Good Interface Design Principles

1) Put your user in control

No one enjoys feeling lost. Tools and pathways allowing users to be in control make for a better digital UX design.

Provide clear navigation

Reversible actions: Users should know how they can make a detour should they make a wrong turn on their user experience journey. Be forgiving about “undo” and “back” options. An example would be the option Gmail gives to unsend emails within the first few seconds of sending it out.

Provide user feedback

Communicate to users where they are at: For every action undertaken, a user should receive meaningful responses from the system. Good user experience acknowledges actions taken. If a button is clicked on, simple responses like colour change assure the user that an action has been taken. Prompt communications reduce the anxiety that a user may feel. As a general rule, the following questions are a guide for junctures where responses can be given.

• Location: Where am I?
• Status: What is happening?
• Next steps: What do I do next?
• Outcomes: What happened?

Know your user: Identifying the target audience of your product is essential in designing effective customer user experiences that resonate with them. Without understanding their pain points, you will never know how to put them in control. What are your users frequently looking for on your interface? How can you create pathways that lead them there? Where could their frustration lie?

“Good user experience acknowledges actions taken.”

2. Interfaces should be intuitive

When driving, you cannot afford to spend time locating where your indicators are—they need to be self-evident. In the same way, good interface design should feel invisible. Users should not feel like they need to expend energy to understand the interface.

Clutter complicates: Don’t provide more information than what your user needs. Be purposeful about the options you are giving users every step of the way. Remove irrelevant elements or content that distract users from what is valuable.

3. Simplicity creates ease of use

While on the road, your GPS does not overload you with the next 5 turns to make but tells you bite-sized information systematically.

Create chunks of information: We retain information in groups. Split up your information so that it is more palatable.

4. Consistency lubricates user experience

It would be confusing to get into a car where the brake is on the right instead of the left! Consistency allows for familiarity and lubricates the user experience. Be predictable.

Visuals: Using the same style for elements within the same product. From icons to fonts, colours and placement, it should be similar across devices. Follow brand guides to seal your brand story. Apart from that, make sure to tap on familiar visual conventions. For example, it might be disorientating if the “Submit” button turns red instead of green when hovered over.

Behaviours: How controls respond should not vary in the same product and should be consistent across all devices. Users should never be caught by surprise!

Conclusion

In an age where attention span is dwindling, a memorable user experience can allow you to cut through the noise and make your brand stick. Ultimately, the goal is to make the user interface design invisible; it should feel like second nature for your user. In creative UI design, be a designer that puts others in control of interfaces by creating intuitive, simple and consistent designs. Making your users feel in control can go a long way in consolidating how memorable your brand is!

We hope that this article has provided you with better insight into user interface design best practices and recent UI UX design trends 2021. If you want to know more about user experience and its industry, do check out our other resources available on our website, such as our articles, weekly webinars, and podcasts.

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