Let’s make design relatable

5 min readAug 31, 2020

An analogy around the importance of UI, UX & Interaction design in products

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Do you remember how some kids in school would always top in all subjects, they could legit remember every single sentence from the notes.

Well, I wasn’t one of them.🥴

In fact, I struggled real hard mugging up things. I’d put in the nights, complete the course, and next day my brain would go, “New phone, who dis?” on me. 👋

So I realized that the only way I can absorb information & concepts is by understanding them, by finding a way to relate to them.

So if you are from the former genius category, you might not need this content, but you’ll have fun if you stick around.

For the longest time, I have been seeing people talking and making fancy carousels around how UX defines how great a product is, or how it's so much MORE important to the user than UI or interaction design.

Well, It’s good to have opinions.

Let’s try to humanize this concept and make it more relatable.

Visualize a pub, where there’s this group of girlfriends on a girls’ night out (I’ll add a ‘woohoo 🙆‍♀️’ for them) & one of them is looking forward to meeting eligible men there. Now she goes to the bar to get shots for the gang.

Scenario one:

While she waits for the shots to be served, enters Mr.UI. This dashing hunk, you can legit count the abs through that Tshirt. In short ‘Yummy’ is the word. She’s obviously attracted to him & smiles at him. He slides next to her & tries to break the ice with an extremely cringy pickup line. Well, turns out he can’t hold the conversation for more than a minute unlike those planks at the gym #fuckboialert. She curses the stars for wasting 5 minutes of her life and makes an excuse to return to base with the shots she ordered.

Scenario two:

While she waits for the shots to be served, enters Mr.Interaction. This not so great looking guy, says something, cracks up the bartender. The girl laughs out. Slides next to her & starts a fun conversation. She laughs & laughs, he gets her Instagram id & they share memes for the rest of their lives #friendzoned. Tadaaa… Well, she was just way out of his league. ( & C’mon it’s my narrative, I am trying to make a point here 🤷‍♂️. We all feel for him. )

Scenario three:

While she waits for the shots to be served, enters Mr.UX. This average looking dude but trust me he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and man, he’s bright. Not socially well equipped though. He’s thinking what he’d say to her… She takes her shots and leaves. The reality of life, you’d never approach a non-attractive person at a bar counting on the possibility of them being a great person once you get to know them. Sad but true, the first impression is the last impression. That’s either looks or your conversation skills. #heisstillthinking

Scenario four:

While she waits for the shots to be served, enters Mr.Perfect. This good looking guy, Charms her with his words and wit, Makes her laugh. has this whole jolly & genuine vibe going on around him. She gives him her no. before taking the shots to her table & all her friends giggle and stuff. They go on a date the next day & live happily ever after.

This is our guy, This is our ideal product.

A product devoid of either of the 3 aspects doesn’t stand a chance. For the people who absolutely love UX, Yes it’s vast and important for your product but if you don’t make it visually appealing, users will never explore it enough to know how ‘easy to use’ or ‘intuitive’ it is. Users who you expect to use your product, also use products like Facebook, headspace, and many more, their visual standards are already subconsciously high. Visual Delight through interactions makes an experience memorable, it’s an investment in the user’s forgiveness for the times when your product gets buggy or when the servers are down or any tech mishaps.

Even if due to any reason like lack of options or random luck Mr. UI/UX/Interaction somehow end up with the lady. It’s a matter of time till Mr. perfect appears in her life and she’ll realize what she’s missing out on. In product terms, someone will identify this gap, learn from your mistakes, and design a better well-balanced product.
So let’s stop calling one more important over the other & let your product be like this guy.