I'm a ux designer and a professor in hci. It looks like there is still a lot of confusion between UX and UI. UX is not just what concerns the interface. UX is a process with different phases:

- an exploratory phase, where the designer interviews the stakeholders, analyzes the current product (if it is a redesign), makes a benchmark of the competing products and services;

- a research phase, where the designer involves actual or potential users to understand their needs, goals, their knowledge, their behaviors; she does interviews, observations, and uses methods like the laddering, the free listing, the card sorting, the task analysis and so on

- the raw results of the research are documented in a number of deliverables:

  * personae
  * scenarios
  * customer journeys / experience maps
  * conceptualizations
  * taxonomies and navigation trees

- the research is translated into the design of the product, producing wireframes or low fidelity prototypes, designing the macro and the micro information architecture, the interaction, the navigation; - a design system should be adopted and / or developed, identifying the components, the colors, the typography, the tone of voice - a high fidelity prototype applies the design system to the low fidelity prototipes - everything should be tested with the users, in different moments: competitive testing (to test the competitors' products), exploratory testing, confirmatory testing; prototypes should also be evaluated to verify the conformity to the standards and to the design system / style guides;

This is UX design (different experts will describe it in slightly different ways, but the structure remains the same).

I'm obviously aware that this process would be a big effort for a side project. But it's very important to keep in mind that this is the right approach, and in the long run, the process will decrease the risk of failure.