Interaction design is often mistaken for UX design and vice versa. The disciplines overlap, but the terms are not interchangeable. Interaction design focuses on user actions and system responses, while UX design considers the wider experience of using a product.
When we consider interaction design vs UX, we must understand that interaction design is a part or subdomain of UX design. It obviously doesn't cover everything included in UX design, but it is not entirely different from it either.
- Part 1. Interaction Design vs UX Design
- Part 2. Interaction Designer vs UX Designer
- Part 3. A Tool for Exploring Interaction and UX Design
Part 1: Interaction Design vs UX Design
When we consider interaction design vs user experience, given below are the key differences:
- UX design is the broader discipline that includes user interaction as part of the overall experience
- Interaction design focuses on actions, feedback, states, and transitions within that experience
- UX design also involves the overall information architecture of a product
- It also accounts for the specific content used in the product including the text, images and videos
- Interaction design considers the words, visuals, physical context, timing, and behavior that shape an interaction
- UX design also involves user research and content strategies
- UX design also involves conducting usability tests
- Interaction design specifies how the interface responds as a person works through a task
Part 2: Interaction Designer vs UX Designer
Responsibilities vary by team, and one designer may work across both disciplines. UX work often spans the broader journey; interaction design examines the behavior within specific tasks.
The main differences in different types of designers include:
- Both roles consider human needs; interaction designers focus closely on the moment-to-moment behavior of the interface
- UX designers may work with content specialists to shape information across the product
- Interaction designers use evidence about users, their goals, and their context to define appropriate interactions
- Both UX and interaction designers can conduct or use user research and usability testing
- Interaction designers decide events like screen transitions and the way users communicate back and forth with the software
Part 3: A Tool for Exploring Interaction and UX Design
Mockitt can support both UX and interaction design by turning screen layouts and content into a prototype that reviewers can explore.
It helps you create low-fidelity wireframes for each part of your design. You can also add transitions between screens to explore timing and behavior. The five interaction design dimensions also include words, visual representations, and the physical context of use; transitions alone do not cover them all.
Follow these steps to prototype an interaction in Mockitt:
Step 1. Create a Prototype
After creating a Mockitt account, take a tour of the design interface through a beginner's guide or demo. It teaches you how you can flex your creativity with your design while using different options displayed on the screen.
And then go to the dashboard and click "Create" > "Prototype".
Step 2. Choose the Size for Your Project
Choose the ideal device screen for your design to have the page orientation and size adjusted accordingly for you. This could be a tablet, phone, or desktop screen.
Step 3. Start Designing Your Prototype
Choose the widgets that you want to use in your design. Drag and drop them to the right places in your screen and start customizing them.
Step 4. Make Your Design Interactive
You can add a new screen or keep editing the previous screen. And to state the logic of your prototype, you can link different screens to each other. For example, when you click the button in your design, it should open the target page.
Step 5. Preview and Share Your Project
Sit back and have a preview of your finished work through the "preview" button. You can view it in a device screen, as a long page, or in "PRD" mode.
Share your project with your friends and family through a link and get their feedback on it.
Use the "Handoff" view to share design specifications with developers, together with notes about the intended interaction and its states.
Use the distinction to improve collaboration
UX design looks at the broader experience and the user’s needs across a journey. Interaction design focuses more closely on how a person acts on a screen and how the interface responds.
In practice, the two activities inform each other. A research finding may change an interaction, while a prototype review may reveal a wider journey problem that needs product or content decisions.
