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What is UI Design?
User Interface Design is the art of designing a digital application's final layout. The user interface includes elements such as text, images, slideshows, sliders and buttons.
A good UI design translates to a pleasant user experience. This is why UI should be incorporated into every software development project. Now let's look at some of the design elements you could use.
UI Design – UI Elements Every Designer Must Know
You can choose from a wide range of UI components when designing a user interface.
They can be divided into three main categories.
Input Elements
The most common category is input elements. Users are required to enter all kinds of data, including their age and the reason they purchased.
Text, audio or graphics can be used to input information. The input elements include:
- Dropdowns
- Combo boxes
- Buttons
- Toggle
- Text/password field
- Date Pickers
- Click on the checkboxes to see what they are.
- Radio Buttons
- Confirmation dialogues
Output Elements
The output elements represent the results of your actions with the input elements. They are never neutral. Instead, they can display warnings, alerts or success.
If you upload an unsupported format, for example, you will receive a message that says "unsupported images" and immediately realize you need to use a format other than the one you uploaded.
Helper Elements
Third category is an umbrella for elements which cannot be classified as input or output. The name implies that they help the user understand the content of a website and/or find their way around an interface.
The helper elements are further divided into three categories:
Navigational: It is a navigation tool that allows you to navigate the interface. Some examples include menus, breadcrumbs, link lists, etc.
Informative: Informing you of where you are on the journey or what process the site is running.
These examples include progress bars, toolbars, and icons.
Containers/groups: That group together various UI elements. Most often, these elements are in the form of pop-ups or sidebars.
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What Is The Importance Of Understanding The Different Ui Elements?
The three categories above show that output, input and helper elements serve distinct purposes. Designers should be able to distinguish between elements within the same category.
Imagine you are adding a new filter to an online store. Your search results should only show "vegan products".
You could look at a variety of input elements from a UI perspective:
- Radio button list allows you to tap the appropriate option.
- Click on the "vegan element" in the list to find it.
- Dropdown scroll down and tap the product tags (normally, they will appear alphabetically).
- Select the checkbox where you may select "vegan" but also "fair trade", "sugar free", or other options.
You need to know the user goals and how to make them as easy and convenient to achieve for them. Next, we will discuss user goals.
The Best Principles for UI Design
What is UI Design? Make life easier for users. This is the core principle of successful UI design. You can improve engagement and retention by putting users at the center of your design process.
Understanding how your users act and think is key. This results in a product which is more refined and meets the needs of your customers.
Expectations are high. Users are more demanding now than ever because they spend so much time on the internet. Even if users don't know it, they can tell when a user interface is good.
What happens when an app user or website visitor struggles to use your site? The user Xs out. It's uninstalled. It's therefore critical that you simplify the user experience. You should start by:
1. Reduce The Number Of Actions And Steps Per Screen
The user should be able navigate to the desired destination with as little clicks and taps as is possible. It is particularly important to keep in mind when creating a user-interface for smaller devices, as space is limited and the navigational methods need to be large and bold.
Focus on the design, both from an aesthetic perspective and in terms of intent. The page/screen should clearly state what it is, what its users must know and what their actions are.
Amazon's checkout page is a good example. You can see your products and prices, all your information and shipping options will be filled in automatically, and you only need to click 'buy.' You can't afford to lose the attention of users by not streamlining your tasks.
2. Reducing Cognitive Stress
Do you remember the Million Dollar Homepage? This is a great example of cognitive overload. You flicker your eyes across bright colors, and words that are barely legible.
It's possible to recognize a particular business, such as a retailer or casino. But, before you can do that, another bright pixel advertisement catches your attention, and then everything else is forgotten.
The cognitive load measures the information that is taking up space in your mind. When designing an interface, the aim is to reduce distractions that your users do not need while making the interaction or information easy for them to parse.
One common example of this is changing the color of links that a user already clicked. A user doesn't have to keep track of which pages they visited. They can just glance at the screen and see where they are.
A great UI design makes it so that people do not have to even think.
Your users will not be aware of the clever design behind-the scenes that allows them to accomplish their task.
3. Make Sure That All Dialogs End In Closure
Imagine the last item you purchased online. Three acts formed a logical 'narrative'. You start by browsing through different products.
You select your product in the middle and proceed to the checkout. You will receive an order confirmation at the end.
It's satisfying. Our brains love cause-and-effect because it is the most natural way of making sense of things. This ball will bounce if we toss it against a wall.
R2D2 holding the blueprints will allow Luke to destroy the Death Star. You'll be notified if you click "buy" that you have the item in your cart. Use the "three-act structure" to add feedback at every step, such as "Added" notifications.
4. Provide an Clearly Identified Next Step
Have you ever scrolled down to the bottom of a page, only to discover it barren like Arrakis. You've abruptly ended your journey, forcing you to click back or close the tab.
Be sure to avoid making the same mistakes with your own app or website. What happens after you've guided users to their desired destination? A key part of UI is guiding the user through a journey.
Telling them (subtly or not so subtly) where they should go next or what to perform is a core part of UI design. Think about the function and location of buttons that call for action. Focus on the user's intent and location to maximize engagement.
Websites are more than just a collection of linked pages. A website is an interface. It's a place where things meet and interact, in this instance, the web presence of a person, company, or individual.
This interaction will create an experience for your visitor. As a designer, you have the responsibility to make sure that this experience is one of the best possible.
The Top 10 UI (User-Interface) Design Recommendations
The key is always to keep your users in mind. Web design, despite being a new field, has a great deal to do with the study of HCI.
These 9 guidelines, derived from HCI research, will allow you to focus on the user during your design process.
User experience design is the subset of interface design that focuses more on layout and functionality. It is concerned with the larger picture, i.e.
the entire experience.
1. Learn About Your Customers
You must know your users inside and out. Yes, that means you need to know all of the demographic information your analytics apps can provide.
It is more important to know what their needs are and what obstacles they face in achieving goals.
To achieve this level of empathy, you need to do more than just carefully analyze stats. You need to get to know your users.
This means talking to them in person, watching how they use your products (and perhaps others) and asking deeper questions than "What do you think about this design?" What are they aiming for? What is stopping them from achieving their goals? What challenges can they overcome with a website?
Do not stop with knowing what users want. Find out more about what your users need. Needs are the root of all desires.
You can satisfy a users' deepest need while meeting their basic requirements.
You'll be able to make better decisions based on the insights gained from analyzing data and talking with your users.
This includes everything from what content is highlighted in an interface, to how it's used by people.
2. How People Interact With Your Interface
You need to know how users will interact with your interface before you can design it. It's more important than you think, especially with the rise of touch-based technology.
Tinder is a great example: its user interface and experience are defined by how easy it is to swipe. Websites and apps are used in two different ways by users: either directly, (by interfacing with interface elements within the product), or indirectly, (by interfacing with elements outside the product).
Direct Interactions
- Clicking a button
- Swiping the card
- Dragging and dropping an object with your fingertip.
Indirect Interactions: Examples
- Clicking with the mouse and pointing.
- Using key commands/shortcuts.
- Typing into a form field
- Draw on a Wacom Tablet
Your decisions should be based on your understanding of your target audience and the devices that they are using.
You wouldn't use swiping if you were designing for people with low manual dexterity or seniors. You should support keyboard shortcuts if you are designing for coders or writers who interact with applications primarily via keyboard.
This will minimize the time spent using the mouse.
3. Set Expectations
There are many consequences to using a website or an app. Clicking on a button could mean that you spend money, delete a webpage, or make a negative comment about Grandma's cake.
Any time there is a consequence, anxiety will follow. Be sure to inform users what they will experience after clicking the button. This can be done through copy and/or design.
Designing Expectations
- Selecting the appropriate button to perform the action.
- Copying a symbol that is widely known (such as the trash can for delete, plus sign for add, or magnifying glass to search), and using it in conjunction with a copy.
- Selecting the color that has a meaning relevant to it (for example, green for a button "go", red for a stop).
Set Expectations for Copy
- What is the best way to write a clear button?
- Providing directional/encouraging copy in empty states.
- By delivering warnings, and requesting confirmation.
It makes sense to check if people are sure about actions that have irreversible effects, such as permanently deleting something.
4. Anticipate Mistakes
It's okay for people to make mistakes. But they shouldn’t always suffer from the results. Two ways can be taken to reduce the effects of human error:
- Avoid mistakes by preventing them before they occur.
- After they occur, fix the problem.
In e-commerce and in form design, you will see many techniques for preventing mistakes. The buttons remain inactive as long as you have not filled out all the fields.
The forms detect incorrectly entered email addresses. Amazon pop-ups will ask you to confirm that you want to abandon the shopping cart.
It is less stressful to anticipate mistakes than it is to try and fix them afterwards. This is because mistakes occur before the satisfaction of clicking "Next" or the "Submit button" can take hold.
You have to sometimes let things happen. When detailed error messages are used, they can be very useful.
Make sure that your error messages do these two things when you write them:
- Then, explain the problem. You could say, "You claimed you were born on Mars. Humans haven't yet colonized the planet." Yet."
- Explanation of how to repair it. Please enter your birthplace on Earth.
You can use the same approach for situations other than errors. If we accidentally delete something but can restore it later, you could include a copy that says "Deleted items may be restored by clicking on Restore in your Trash."
5. Feedback is Fast
The environment provides us with feedback in the real world. Others respond to what we say (normally). When we scratch a kitten, it either purrs (depending upon its moodiness) or hisses.
Digital interfaces are often unresponsive, and we wonder whether to reload a page, restart our laptop, or simply throw it into the nearest window.
Give me the loading animation. You can make the button snap and pop back when you tap it, but not too many times. Give me a virtual high five when you agree with us that something we did was awesome.
Make sure that everything happens quickly. Any delay of more than 1 second is considered an interruption by Usability.gov.
Over 10 seconds, a disruption. For about half of the U.S., three seconds will cause an interruption.
You shouldn't show a progress bar if a webpage will be loaded in less than 5 seconds. It'll make it seem like the page is taking longer to load.
Use a visual that does not imply progression, such as Mac's "pinwheel of Death." Consider using visual tricks on your website if you use progress bars.
6. Consider The Size And Placement Of Elements
Fitts' Law is a principle that underlies human-computer interactions (HCI). It states: the time taken to reach a goal depends on the size and distance of the object.
The closer or larger something is, then the quicker you can place your finger (or cursor) on it. The implications of this are many, but the three most significant ones include:
It is important to make buttons, text links and "click targets" large enough for people to see them and easily click.
It is important to give typography and menus ample space, otherwise people will click the wrong link repeatedly. The buttons that are used most often should be larger and prominent.
Put navigation and other interactive elements like search bars on the corners or edges of your screen. It may seem strange, but this last tip works well because it reduces the requirement for precision.
Users don't have to be concerned about accidentally clicking on something.
Always keep in mind your interaction model when you are thinking of element placement and size. You'll have to think about how and where to alert users that your site uses horizontal scrolling instead of vertical scrolling.
7. Standards are Important
Designers are creative people who love to innovate, but it is not always the best thing to do. Why? A redesigned version of an existing interaction or interface increases "cognitive burden" by making people think about the process again.
You can certainly reinvent the wheel as much as you like, but only if you improve the design. The menu of Google Docs is almost identical to that in Microsoft Word before Vista.
This also explains the reason why Pocket changed the location of the Archive button on their Android app some years ago.
Up until fall 2023, Pocket's Android app had the archive button at the upper left corner of the screen, right where Android specifications said it should be. Pocket wanted people to concentrate on reading and not duplicate a hardware control. However, the inconsistent placement of the archive button caused users to accidentally close or archive an article that they were reading instead of simply returning to their Reading List as expected.
8. Easy To Understand Interfaces Are Important
"The Magical Seven, plus or minus Two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information." This article states that we can hold only 5-9 things reliably in our short-term memory.
Miller called it a coincidence, but this doesn't stop people from citing his work.
It's a given that, in general, simpler things are easier to memorize. Limit the amount of information a user has to memorize to be able to navigate your interface effectively and efficiently.
This can be achieved by breaking down information into smaller, more digestible pieces.
The idea is in line with Tesler’s Law of Conservation of Complexity which says that UI designers must make interfaces as easy as possible.
This can be achieved by hiding the complexity behind an interface that is as simple as possible. Microsoft Word is a popular product that fails to adhere to this rule.
Word is used by some people to type, while others use it for a variety of other powerful tasks. Everyone opens Word with the exact same interface, but around the globe, everyone uses the same Word version.
This leaves the average Joe, who is not a powerful user, overwhelmed by all the options.
The concept of progressive disclosure was born, in which advanced features were hidden on secondary interfaces. This is often seen on the homepage of websites, with short paragraphs of text that introduce a feature or product, and then link to another site where more information can be found.
This is also a good practice when designing for mobile devices, as robust navigation can be difficult.
Use "learn More" or similar non-specific texts in buttons and links. Why? It doesn't say what users will "learn" more about.
People scan pages looking for links that will take them to the destination they desire. Repeating "learn" 15 times is not helpful. It is particularly important for screen reader users.
9. Make Decision-Making Simple
The web is awash with ads. "Banners", for example, suddenly become full-screen advertisements. The web bombards us with pop-ups that urge us to sign up for blogs we've never read.
The video interstitials are so distracting that they force us to stop and watch the precious seconds pass by. Don't get me started with the widgets and tooltips.
Hicks' Law is a good reason for us to create a more calm web. It's as straightforward as the end result. The more options users are presented with, the harder they find it to decide.
It affects almost all of our construction:
- Layouts for the whole house.
- Menus
- Pricing pages
- Blog indexes
- Feeds for content
Lists go on. The bottom line is that the more simple we can make our design, the quicker and easier users will be able to take the actions we desire.
This is why non-newsletter email and landing pages should have only one call to actions.
Tip: You may want to encourage users to consider all their options and slow down. This is why Pinterest, Dribbble and many blogs have tiled layouts that work.
The more choices you have, the better chance you will find something that suits you.
10. Hear the Data
Although we might all wish that our designs would be evaluated solely on the basis of their artistic merits, it is important to optimize your design in order to achieve its goal.
We might all wish that our designs would be evaluated solely on the basis of their artistic merit. However, optimizing your design in order to achieve its goal is equally important. Although user testing and research can help you make design decisions that will fulfill your website's goals, the data collected after your launch is invaluable.
Set up your analytics and analyze them frequently. There are many analytics programs available, but depending on your project, we suggest Google Analytics or Mixpanel.
Mixpanel is focused on collecting data on the actions that visitors take on your website, whereas Google Analytics gives you more information about behavior, such as session times and traffic sources. Both tools provide data in both formats, but they excel at their respective areas of focus. Choose the one that best suits your needs.
Both of these tools offer free service up to certain data points. Cyber Infrastructure Inc., and other platforms of this type make it easy to set up analytics through an API key exchange.
Final Words
User interface design requires an extensive understanding of user experience, user psychology and interaction design.
The best performance is ensured by following the industry's best practices. It's important to use tools that generate code in real time when building a UI. This will allow you to turn your design directly into code.
Cyber Infrastructure Inc. allows for drag-and-drop UI customization and building with minimal coding. The software uses AI technology to create SEO-friendly codes and converts your designs into functional websites.
