Lesson 1: What UX Is and Isn't

Welcome: What This Course Is About

This course covers user experience (UX) design. Over the next levels you will take one small product from a problem to a design you have tested with real people. Before any of that, you need a clear picture of what UX is. Many newcomers think it means "making screens look nice". It covers much more than that.

By the end of this level you will be able to:

1. Tell UX, UI and visual design apart, with an example of each.
2. Spot common misconceptions about UX.
3. Explain how designers, product managers and developers each shape a product's experience.

Step 1: Learn the Definition of UX

Two definitions are widely used:

• Nielsen Norman Group: "User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products."
• ISO 9241-210:2019 (the international standard on human-centred design) describes UX as a person's perceptions and responses that result from using, or expecting to use, a system, product or service. These responses include emotions, beliefs, comfort, behaviour and what the person actually gets done.

Both definitions say the same thing: UX covers the whole experience, not only the screen. It also starts before first use. What people expect from a product is part of their experience of it.

History note: Don Norman made the term popular. In 1993 he joined Apple as "User Experience Architect", the first job title to use the phrase. He later co-founded Nielsen Norman Group with Jakob Nielsen.

DO: Write down one product you used this week. Note one moment that was good and one that was frustrating. Then ask whether each moment happened on a screen or somewhere else, such as delivery, customer support, price or missing content.

Step 2: Tell UX, UI and Visual Design Apart

Think of a restaurant:

• UX is the whole visit: finding the place, booking, waiting, ordering, the food, paying and how you feel when you leave.
• UI is the menu and the ordering system: how you read the choices and say what you want.
• Visual design is the menu's fonts, colours and layout.

In a product:

These layers overlap, and one person often does all three. The thing to remember is that a beautiful UI can still give a poor UX. Nielsen Norman Group gives an example: a film website can have a perfect search interface, but if the database is missing the independent films you want, the experience still fails.

UX also differs from usability. Usability is one quality of an interface: how easy it is to learn and how efficient it is to use. UX includes usability along with many other factors.

DO: Take the frustrating moment you noted in Step 1. Label it UX, UI or visual. If more than one label fits, pick the one closest to the cause.

Step 3: Spot Common Misconceptions

Watch for these mistaken beliefs:

• "UX is just making it pretty." Looks are visual design, which is only one layer.
• "UX is the same as UI." The UI is one point of contact. UX also covers content, service, speed, pricing and support.
• "We know what users want." UX relies on evidence from real users, not the team's opinions.
• "UX is a final polishing step." UX work is most useful early, before costly decisions are locked in.
• "UX is only the designer's job." Everyone who shapes the product shapes the experience.
• "The user is like me." Your skills, devices and needs may be very different from your users'.

Practice scenario: A startup says: "Our app is nearly built. Next week the designer will make it look nice. We don't need to talk to users because our team uses the app every day."

The statement contains three misconceptions:

1. Treating UX as a final step ("nearly built… next week").
2. Treating UX as decoration ("make it look nice").
3. Assuming the team stands in for real users ("our team uses the app").

DO: Read the scenario again and match each phrase to a bullet in the list above.

Step 4: See Who Shapes the Experience

UX is a team result. Each role adds something different:

• UX/product designers study users, define problems, structure information, and design and test flows and interfaces. Tools such as Figma are common, but the thinking matters more than the tool.
• Product managers decide which problems to solve and in what order. They balance user needs against business goals and constraints. A scope or pricing decision affects the experience as much as a screen does.
• Developers turn designs into working software. Speed, reliability, error handling, security and accessible code all shape what users feel. A slow, crashing app gives a bad UX however good the mockups look.
• Others also contribute. Content writers, researchers, customer support and marketing all shape what users expect and experience.

DO: For your product from Step 1, write one sentence for each role: "The designer/PM/developer affected my experience by…"

Step 5: Analyse a Product's Experience

Use this routine whenever you look at a product:

1. Name the user and their goal, for example "a commuter wants to buy a train ticket".
2. Trace the steps they take from start to finish, including steps off the screen.
3. Mark where it breaks down, the points of confusion, delay or frustration.
4. Classify each problem as UX, UI or visual, and note which role could fix it.

DO: Run this routine once on your Step 1 product. Your check for this level is to finish with at least three classified problems.

Key Takeaways

• UX covers the whole experience of a product, company and service, including expectations before use.
• UI is the interactive interface. Visual design is how it looks. Both are parts of UX.
• A good-looking interface can still give a poor experience.
• Usability is one quality inside UX, not the same thing as UX.
• Common misconceptions: UX is decoration, UX equals UI, UX comes last, and the team already knows what users want.
• Designers, product managers and developers all shape the experience.