UI Design Principles
Keep the UI design simple
Keep Objectives in Mind: While UI design can be enjoyable, prioritize the user's needs over personal satisfaction.
Remember the User: The most crucial principle is to always consider who you're designing for and why. Design should be practical, not just decorative.
Eliminate Noise: Avoid self-indulgent or overly formalist design that adds unnecessary distractions. Focus on elements that are truly relevant to the user.
Prioritize Practicality: If a part of your UI design doesn't serve a practical purpose for the user, it should be removed.
Trim Excess: Cut away any superfluous elements, leaving only what's absolutely necessary. Don't include design elements just to satisfy creative whims.
Predict and preempt
Understand Your User: Before designing anything, it's crucial to fully understand who your user is and what they need. This step involves research and gathering insights into user behavior, preferences, and goals.
Predict User Needs: Once you understand your user, you can predict what they'll want to do next. This anticipation allows you to prepare the necessary tools, information, and resources to meet their needs effectively.
Provide Relevant Tools and Information: Based on your understanding of the user, provide them with the tools, information, and resources they need at the right time. This ensures a smooth and efficient user experience.
Preempt User Behavior: If the user's needs don't align with your goals, you can proactively guide their behavior by adjusting earlier parts of the design. This helps steer them in a different direction from the outset, ensuring they follow the desired path.
Put the user in the driving seat
UI Fading into Background: The user interface (UI) should feel subtle and not overpowering. It's like having a helpful assistant quietly there when you need it, but not pushing you around.
User Control: Users should feel like they're the ones driving the experience, even if the interface is guiding them. It's about giving them the freedom to navigate and make choices without feeling pressured.
Accessibility: The UI should always be accessible and easy to find, like having tools in a toolbox. Users should know where to look when they need something, without feeling lost or confused.
Expectation Meeting: The UI should meet users' expectations in terms of layout and behavior. It's like having things arranged where you'd naturally expect them to be, so you're never caught off guard.
No Forced Actions: Even if the interface is suggesting or guiding users, they shouldn't feel like they're being pushed into anything. It's about offering suggestions rather than making decisions on behalf of the user.
Be methodical and consistent
Consistency is Key:
Stick to consistent design elements across your platform and follow industry standards.
Don't reinvent the wheel; rather, improve on existing designs.
Innovation is good, but only where necessary. If something works well, there's no need to change it.
User Expectations Matter:
Even if you think your idea is better, if it deviates from what users expect, it can confuse them.
Consider user familiarity and expectations when designing interfaces and features.
Stick to Widely Understood Patterns and Terminology:
When in doubt, use familiar patterns and terminology that users are likely to understand.
Differentiate New Features:
When introducing new or unusual functions, it's important to differentiate them from existing ones.
Breaking consistency can be used to highlight important and novel features.
Deliberate Inconsistency vs. Sloppiness:
Employing inconsistency intentionally to highlight new features is different from being sloppy or erratic in design.
Deliberate inconsistency should serve a purpose and enhance user experience.
Avoid unnecessary complexity
Condense Data: Use overlays like bottom sheets and modal windows to keep data compact and minimize the app's size.
Logical Organization: Group tasks and subtasks together thematically and practically for a logical and self-contained experience.
Clear Taxonomy: Organize screens and content logically, avoiding hiding subtasks where users wouldn't expect them.
Reduce Steps: Minimize the number of steps and screens needed to complete tasks, following the Three Click Rule.
Avoid Repetition: Never ask users to re-enter information they've already provided to prevent frustration and abandonment.
Provide clear signposts
Intuitive Layout:
Make the design easy to understand.
Clear labels and organized information.
Exploring the app should feel effortless and enjoyable, especially for new users.
Logical Navigation:
Keep the structure simple and easy to follow.
Clearly indicate where users are in the app.
Help users know how to move around without having to memorize steps.
Visual Clues:
Provide visual hints for navigation.
Users shouldn't feel lost; think of it like breadcrumbs leading Little Red Riding Hood out of the forest without encountering the Big Bad Wolf.
Be tolerant of mistakes
Mistakes Happen: Everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes users change their minds about what they want to do in an app, especially if they're new and still figuring things out.
Don't Blame Users: It's important not to blame users for making mistakes or changing their minds. Instead, make it easy for them to correct their actions.
Implement Undo/Redo Functionality: One way to help users is by adding an undo/redo feature to the app. This allows users to quickly reverse or redo their actions if they make a mistake or change their minds.
Fast and Forgiving: The undo/redo function should be fast and forgiving, meaning it should work quickly and without hassle. This helps users backtrack without feeling frustrated or wasting time.
Prevent Data Loss: By having an undo/redo function, you can prevent the frustration of users losing their data due to mistakes.
Boost Confidence: Having an undo/redo feature gives users confidence to explore the app and make changes without worrying about negative consequences. They know they can always backtrack if needed.
Give relevant feedback
Progress Updates and Acknowledgment:
Keep users informed about their progress.
Provide acknowledgment that their actions have been received.
Let them know that things are proceeding as they should.
Big, important, and/or rare actions call for big and important forms of feedback.
Smaller and more frequent actions merit smaller forms of acknowledgment.
Accessible Status Information:
Status info should always be easily accessible and totally accurate.
Users should know exactly what’s going on at all times.
Avoid forcing users to look for status information deliberately.
Clear Error Handling:
Errors occasionally occur, and users should be informed of them clearly.
Avoid generic error messages like "error code" followed by numbers.
Explain the problem, what the user needs to do about it, and don't rule out system malfunctions as the cause of errors.
Prioritize functions
Clear Hierarchy:
Creating a clear hierarchy means organizing the elements on your screen so that the most important ones stand out.
Without a clear hierarchy, users might struggle to understand what's important, leading to confusion and frustration.
Essential Elements Only:
Every item on the screen should be necessary for the user experience.
Remove anything that's not essential during the prototyping stage to keep the interface streamlined.
Importance Gradient:
Even among essential items, some are more important than others.
Reflect this importance by making the most crucial functions more prominent in the UI design.
User Needs and Goals:
Understand what your users primarily want to do (X) and what you want to encourage them to do (Y).
Make these functions more prominent than less crucial ones (Z) by adjusting their size or visibility.
Visual Emphasis:
Use visual cues like larger buttons, bold text, or contrasting colors to highlight important functions.
This helps users quickly identify what they need to focus on and encourages desired actions.
Design the UI for accessibility
Diverse Users: Not everyone using your app will have the same background, knowledge, or outlook as you. People come from various cultures and have different levels of technical skills.
Cultural Awareness: Recognize that users may have different social and cultural norms. While it's impossible to cater to every variation, avoid assuming that your way of doing things is the only logical way.
Design Considerations: Think about how users from diverse backgrounds might interact with your app. For instance, in some cultures, people read from right to left, so consider how objects are placed on the screen.
Color Perception: Understand that people perceive colors differently, and a significant portion of the population is color blind. Therefore, don't rely solely on color to convey information in your app.
Accessible Design: Instead of relying solely on color, use a combination of visual cues such as form or shape to differentiate important functions in your app. This ensures that all users, regardless of color perception, can understand and navigate your app effectively.
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