UI/UX Design Principles
Ever wondered why some Mobile Apps and Websites become the first choice of users? Why do we prefer using WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail or LinkedIn etc. over any other similar product available in the market?
Probably, because of their easy-to-interact Interface and aesthetic Designs. It is said that “Design is intelligence made visible” and this holds true most of the time.
Designing the User interface or User experience journey for any web/mobile app, is a crucial step that determines its success or failure. This article aims at providing an insight to some basic UI-Design Principles and User On-boarding techniques.
4 Golden Rules of UI-Design
1. Place users in control of the Interface
Good UIs- instill a sense of control in their users. Making actions reversible can be a forgiving gesture while designing. This rule means that the user should always be able to quickly backtrack whatever they are doing. One good example of such emergency exits is Gmail’s notification message with an Undo option when users accidentally delete an email.
Providing informative feedback can also be very helpful. Feedback is typically associated with points of action — for every user action, the system should show a meaningful, clear reaction. It conveys a message of acknowledgement to the user about the actions performed.
2. Make User Interfaces Consistent
Consistency of the color palette and fonts is an essential requirement of neat and clean UIs. It is one of the strongest contributors to usability and learnability. Try maintaining visual consistency in your Interface designs. The same colors, fonts, and icons should be present throughout the product.
3. Make it comfortable for a user to interact with the product
Interfaces shouldn’t contain information that is irrelevant or rarely needed. Irrelevant information introduces noise in UI — it competes with the relevant information and diminishes its relative visibility. Some key points that should be kept in mind are:
- Don’t force users to re-enter data they’ve previously entered.
- Avoid jargon and system-oriented terms.
- Apply Fitts’s Law to interactive elements. Fitts Law states that the time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target. This means that it’s better to design large targets for important functions (big buttons are easier to interact with).
4. Reduce cognitive load
Cognitive load is the amount of mental processing power required to use a product. It’s better to avoid making users think/work too hard to use your product.
One solution to this could be reducing the number of actions required to complete a task.
One of the Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics advises promoting recognition over recall in UI design. Recognizing something is much easier than recalling it because recognition involves more cues in our brain.
Using symbolic real life metaphors and icon representations, creates a connection between real world and digital experiences.
Thank You!
