Nowadays, regardless of your location, you can find or have a user experience and a user interface. It can be opening an app to order your groceries, looking for a car to get you home, or even seeing what time it is. We are surrounded by user interfaces, and with that, we can also find which ones make us visit them again and which don’t feel the way we wish to.
Even more so, ensuring functionality in your design stages happens when the software meets its functional requirements and addresses the final user's needs. UI designs need to be intuitive as well as visually appealing, providing a great user experience to all visitors and users.
Yet, in order to keep your designs up to date, you need to create intuitive and engaging user experiences. Effective UI/UX designs ensure that users can effortlessly interact with a product, resulting in better user satisfaction as well as user engagement.
So, let’s find out together which are some of the most essential design principles we need to follow to stay on track with our projects!
1. Minimalism and Simplicity
A fundamental principle of UI UX design is keeping things simple and minimalistic. By creating a design that is simple and does not have any unnecessary elements, you help your users see what they need faster, at the same time reducing the cognitive load.
This can also help users' ability to navigate your design and interact with the user interface. A clutter-free design not only improves visual aesthetics but can also improve usability and make it easier to understand.
2. Consistent and Visual Hierarchy
Consistency is the key in UI/UX design. By keeping your design consistent, you have the ability to create a space for your design that speaks the same language, includes the same color schemes, typography, as well as layout, designers establish familiarity and enable users to navigate seamlessly across different sections of a design.
Even more so, with the implementation of a visual hierarchy, you can help users see which elements are the most important elements of a design, as well as take them to the main points of a design. This leads to a better user journey.
3. User Centred Design
UI/UX designs should always keep in mind that you need to create your design around your users’ needs. Conducting user research as well as research and usability testing can lead to valuable insights when it comes to usability testing, providing valuable insights into your user performance and their behavior.
It is also important to know that by empathising with users and involving them throughout your design process, designers can create interfaces that deliver the user experience that is expected.
4. Adaptive Design
We all can agree that in today’s technology industry, we have a ton of devices with different screen sizes and resolutions. So, to make sure that every user of our site has a great experience, we need to be mindful of developing an adaptive design.
Responsive and adaptive design ensures that the interface adapts seamlessly to different platforms. Even more so, designing with responsiveness in mind improves accessibility and usability, reaching a larger pool of users.
5. Clear and Effective Communication
Straightforward is the best principle to go when it comes to your users. Especially when you are selling a product, presenting a service, or even writing a blog. You need the important information to use visual cues such as intuitive icons, clear labels, and informative error messages to let them know when something does not go as the initial plan prescribed.
Help your users understand system status, actions, and any potential errors. Use thoughtful microcopy and an onboarding process that can further enhance the communication between the interface and the user, triggering a better and smoother user experience - exactly the way Uber does it.
6. Create an Interactive Design Process
UI/UX design is an interactive process that requires constant improvement based on user feedback and data analysis.
By gathering information from user behavior metrics as well as conducting usability testing, designers can identify pain points and areas where improvements can be made. Iterative designs also allow refinement as well as optimization, making sure the interface evolves to meet changing needs and user preferences.
So, next time you are starting a new project, keep in mind that incorporating key principles into your design can significantly contribute to the creation of an intuitive and user-centric experience. Even more so, by putting all focus on minimalist designs, you can embrace an iterative design process, allowing designers the possibility to create interfaces that make users happy and elevate the user experience overall.
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!
