UX vs. Product Design vs. UI: The Never-Ending Battle

TL;DR: Digital product design teams are often referred to as “the UX team” or “the UX/UI team,” which are terminologies that can significantly disturb a proper understanding of what UX and digital product design actually are and what a digital product design team does. For one, the user’s experience can’t be designed in the first place, and “doing UX” goes way beyond the scope of digital product design. For another, saying “UX/UI” isn’t meaningful since they’re neither the same nor separable concepts within a process; one can’t “do UI” without also “doing UX.” Generally speaking, digital product design covers design research, interaction design, and visual design, and it’s a much more accurate term for what’s commonly referred to as “UX” or “UX/UI.” I believe a proper understanding of terminology is essential for being able to deliver one’s best possible work as a designer.

Photo by Julian Zett on Unsplash

At BestSecret, the last Friday of the month is “Tech Day,” an all-day event full of learning and a nice opportunity to give talks, organize or participate in workshops, and learn from colleagues. At the most recent Tech Day, we — the digital product design team — took the chance to kick off a new series of talks and demos that we call the “Product Design Show & Tell.” That first Show & Tell we used to give a general introduction to what digital product design actually is and, in…