How can Liferay's user interface be customized?

Customizing Liferay's user interface can effectively be accomplished by developing themes or utilizing predefined layout templates. Themes in Liferay allow developers to modify the look and feel of the portal, including styles, layouts, and visual elements that enhance user interaction. With themes, users can implement unique designs that align with their brand identity, ensuring a cohesive user experience across the platform.

Predefined layout templates serve as foundational structures for pages within Liferay. These templates can be customized further to fit specific needs, enabling developers to arrange content and assets in a way that best serves the users' requirements. This flexibility in UI customization is key to providing an appealing and functional experience for end-users.

In contrast, altering the database schema directly and changing server configurations do not directly address user interface elements. While these actions impact the overall system and may affect how data is presented, they do not provide the specific customization capabilities that themes and layout templates offer. Modifying backend code without considering themes also tends to focus more on functionality rather than on the user interface, which is primarily what users interact with visually. Therefore, the ability to create engaging and tailored user experiences reliably resides in the use of themes and layout templates.