Design is a rather broad and vague term. When someone says "I'm a designer," it is not immediately obvious what they actually do on a daily basis. There are a number of different responsibilities encompassed by the umbrella term designer.

Design-related roles exist in a range of areas from industrial design (cars, furniture) to print (magazines, other publications) to tech (websites, mobile apps). With the relatively recent influx of tech companies focused on creating interfaces for screens, many new design roles have emerged. Job titles like UX or UI designer are confusing to the uninitiated and even to designers who come from other industries. The aforementioned notwithstanding, there is one tread that links them all - A given design problem has no single right answer.

Clear Distinction.

UX Design refers to the term User Experience Design, while UI Design stands for User Interface Design. Both elements are crucial to a product and in general, complement each other. But despite their professional relationship, the roles themselves are quite different, referring to very different parts of the process and the design discipline. Where UX Design is a more analytical and technical field, UI Design is closer to what is refer to as graphic design, though the responsibilities are somewhat more complex.

UX DESIGNER (USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNER)

UX designers are primarily concerned with how the product feels. UX designers explore many different approaches to solving a specific user problem. The broad responsibility of a UX designer is to ensure that the product logically flows from one step to the next. One way that a UX designer might do this is by conducting in-person user tests to observe one's behavior. By identifying verbal and non-verbal stumbling blocks, they refine and iterate to create the "best" user experience. The first graphic on the right depicts a typical wireframe produced by a UX designer (This example is for a Twitter screen design)

Tools of the trade:

• Photoshop
• Illustrator,
• Fireworks
• Sketch
• InVision

UI DESIGNER (USER INTERFACE DESIGNER)

Unlike UX designers who are concerned with the overall feel of the product, user interface designers are particular about how the product is laid out. They are in charge of designing each screen or page with which a user interacts and ensuring that the UI visually communicates the path that a UX designer has laid out. For example, a UI designer creating an analytics dashboard might front load the most important content at the top, or decide whether a slider or a control knob makes the most intuitive sense to adjust a graph. UI designers are also typically responsible for creating a cohesive style guide and ensuring that a consistent design language is applied across the product. Maintaining consistency in visual elements and defining behavior such as how to display error or warning states fall under the purview of a UI designer.

The boundary between UI and UX designers is fairly blurred and it is not uncommon for companies to opt to combine these roles. Think of everything you interact with in an app, that is the domain of a UI designer - defining the overall layout, look and feel of an app.

Tools of the trade:

• Photoshop
• Illustrator,
• Fireworks
• Sketch
• InVision

VISUAL DESIGNER (GRAPHIC DESIGNER)

Visual designers pick out the nounces that others overlook. A visual designer is the one who pushes pixels. If you ask a non-designer what a designer does, this is probably what comes to mind first. Visual designers are not concerned with how screens link to each other, nor how someone interacts with the product. Instead, their focus is on crafting beautiful icons, controls, and visual elements and making use of suitable typography. Visual designers sweat the small details that others overlook and frequently operate at the 4X to 8X zoom level in Photoshop.

"Produce high-quality visual designs—from concept to execution, including those for desktop, web, and mobile devices at a variety of resolutions (icons, graphics, and marketing materials). Create and iterate on assets that reflect a brand, enforce a language, and inject beauty and life into a product.".A visual designer lays out guides and adjusts every single pixel to ensure that the end result ispexel perfect.

Tools of the trade:

• Photoshop
• Illustrator,
• Fireworks