In two previous blogs, we have looked deeply into UX, discussing its importance as well as the fact that -in essence- it’s been around for quite some time, in different forms. UX design is the journey of users within a website or application, it refers to the overall experience one will have while visiting a website or using an app.

In any case, UX is extremely important, and you can look at it like you look at a Roadmap set by you and your startup, leading up to the launch of a product or the end of a project. While UX design is the skeleton, UI design is the looks!

Selecting the right fonts, colors, letter sizes, positioning, and overall image of your website or application is not a simple task and should not be downplayed to “just the image”. Great UI design will complement excellent UX design and can take a company from a certain, average level, to the top of its own “food chain”.

Try looking into it as a user and only as a user, even if you are a marketing specialist, designer, or other. Which are the websites that you always return to? Are they JUST gray databases of information where you can find what you need and be done with it?

Nope. We always strive for good-looking things -provided they are also working and offer us what we need. A news website seldom has much more news posted compared to its rival news websites. Therefore, each user tends to visit the one they like to navigate the most, the one that is more pleasing and easier to the eye, and most importantly, the one that does not bore them after a while, especially those who are up to date with news 24/7.

Given that UI design is so important, today we will take a look at 6 practices that will allow UI design experts built great websites and applications that attract users, and appeal to them thanks to their looks as well.

Color It Up!

If you are a professional in UI design, you know that many times, UI designers have to use different colors of text to define primary and secondary labels. More often than not, designers use simple grey text as a secondary text label, which is quite boring. But that’s not the real issue. What if your background is not white? A “rule of thumb” you can use when choosing secondary text labels is to go with the same hue as your background and change the saturation until it matches what you want.

Prioritize

Any UI design expert will tell you that hierarchy is everything and they are not wrong. When developing the front end, the “face” of your app, you have to stick to a standard hierarchy. This allows your application to have consistency when it comes to colors, font styles, font weights, and more. As we have discussed in our blog about Branding, hierarchy also leads to a consistency that helps your company and its products be recognized solely thanks to the hierarchy.

Semantics Come Next

More often than not, companies tend to dive deep into semantics and forget about the aforementioned hierarchy. This can lead to several issues, especially when it comes to action buttons included in certain pages. Imagine you have an e-commerce website that sells furniture and you are designing the action buttons found within the cart of the user.

The best UI design practice to follow in that case is to give priority to the primary action button, which should be “Checkout”, making it obvious by using the right font style and weight, as well as color. Secondary action buttons such as “Edit” (i.e. edit the times a product is in the cart) should be clear but less prevalent than primary action buttons, while tertiary action buttons such as “Delete” (i.e. remove the item from the cart) should be non-obtrusive.

Make Good Use of Empty Spaces

What are empty spaces for a UI design expert? Opportunities for creativity! More often than not, apps and websites will have spaces that do not contain anything. Ignoring these might lead to user confusion. Why? When exploring a website or app, users tend to look for every detail on their screen.

If something is empty, it will have a great impact on the looks, and therefore on the UX part of your product. Make good use of empty spaces by adding simple graphics elements that “beautify” your website or application, and attract the user’s eye to where you would want them to go.

Labels Are Vital

Using labels in UI design is something that happens passively. Every front-end developer knows that and labels are one of the most important elements. Using sorted labels for different parts of your app is a great practice, allowing your users get a better understanding of what they are seeing in your application or website.

For example, an e-commerce website that includes the label of how many pieces of a product are left in your stock is much more attractive if present as “10 Left In Stock”, instead of being given as “raw” information, such as “In Stock: 10”.

Layering Is Trending

In UI design, the layering of elements is called overlapping. You might have encountered this more often than you think and it’s the practice of elements being displayed over other elements. This allows UI design experts to build applications and websites that are more appealing to the user. Why? When elements are overlapping, they look as if they are more connected to each other, which implies consistency and a smooth continuation.

Summary

Whether you are new in UI design or a seasoned professional, the most important thing to remember is to always work with the user in mind. Users are the ones giving your application worth and they are the ones that can help it become the new talk of the town.

Thinking like a user and working as a UI designer who wants to make apps even better for people will not only make your apps better, but your work will become much more simple. Brainstorming sessions on the user trends of the era and on what users really want will not only help you build a great front-end for your application but will allow you to explore new, innovative ideas that might set the trend for other UI design experts and their applications.

Tags: applications, labels, UI, UI design, websites