5 Untold Laws of UI Design Revealed

5 Untold Laws of UI Design Revealed

Working on User Interface is a critical stage of creating your website or application. UI design is complicated and there are so many ways to succeed or fail. Many people who underestimate its importance say that it’s only aesthetics. Those are the same people who are later asking Google how to boost conversions.

According to contrary belief, UI is much more than only the look – it’s also product responsiveness, character, and emotion. When it’s designed flawlessly, people don’t even realize it exists. The problems arise when UI rules are ignored, and good quality products can’t function without flawless UI. If you’re a web or app designer, make sure never to underestimate these principles – otherwise, your hard work won’t bring as good results as it could.

Let users feel in control the interface

It’s essential because the more comfortable users feel in the app or website, the better for you. You want to provide them a product that is easy and intuitive to use so that they are able to learn and master all the functions quickly.

One feature that you necessarily have to implement is the possibility to reverse actions in your UI design. Surely you, and everyone else that you know have clicked some random button by mistake. It’s no problem when you can reverse the action. But, imagine that you’re a computer newbie, and you have no idea how to undo something.

In this case, you’ so far, so good experience will be destroyed by these moments of stress. And, believe it or not, not everybody is aware of the beauty of the ctrl+z trick. A simple undo button is more important than anything else. It allows customers to fully explore the application without any consequences.

Whenever people are not able to undo actions, they tend to be way too cautious and read everything. It’s not a friendly environment for your app explorers. Don’t let them feel such inconveniences, and they will love your product way more.

Another crucial thing is easy to navigate interface. You don’t really need to take a UI course at Career Foundry to know about it, but things have to be predictable. Examine what your website looks like right now, and put yourself in visitor shoes. If you can’t answer questions like “what does this button do?” or “what should I do to achieve my goal?” it means that you have to make things more predictable. To do that, make sure that you use plenty of visual cues that will help and navigate the users throughout their journey at your website.

Use informative feedback for points of action

Every time a user takes any action, make sure that there is some acknowledgment. It may be a simple check or a short message that something has been done successfully. Of course, you have to keep everything balanced, and use a variety of different methods, for example, color-changing buttons, etc. It’s up to your creativity, but every time a user takes action, there should be some sort of acknowledgment. The more substantial action it is, the more visible feedback should be.

Make things simple, enjoyable and understandable

First of all, get rid of all distractions. It’s essential to keep only those elements that are useful. Notice that when the webpage gets too cluttered and filled with text, it automatically looks less eye-appealing and less user-friendly. On top of that, people won’t know what’s important and what’s not. That’s why reducing noise in UI is so crucial. Keep only the most essential things and leave everything else behind. People have no time to read long paragraphs. If they can’t find an option that they came for, they will leave. Before you decide to publish an app or website, examine all the pages and make sure that every element there is valuable and necessary. They say “the more, the better,” but this principle is invalid when it comes to User Interface.

Besides, don’t ask for data all the time. Of course, it’s sometimes needed and unavoidable, but put yourself in user shoes. When you are asked to provide some personal information for the third time in a matter of minutes, it’s very weird and irritating. Nothing is more annoying for users than data-entry requests. Improve your website and reduce these annoying requests to the very minimum, especially if the user has already provided information before.

Lastly, use simple language that anyone can understand. Depending on your niche, it might be necessary to use jargon here and there, but try to keep it to the absolute minimum. Remember that the website is not for you – it’s for the user’s who don’t necessarily have to be familiar with the terms that you are using.

Also, actions to complete a task should be reduced to an absolute minimum. There is something known as the three-click rule. This unofficial web principle suggests that your product users should find any information that they need within three mouse clicks.

Keep your website visually consistent

One of the main pillars of UI is consistency. Consistency makes things intuitive and predictable. Users like to know what’s going to happen next, and they don’t want to be surprised. Thanks to this feature, it’s possible to achieve the best usability and learnability of your product. Also, keep in mind that people quickly become accustomed to things. That’s why you shouldn’t mix and complicate too much. It’s okay to use unusual, easy to read font, but if you do that, make sure to use it everywhere. When you use particular colors, icons, graphics, or any other visual effects – stick to them. Changing such things will only confuse people, so avoid doing it at all costs.

User expectations

We live in a world full of beautifully designed web pages and applications. Subconsciously users expect your one to be similar to the ones that they already know. Now, you may feel tempted to design an app that is different in every other aspect, but it’s not necessarily the best idea. People have their own expectations, and believe it or not; it’s very hard to change it. You have to make sure that everything looks and works just like users expect it to work. So, always follow standards of platform guidelines, stick to the patterns that work, and avoid changing terminology.

Applying to these five rules significantly increases your website quality. Provide users a feeling of control and allow them to explore your app without limitations and consequences. Keep things simple and crystal clear – spammy pages will only distract people’s attention from things that really matter. Make sure that your website is visually consistent and works just like users expect it. If you fulfill all these requirements, there is a big chance that people will love your page.