There seems to be a huge level of confusion around user experience (UX) but one of the key things is that

User interface UI is not the user experience UX, Karl Smith 2000

Simple digital systems are constructed with several interlinked components;

UI Layer – User Interface – what the user sees

Logic Layer – Interface Logic – what the user can do

• • Logical connections
  • Interactive behaviours
  • Content/data calls
  • Content/data inputs

Data Layer – the content the user creates and interacts with

Platform Layer – the users delivery mechanism

Getting Value from Consulting

If you’re paying for UX you should be asking “how did the UX change the interaction, logic, data systems and platform” if it did not influence it, you only got UI design.

The user interface is the top-level component that users see while user experience architecture is defined by;

UX is what users can do, not just what they can see, Karl Smith 2000

The user experience is not a single component, UX is a set of features that is facilitated through several components

Republished from a post in 2001.