Most people mix up UX and UI like they’re the same thing—kind of like how folks use ketchup on everything and call it a sauce. But pick the wrong focus at the start, and you waste time learning things out of order. UX (user experience) is all about how things work and feel, while UI (user interface) is about how things look and move. If you’re lost between the two, don’t sweat it—that just means you’re asking the right questions.

The biggest trap? Thinking you only need to learn one. Sure, you can specialize later, but every good designer—especially early on—needs a handle on both sides. UX gives you the reasons behind your designs, and UI gives you the skills to bring them to life. Sounds simple, but it can get messy fast if you don’t build the right foundation.

• The Lowdown on UX and UI
• What Comes First: UX or UI?
• Learning Paths That Actually Work
• Real-World Skills You’ll Need
• How Hiring Managers See It
• Tips to Build Your Portfolio Fast

The Lowdown on UX and UI

Think of UX as the behind-the-scenes work that makes apps or websites easy, smooth, and even fun to use. UX stands for user experience, and it covers the research and thinking behind what you design. This means you’re figuring out who uses your product, what problems they’re having, and how your design can solve those issues. UX designers spend a lot of their time talking to users, running tests, checking out competitors, building wireframes, and making sure everything makes sense before anyone even starts on visuals.

UI, on the other hand, is all about the way things look and how you interact with them on the screen. UI stands for user interface. It’s about the color choices, buttons, icons, fonts, layouts, and all the little visual details. UI brings the UX plan to life. A UI designer takes the wireframes and ideas from UX and turns them into those snappy screens you actually see and click on your phone or laptop.

Here’s where a lot of folks get tripped up: they think they can skip one and just pick the other. But strong digital products need both. If you only design with UI and skip UX, you might end up with a pretty app that nobody knows how to use. If you only focus on UX, you might have a solid plan but with clunky visuals that turn users away.

• UX research can involve user interviews, surveys, A/B tests, and task analysis. Even big brands like Google and Airbnb build entire teams just to handle this stage.
• UI is everywhere—think Spotify's vibrant playlists or the clean look of Apple’s website. All those pixels were carefully planned by UI designers.

The real magic happens when UX and UI work side by side. If you want a real shot at landing a job or creating something people love, you need a basic grip on both. That’s why a lot of companies expect you to know the difference and show both in your project work, especially if you want to stand out in UX design roles.

What Comes First: UX or UI?

Here’s the deal: UX comes first. That might sound blunt, but nearly every product team on earth starts with the user experience before making stuff look slick. Imagine figuring out where the doors go in a house after you’ve painted the walls. It just doesn’t make sense.

UX is the blueprint. You’re digging into research, mapping out journeys, and deciding what problems need solving. Only after that groundwork do you focus on UI—choosing colors, fonts, and making things eye-catching. A recent survey from Nielsen Norman Group found that 70% of companies place a higher priority on UX design during early product development. Why? Because a pretty interface is worthless if folks have no idea how to use it.

Here are some quick stats showing how product teams arrange these tasks:

So, if you’re just starting out, learning the basics of UX makes everything else easier. You’ll build skills that help you make sense of user problems, which leads to smarter, more effective interfaces down the line. Once you’ve learned what users actually want, then you move to the fun stuff: colors, buttons, and those satisfying little animations.

No need to get stuck here, though—UI is key for modern digital work. But if you skip straight to it, you’ll probably end up redoing a lot, or worse, solving problems nobody has. Master what comes first, and you won’t feel lost as you go.

Learning Paths That Actually Work

If you ask ten designers how they got started, you’ll probably get ten different stories. But there are a few tried-and-true ways to really get skilled without wasting months guessing which tool or course matters.

Here’s the inside scoop: Start with the basics of UX design. It’s not just about wireframes or flowcharts. It’s about understanding people—what frustrates them, what they need, and how they interact with stuff online. Signing up for a short online course like Google’s UX Design Certificate or the free UX Crash Course by The Interaction Design Foundation gets your feet wet fast, often in just a few weeks.

Once you’ve got that curiosity for how products work, don’t jump ahead to heavy visuals. Brush up on user research, usability testing, and mapping basic user journeys. Real designers nail interviews when they can talk about fixing real-life user problems, not just making pretty screens.

Next up, dabble in UI. Free tools like Figma or Adobe XD let you play around with layouts, color, and typography without a huge investment. Just opening up these programs and copying sample projects on YouTube will teach you more than memorizing definitions. Dribbble and Behance are solid places to spot trends and see what real portfolios look like.

• Pick a small project — redesign a sign-up form or a favorite app’s settings screen.
• Sketch ideas, then build a basic wireframe (that’s your UX work).
• Add color, icons, and type to see how your UI skills stack up.
• Test it with a friend or two—see what bugs them about it.

Balancing both early on makes learning way less intimidating. Nobody expects you to master everything, but blending both UX and UI gives you more projects to show off and keeps your options open. And here’s the wild thing—about 70% of entry-level design jobs in 2025 want at least some crossover between the two. So don’t let anyone tell you to wait to learn one or the other. Mix and match as you go.

Real-World Skills You’ll Need

If you want to land a gig in UX design or UI design, you can’t just know how to make a screen look good. You have to build real skills people use every day—and sometimes, that means picking up tools you never even thought about in art class.

So, what do folks actually use on the job? According to a 2024 Nielsen Norman Group survey, 83% of entry-level UX/UI designers said their day-to-day tasks were very different from what they expected after taking online courses. Most jobs break down into two main areas:

• UX: User research, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing, journey mapping
• UI: Visual design, typography, icon design, color theory, micro-interactions, creating design systems

You’ll also be working with tools that are industry standard. The big three? Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch. More than 70% of junior designers said they use Figma every workday, mostly because it’s fast, collaborative, and easy to learn. Sitting back and thinking you can wing it with just Photoshop just won’t cut it anymore.

“Empathy for the user is the number one skill—we can teach anyone to push pixels, but we can’t teach empathy,” says Julie Zhuo, former VP of Product Design at Facebook.

Besides software, you’ll need to know how to talk about your work. You have to explain your choices clearly to teammates, clients, even non-designers. Communication makes or breaks a designer’s career, and a lot of schools barely touch it.

If you want a quick win? Start with Figma basics, practice wireframing for random apps, and grab a friend to try usability testing—even a fake project counts. Treat every skill like a muscle. The more you stretch it, the faster you’ll get noticed on the job market.

How Hiring Managers See It

If you want to break into design, it helps to know what’s actually going through a hiring manager’s head when they look at your resume or portfolio. They’re not just hunting for pretty mockups or wireframes; they want to see that you get the nuts and bolts of UX design and UI design and how they fit together. A lot of job listings ask for both—even if the title only says one.

Here’s something concrete: According to a 2024 survey by UXPA (User Experience Professionals Association), 72% of hiring teams for entry-level roles said they prefer candidates who can show an understanding of the full user journey, not just a collection of polished screens.

Most managers care a lot more about how you approach problems and users than whether you’ve got a diploma from a fancy school. They’ll ask about your process, how you talk to users, and how you adjust when things don’t go as planned. Sometimes, you’ll see wild job ads asking for a ‘UX/UI unicorn’ with coding chops too, but the reality is most teams are happy if you can connect user needs with solid visual solutions.

• Make case studies for your portfolio showing end-to-end work, not just finished apps.
• Show your actual thinking with sketches, rough drafts, and post-it notes if you must.
• Point out where you took feedback and changed direction.

If you’ve only worked on your own projects, be honest—but explain what you did, what you learned, and how you’d work differently as part of a team. Most managers remember the candidates who tell real stories, not the ones who drop buzzwords.

Tips to Build Your Portfolio Fast

Don’t wait to get hired before you start building projects. This is one of the biggest slowdowns for newbies—thinking you need a real job to fill your portfolio. Instead, treat your portfolio like your design playground.

First, pick a couple of everyday products you actually use—a coffee app, a streaming site, or your local library’s website. Give them a UX or UI facelift. Redesign one aspect that annoyed you or is just outdated. Document the whole process: your research, wireframes, prototypes, and the final mockups. Employers love seeing your thinking, not just pretty screens.

And here’s a wild fact: in a 2024 survey from TopTal, over 60% of junior designers landed interviews because they included fictional or self-initiated projects in their portfolios. That’s right—real-world companies care more about how you solve problems than whether you got paid for it.

• Pick 2-3 tools to stick with—like Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD. Switching tools too often confuses your workflow and slows you down.
• Write short summaries to explain each project: what the challenge was, what your UX design approach was, and what you’d improve next time.
• Don’t skip usability testing, even if it’s on friends or social media followers. Snap a couple of photos or take notes and add these to your project stories. It shows you think about the user, not just the artwork.
• Add at least one mobile and one desktop project. Variety looks better and shows you’re not stuck in one style or platform.
• Set up a free site with Notion, Behance, or even a Google Drive link if you’re just starting out. You don’t need a fancy website at this stage—what matters is real work, not flashy templates.

Get each project online as soon as it’s done. Don’t overthink it. Hiring managers want to see finished, thoughtful work, not perfection. Aim to add something new every month—the steady updates tell people you’re committed and serious about growing your skills.