Learn UX Design: The Banana Method

Have you ever thought about the fruit that offers us the best user experience? You might be thinking I’m joking right now, but truth be told we took bananas for granted for a long time. We have a fruit that offers us easy access, it can be predicted easily and always stays the same.

So, let’s see what we have to learn from a banana when it comes to a better user experience. 

When thinking about what UX design is, the first answer should be what it stands for – User Experience. And as the name implies, it represents the experience our users have when interacting with us. UX design is all about making sure that when someone uses our products, apps, services, and so on – not only do they like what they are seeing – the visuals – but it’s also fun and easy for them to understand how to use it. 

UX design is also about mastering the art of understanding the needs of our audience. User experience represents the relationship between our users and our products. Can they use it easily and efficiently? Do they feel excited when using it? Well, yes, they should. But maybe there were times when you did not understand where to find a specific section on a website. That’s not your fault – not you as a user, at least. 

For example, Let’s say you’re shopping online for clothes. How easy is it to find that blue T-shirt you really want? Does the checkout process give you a headache? Or is it straightforward? All of these represent the user experience. 

The purpose of a UX designer lies in the development of creating easy, efficient, fun, and logical flows. All of these are in order to leave a positive impression when it comes to functionality so that our users can complete the entire customer purchasing cycle. But in order to achieve all these, we must also understand what our customers want. Their wishes. Their wants. And most importantly – their pain points with their current products. 

A banana is the easiest fruit to eat. When it comes to eating the natural order is to first wash your hands, get the cutlery in order to stay clean, and wash your hands after finishing eating. A process that has always been like this and we followed without questioning it. Yet, if you think about a banana you will shortly realize that those normal practices don’t apply when eating a banana.

We can even go further and admit that a banana is the easiest fruit you can eat. Think about it – you do not even have to think about getting your hands dirty, using a knife, or making a mess in the kitchen. A banana offers you the best user experience compared to any other fruits that need to be washed, cut, cleaned, and so on. For example, an apple can’t be eaten without being washed, or about a kiwi. Even though the kiwi doesn’t require washing first, you will still need a knife to cut and slice it. 

And this is what accessibility can create in the UI UX design world. Accessibility is the key to the gate that anyone desires. Is what makes a user experience good and what we all should think about in the design process. After all, we are creating interfaces for humans, not for unknown creatures. UI UX design should be accessible to anyone, it should follow familiar criteria and should also be inclusive to everyone’s needs. 

In the UX design world, accessibility makes sure we design web pages and apps that give our users the ability to navigate them smoothly. At the same time, web and app design can spark joy and deliver the necessary information without using a secret password. We need to do our research, understand our audience, and respond to their needs.

A banana can be eaten everywhere at any given time. You can be on a hike, without access to clean water, in the car, or just at home minding your own business, but the experience remains the same. It offers us mobility while being easy to store and dispose of. This is how a design should be – offering us the ability to access and navigate them wherever and whenever to create the best environment for a good user experience. 

When choosing a banana to eat, you can see when it is ripe and when it is ripe. You can recognize the state of a banana from its color and its appearance and be sure when it’s perfect. As expected, a design should be just as intuitive, letting you know what to do from its visual aspect. Color plays a big part in this process.

‍Whether we are talking about a sweater or the best UI UX design you ever saw, it is human nature to remember color. Think about it for a moment –  we distinguish certain objects based on their color. We like clothes according to their color, and we choose what fits us best based on color as well. 

Color is a language that carries meaning; we can’t just throw it into our design without thinking about it. And this is why every UI UX designer should have a basic knowledge of the psychology behind colors. When you imagine red, you immediately think about big brands such as Coca-Cola, YouTube, or Netflix. You might feel inspired, as the color captures everyone’s eyes, even in an app or web design. This way, we can deliver a better user experience to our audience by only choosing the right colors, helping them anticipate what to do.

Wherever you may go, a banana will stay the same. Whether you are at the grocery store, at the farmer’s market, or at the airport, you know what to expect from a banana. In UI/UX design, to create a good user experience, you need to keep the design consistent and easy to scroll through. This creates a consistent visual experience for users across different pages and interactions. 

Think about a design that uses multiple color palettes and doesn’t have a primary color selection. When first entering a page, you are overwhelmed by all the colors and can’t spot the primary message of the digital design. Incorporating similar elements and creating continuity is what every UI UX designer should be doing, making sure that their web or app design can be interpreted and easy to scroll through. 

So, the next time you see a banana, you will be thinking about the simplicity and the user experience it offers us. It’s time you apply those rules to your design to fulfill those.

We at uinkits understand the importance of great user experiences and creating amazing UI designs. That’s why we’ve developed a Figma UI Kit with design components that include these essential UI elements that enable you to design intuitive and user-friendly interfaces effortlessly.

“You press the button, we do the rest.” – Kodak.

Inspired by this iconic tagline from Kodak, we believe in simplifying the design process for you. Our Figma UI Kit, uinkits, is a complete design system with UI components that allows you, as a UI UX designer, to create your products as quickly as pressing a button.

Our design system includes UI components, icons, variables, cards, buttons and everything you need for your design process. All you have to do is take your UI design component needed, and you’re ready to use it in your designs!