Early in my career, I designed a food delivery app that taught me an expensive lesson.
The interface was clean. The animations were smooth. The restaurant cards looked appetizing. We had user testing sessions where people said they liked how it looked.
But when we launched, barely anyone used it regularly.
The problem wasn’t the UI. The problem was that we built something people didn’t need the way we thought they’d need it. We assumed we understood user behavior without actually studying it. We designed beautiful screens for the wrong user flow.
Some parts worked great—the restaurant browsing experience got genuine compliments. But the core ordering flow? We’d designed it based on how we thought people should order food, not how they actually do.
That’s the difference between UI and UX. UI is what users see. UX is whether the whole thing actually works for them.
What UI Design Really Covers
UI design focuses on the visual and interactive elements users engage with directly.
It’s the buttons, typography, color systems, icons, spacing, and layouts. It’s making interfaces feel polished and visually coherent. It’s the craft of creating pixel-perfect mockups that bring a design system to life.
If you’re coming from UI design, you already excel at this. You know how to create visual hierarchy. You can make interfaces that feel modern and refined. You understand composition and interaction details.
These skills are genuinely valuable.
But they represent one part of a larger process.
What UX Design Actually Encompasses
UX design covers the entire experience someone has with your product—from the moment they hear about it to long after they’ve used it.
It includes understanding why they need your product, what problems they’re trying to solve, how they currently solve those problems, and whether your solution actually makes their life better.
Here’s a concrete example from my work in EdTech:
A UI designer might focus on making course cards visually appealing with great imagery, clear typography, and inviting CTAs.
A UX designer asks different questions:
- Why is this person here? (Career change, skill upgrade, curiosity)
- What’s stopping them from starting? (Overwhelm, unclear value, commitment anxiety)
- What would make this feel achievable? (Clear time commitment, progressive difficulty, early wins)
- How do we know if it’s working? (Completion rates, time to first lesson, return visits)
The UI still matters tremendously. But the UX determines whether people actually achieve their goals or abandon your product.
The Challenge UI Designers Face
In my 10+ years teaching designers, I’ve noticed something consistent when UI designers start learning UX.
The hardest shift isn’t learning new tools. It’s learning to prioritize function over aesthetics, especially in early stages.
I worked with a talented student who couldn’t bring themselves to test a “rough” prototype with users. They kept refining the visual design, adjusting colors, perfecting spacing—anything to make it “presentable” before showing anyone.
I finally asked: “What are you trying to learn from users right now?”
They paused. “Whether this flow makes sense to them.”
“Will perfect button styling help you learn that?”
That’s when it clicked. In early UX work, a rough sketch that answers questions about user behavior is infinitely more valuable than a polished mockup built on assumptions.
You’ll need to get comfortable showing incomplete work. That feels uncomfortable when you’re used to presenting pixel-perfect deliverables.
But that’s where the real insights emerge.
Real Examples: When Strong UI Isn’t Enough
Let me show you what this looks like in practice.
Example 1: The Confusing EdTech Onboarding
I worked on an educational platform where the onboarding flow looked polished. Clean screens, nice illustrations, clear CTAs.
But we had a problem: people weren’t starting courses.
The UI wasn’t the issue. The UX was. We were asking too many questions upfront (skill level, goals, interests, time commitment) before users understood the platform’s value. People dropped off before seeing why they should invest time in answering.
When we revised the UX—letting people explore courses first, then gradually collecting information—completion rates increased significantly.
Same visual quality. Different user flow. Massive impact.
Example 2: The Food Delivery App Assumption
On that food delivery app I mentioned, we designed the ordering flow assuming people wanted to customize everything—portion sizes, ingredients, special instructions.
Our UI for this was actually quite good. Clear options, nice interaction patterns.
But user research later showed most people just wanted to reorder their usual meal quickly. All those customization options were friction, not features.
We’d solved the wrong problem beautifully.
The lesson: Understanding user needs comes before crafting solutions.
The Invisible Work That Happens Before Design
Here’s what the UX process actually looks like before anyone opens Figma:
- Research: Interviewing users, observing behavior, understanding context and pain points
- Analysis: Examining data, identifying patterns, finding where people struggle
- Strategy: Defining what to build and why—not just how it looks
- Information Architecture: Organizing content so people can actually find what they need
- User Flows: Mapping the path from current state to desired outcome
- Low-fidelity Prototyping: Testing concepts with sketches or wireframes
- Iteration: Learning from user feedback, refining the approach
- High-fidelity Mockups: Creating the detailed visual design
- Continued Testing: Validating that the solution actually works
As a UI designer, you’ve typically been starting around step 8—creating beautiful mockups. UX designers start at step 1.
And here’s the critical part: if you skip steps 1-7, even the most stunning mockup won’t solve the actual user problem.
Why UX Isn’t Just “Thinking About Users”
Some designers tell me: “I already consider users when I design, so I’m doing UX.”
That’s like saying you’re doing structural engineering because you think about stability when you arrange furniture.
Considering users is essential. But UX is a systematic discipline with specific methods, frameworks, and validation processes.
It requires:
- Research skills you haven’t practiced yet (interviewing, usability testing, data analysis)
- Strategic thinking about behavior and goals, not just interfaces
- Comfort with uncertainty before clear solutions emerge
- Data literacy to interpret metrics and make evidence-based decisions
- Humility to be wrong and willingness to iterate based on what you learn
These are absolutely learnable. But they’re fundamentally different from what you’ve been doing.
The good news? Your UI expertise gives you a significant advantage. You already understand visual communication, interaction patterns, and design systems.
You just need to expand your view to see the full picture.
The Mental Model I Use Every Day
Here’s how I think about the relationship between user needs, UX, and UI:
Step 1: User Needs
What problem are we solving? Why does it matter to real people?
Step 2: UX Strategy
How will we solve it? What’s the complete experience flow?
Step 3: UI Execution
What will it look like? How will it feel to interact with?
Most UI designers start at Step 3. UX designers start at Step 1.
And here’s what I’ve learned through many costly mistakes: if you get Step 1 wrong, Steps 2 and 3 become irrelevant. You’ll have created an elegant solution to a problem that doesn’t actually exist—or doesn’t exist in the form you imagined.
I’ve been on both sides of this. I’ve built beautiful things nobody used. And I’ve built rough prototypes that transformed into successful products because we understood the real user need.
The difference is always the same: did we start with genuine user insight, or with assumptions?
What This Week Will Build For You
Over the next 7 days, you’re going to learn the foundational UX thinking that transforms how you approach design.
You’ll learn how to:
- Research users systematically, not just guess at their needs
- Map customer journeys and identify genuine pain points
- Validate ideas quickly before investing in high-fidelity design
- Test with real people and interpret what you observe
- Make strategic decisions backed by data and user evidence
You won’t become a UX expert in a week—I’ve been doing this for over a decade and still learn constantly.
But you will understand what UX actually entails. You’ll have practical frameworks you can use immediately. And you’ll never look at design the same way again.
Because you’ll start asking the question that separates good designers from great ones:
Does this actually solve the user’s problem?
Let’s answer that question together.
Don’t Forget These Key Points
- UI is what users see; UX is the complete experience—they’re complementary but distinct disciplines
- Beautiful interfaces don’t guarantee people will use your product—you must solve the right problem first
- UX work starts before visual design—research, strategy, and validation come first
- UI designers typically jump to mockups (Step 8)—UX designers start with research (Step 1)
- Understanding real user needs is non-negotiable—assumptions lead to elegant solutions for wrong problems