With the rise of User Interface design there has been some confusion about the difference between User Interface design and User Experience design. Both are things to consider when designing an application or website but each bring a different aspect to consider while creating the finished product.

Interface An interface is a collection of interactions on a device or program that simplify and minimize the process of the task in terms of completing the goals of a user. This can also be referred to as User-Centered Design.

Experience Experience by definition is the practical contact with and observation of facts and events, so to define what the design of User Experience is would be to design or plan the practical contact with and observation of facts or events.

Many times User Experience design is confused with User Interface design because of how closely they work together, so to explain both and the differences between the two, I’m going to tell a story. 

The Journey to the Door

Once upon a time there was a small town in the shadow of a mountain. The land was used up and desolate so the people of the town had to travel to their neighboring towns to get food each week. This was a special town because in the mountain that shadowed the town was a door. This door was the entry way to a magical world that was rumored to have a magical power to grow things that were planted in the ground with a snap of a finger. Everyone wanted to explore the world but the door was high on the edge of a cliff and there was no path to get to the door. One day three people decided they would try everything they could to get to the door, so they gathered all their plans and ideas and each began his journey to the door. 

The first person decided to climb the mountain from the bottom, up to the door but on the first day, had to turn back because he got a hole in his shoe.
The second person decided to take the long path on the far side of the mountain and repel down the cliff to the door. When he made it halfway down the cliff, he realized he didn’t pack enough rope so he had to turn back.

The third person decided to build a beautiful staircase up to the door so he could come and go as he needed, so he hired a team to come help him build his staircase to the door. When he made it through he found a place in the magical land to plant his garden. As soon as the seeds were planted; “SNAP” and all the seeds instantly grew into full plants covered with fruit and vegetables. The town rejoiced and never had to leave town for food again.

Journey to the Door: Explained

This is a story about different experiences of three different people.

The first person, never checked his gear so he wasn’t prepared for the journey and had a bad experience.
The second person checked his gear but didn’t know how much rope he would need so the gear was right but his lack of planning ended up effecting his experience negatively. 

The third person took his time and built a way to get to the top without needing to interact with mountain. This provided a better experience not only for himself but for anyone that wanted to get up to the door.
All three deserve credit for designing a trip, each had a user experience and each designed a user interface to help them accomplish the trip. Two of them failed because the user interface(shoes, rope, etc.) didn’t fit the task at hand which gave them have a poor user experience and caused them to give up. The third not only considered the user interface(mountain, stairs, etc.) but considered the future users experience and came up with a good user experience for the people of the town to easily make the trip to the door without having to take the long journeys each week. 

Wrap Up

Simply put, a User Interfaces are the tools a person uses to accomplish a task or set of tasks, and User Experience is how a person feels when using those tools. Based on this definition and the story we can see that anyone can design a trip an interface and an experience but only the design that accomplished the goals and considers all aspects, will let the user experience something magical.