UX vs. Usability
What is the difference between user experience and usability - and why is this distinction important?
Definitions
Usability describes the usability of a product: How easy is it to use and how efficiently can tasks be solved with it?
User Experience (UX) describes the comprehensive user experience - including emotions, expectations and impressions before, during and after the interaction.
Similarities and Differences
Usability
Usability describes how effectively, efficiently and satisfactorily a user can use a system. It is a measurable quality.
- Task-oriented: Focus is on goal achievement
- Measurable: e.g. error rate, time, task success rate
- Example: A form that can be filled out quickly and without errors
- Sub-area of UX
User Experience
UX encompasses the entire perception and reaction of a user - including emotions, trust and aesthetic impressions.
- Overall: before, during and after use
- Subjective: strongly influenced by context, expectation and emotion
- Example: an app that is fun to use because it is intuitive, looks elegant and inspires confidence
- Includes usability - but also e.g. branding, look & feel, expectation management
Conclusion
User experience and usability are closely linked - but they are not the same thing.
Usability is an important prerequisite for good UX, but UX goes further: it also includes emotional and contextual factors.
Take Home Message
Good usability makes a product usable - good UX makes it meaningful.
Example
An online store can have very good usability: The ordering process is clearly structured and navigation is simple.
Nevertheless, the UX can be negative - for example, if the page appears emotionless, does not contain any trust-building elements or does not make the purchasing process enjoyable.
Deepening & Application
UX and usability can be recorded, evaluated and improved using various methods - for example:
- Usability tests: Observe whether users can solve tasks without problems - a central component in the usability engineering process.
- UX-KPIs: Systematically record perception, satisfaction and efficiency, e.g. via Task Success Rate and Time-on-Task.
- Emotional reactions: Ask specifically about frustration, joy or trust, e.g. with the thinking-aloud method.
- Heuristic evaluation: Check usability using recognized usability principles such as the dialog principles according to ISO 9241-110.
- Journey Mapping: Visualize the holistic context of use and identify emotional touchpoints - particularly useful for complex user interfaces.
Last modified: 17 June 2025