The difference between UI, UX and CEX

From a Jobs-to-be-Done perspective

From a Jobs-to-be-Done perspective

We owe it to people who are not in these professions to make it clear what we mean when we say UI, UX and/or CEX. Too often these things get conflated together and begin to lose their meaning. So allow me lay my perspective out for you, as succinctly as possible.

UI/UX

I’m sure you’ve all see this before. The slash implies that they are the same thing, or interchangeable in some way. The reality is that they are very different. If we expand the acronyms into their full phrasing we get:

• UI = User Interface

• UX = User Experience

Even though I haven’t defined these terms yet, it should be abundantly clear that they are not the same thing.

UX/CEX

Have you have seen this? I have. They are not the same thing, yet it is implied that they are. Let me expand these for you:

• UX = User Experience (implies use)

• CEX = Customer Experience (implies much more)

Are all users customers? Well, technically yes…maybe. When I bought my son a Handy Manny toolkit when he was 2 years old…