may finally become one. According to the current Internet development speed, the desktop software will gradually migrate to the cloud, and then there may be only one design title.

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