UI Design: Best Practices

The power of user interface design could mean the difference between a very impressive program and one that fails to leave an impact, or worse, leaves a lasting negative impression on the user! All of the minor things matter when it comes to designing high-quality apps. That is why we want to explain some of the most frequent UI design mistakes and how to correct or prevent them. If you are just starting in design, being aware of these blunders will be beneficial.

Every app is unique, and there is no universal formula for designing the ideal interface, but the list below will undoubtedly assist you in delivering superior designs. It will also function as a "checklist" of things to avoid while creating an interface.

Graphic design has always followed a set of principles and guidelines. Within design disciplines, frequent errors are often associated with a violated standard rule. From this vantage point, design rules appear to be reliable guides.

However, new movements and creative innovation have come from purposefully breaching conventions in every design area. This is feasible because the design is conditional and involves the judgment of the creator. Design is not a process with predetermined outcomes. As a result, design principles should be regarded as guides rather than absolute truths. The skilled designer understands and respects the rules book just enough to think beyond the box.

When interacting with applications, there will be several actions that the user may perform. It is critical to emphasize the major acts visually. Because all navigation occurs via buttons, you must make it easy for the user to recognize the important buttons by making them bold and conspicuous. Secondary actions should be less obvious, but the user should still be able to find them if they want to.

Here's how to tell the difference between primary and secondary buttons:

The two characteristics that identify a good UI design are fonts and style consistency.

Typography accounts for 95% of all site design. If you do it incorrectly, you'll lose between 12% and 20% of your prospective customers. You improve readability, usability, and accessibility by improving typography (inclusiveness).

Always choose a legible typeface over a fashionable one. Despite their popularity, thin, light typefaces should be avoided. (They are, indeed, attractive, clean, and modern. However, they may not be rendered adequately on various types of displays and remain illegible for many people). Text and items with poor contrast should be avoided. They are also trendy, but they face the same issues. Contrast testing is required (you can use some tools like Colorable, Contrast, and Wave that help correct contrast according to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

Since the text is the basic unit of informative material, it must always be intelligible and ordered. Text that is properly structured aids consumers' perception of information.

A designer’s role is to organize this in the most comprehensible and thorough manner possible. Here are some things to remember:

Consistency in design relates to ensuring that repetitive user interactions and interface components appear and perform the same. To illustrate, consider these UI design examples of animations on a web page. If one team member's face rotates before displaying the "about me" text, the rest of the team's faces should rotate as well. If the first H3 subheading is in dark grey Helvetica with a font size of 18px and a bottom margin of 30px, the rest of the H3 subheadings should be the same.

One of the simplest ways to keep your design consistent is to plan ahead of time. Simply build a list of all of your activities and organize them into groups that have similar or identical graphic components. Finally, for each group, select one UI element and a consistent alignment. Other parts of the style guide should also be assigned, like the same font, styles, colors, or other visual cues, as well as the same wording and hover effects.

Google penalizes websites, and 94% of users do not trust websites that do not have mobile versions. On the contrary, responsive websites have a 67% conversion rate.

It is critical that your website looks excellent and loads quickly on all screen sizes. Don't forget to optimize for sluggish connections as well as slow PCs. There are several responsive testing tools available to assess your website, whether it is live or under construction.

When compared to distinct mobile and desktop versions, responsive design is more efficient, cost-effective, and easier to administer (adaptive design). However, the latter is speedier and better suited to your requirements. In any case, we suggest that you hire a reputable UX design firm to help you choose the best solution and make great site designs that work well on all devices.

The most common user interface design error we've noticed (and we had this problem when we initially launched our website) is having unclear navigation. Companies often tend to believe that they need to include as much information as possible on their websites and have several web pages for users to travel to. The trouble is that, while this may appear rational to you, it may not be to everyone else.

Confusion in navigation may be fatal to a website. Consumers do not want to spend the majority of their time attempting to determine which page best meets their needs, and they will abandon your website fast if they find it too complicated. It's important to do research before deciding how the user's navigation will work. This will show the users what your unique customers expect from you and what areas of navigation could be made easier for your business.

Final Thoughts

Design norms are, at most, guidelines. They give designers security and alert them of the consequences of rash decisions. Design standards, on the other hand, are not laws. They are not unbreakable, and they surely do not deserve our unconditional submission. In reality, when design rules are blindly followed, they can become big crutches that make it hard to think of creative solutions to problems. Designers do not work like scientists. In fact, their ability to help clients stand out in a world full of trendy content depends on how well they can come up with new ideas.