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Some short, useful tips for UI and UX designers

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At it’s core, user interface design is meant to make a users experience on an application seamnless, effortless, and enjoyable. While much comes with experience, seeing how users react to different designs or layouts, or research, there are some common tips and tricks that can help you get started.

Throughout my time designing applications for clients and working with and leading teams of designers, I’ve found common issues that junior designers I’ve worked with encounter. In this article, I’ve put together some small and easy to put into practice tips that seem small, but cam drastically improve your designs in the future.

Overcome Choice Paralysis

If you’ve ever looked at a restaurant menu and been so overwhelmed by options you don’t know what to do, you’ve experienced choice parlysis. The same applies to designs.

By providing users with too many options, they feel overwhelmed and less likely to actually do anything or click anywhere. When possible, reduce the amount of options in a design, and focus on minimalism.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/10/functional-minimal-web-design/

Empty State Should Direct Action

Uninhabited search interfaces or lists seem very empty to users. Utilize this empty space to prompt the user with their next action. Fill it with buttons or items that give the opportunity for the user to discover new features and functions that will help them or guide them through the interface.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/design/empty-states

Don’t Overuse Centered Text

Centered text is great in moderation. Try to use it only on small passages of text, or on headlines. Otherwise, keep content left-aligned to maintain nice visual balance.

https://www.niceverynice.com/components-tags/list-of-features

Clearly Define Elements

By using multiple drop shadows or a subtle border (not too much darker than the background), elements will pop more. This makes them appear more defined, sharper, and reduce the muddy shadows that I often see in designs.

Plus, this makes users feel at home in an interface that is very clearly segmented by component.

https://uxdesign.cc/8-rules-for-perfect-card-design-4fb7eef32e09

Utilize Text Overlays

Often, I see text that’s not very well defined against an image background. Thankfully, you can utilize a subtle overlay over images to improve contrast between elements that makes the text easier to read and more visually appealing.

You can either go with a full image overlay (either black or colored with your brand), or utilize a subtle gradient overlay to make the image and text well viewable.

https://blog.iamsuleiman.com/techniques-to-display-text-overlay-background-images/

Always Provide User Feedback

It’s easy for a user to feel lost in today’s complex applications, but feedback can be a little tidbit of support that helps the user along their experience. Feedback elements like Snack bars or popups are fantastic micro-interactions that can provide either brief contextual instructions, errors, or acknowledgements that keeps the user informed of what their actions are doing.

Visual feedback should always be there for any key interaction in an interface. Visual cues and animations helps users acknowledge completion of tasks big and small, reducing anxiety and providing a sense of progress.

https://material.io/components/snackbars

Consistency is Key

No matter what you’re building, consistency throughout a set of designs is key. This means that all of your applications screens should be visually consistent in spacing, colors, shadows, and layouts. By clearly defining style rules with a design system, you set yourself and your designs up for success and scalable growth.

https://dribbble.com/shots/14629346-Eva-Web-UI-Library

Conclusion

Design is hard, but by utilizing some of these tips, you can help users interact with your application easier, and create cleaner and better interfaces.

Keep in Touch

There’s a lot of content out there and I appreciate you reading mine. I’m an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley in the MET program, a software developer at Playground, and a young entrepreneur. I write about software development, startups, and failure (something I’m quite adept at).

Feel free to reach out and connect with me on Linkedin or Twitter, I love hearing from people who read my articles :)

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Bootcamp
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Published in Bootcamp

From idea to product, one lesson at a time. To submit your story: https://tinyurl.com/bootspub1

Caelin Sutch
Caelin Sutch

Written by Caelin Sutch

Founder, engineer, designer. Passionate about building cool shit.

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