What Is the Difference Between Graphic Design and UX Design?
Despite both graphic design and user experience (UX) design having the word design in the title, they are not interchangeable or even heavily related. A graphic designer spends their time thinking about how something looks, whereas, a UX designer spends their time thinking about how something feels.
This means that no, you do not need to know graphic design to be a UX designer.
What Is Graphic Design?
Graphic design is looking at, thinking about, and changing the visuals or aesthetics of a design. Ideally, by the time a graphic designer starts working on their part of the design process, UX design has already been nailed down. Graphic designers still have a lot of freedom in how they choose to make a product or design look without affecting the UX design that’s been established. Will this design fit in with what the user is expecting, is a question for graphic designers.
What Is UX Design?
UX design is researching, considering, and planning out how the user will experience a product. Everything in UX design is centered on the user, as they are the most important part of whatever project you are working on. UX designers ask themselves how things feel and whether or not that feeling is right. Could an application be more usable? How user-friendly is the design? These are the broader questions that a UX designer should be focused on.
Which Is Better? Graphic Design or UX Design?
At the end of the day, both graphic design and UX design play an important role in the overall design process, so neither is inherently better than the other. UX design comes at the top of the design process before graphic design, which comes at the bottom. If you like thinking about and manipulating the visuals of a design, then graphic design is for you. If you like considering how a user interacts with a product–changing the feel and making it as usable as possible–then UX design could be exactly what you need.
Want to Learn More About UX Design?
Thinking about changing careers? How does learning more about user experience design sound? If you think you would enjoy working in the technology industry as a UX designer, then you should check out Devmountain’s UX Design courses: Full-Time or Part-Time. The UX Design course covers practical, foundational UX design principles that you can start using now. In 13-16 weeks, you could be on the job market, ready to pursue entry-level UX design positions.