Key features of any good User Interface design

The proficiency of any web application to lure and engage users depends upon how well its user interface is. Even the well-crafted solutions fail to impress if the user finds them too hard to navigate or monotonously developed. Hence, the need for an exemplary user interface never dies.

But wait! 

Did we keep on explaining the significance without introducing the main character? No worries, let’s do it now.

What is UI design? 

UI, an abbreviated form of User Interface, is a graphical layout of an application. It consists of the text, buttons, images, sliders, and all the stuff the user interacts with. UI is totally about aesthetics. It is up to the UI designers to make the app’s interface interactive, appropriately themed, and visually stimulating. 

What is UX design?

UX, an abbreviated form of User Experience, determines how a user has interacted with the application. It is the estimator of how easy or strenuous it is to interact with the UI components that the Interface designers have created. 

Conclusively, a UI designer is tasked with the look of user interface design, and a UX designer is in charge of determining how the user interface will operate.

Why do UI and UX matter?

Everything is about the consumer. No matter how much effort one has put into developing software, if the end product doesn’t satisfy the consumer- it all goes in vain. In this fast-moving world, the most successful applications are those that respond quickly. If your website takes more than 13 seconds to load compared to your competitor’s site, then you know what lies in fate. A decent amount of energy put into UI/UX design is a sure shot way to your users’ hearts. 

So what does it take to design a good User interface? For more information, Keep reading!

Clarity

The core motive behind designing UI is enabling users to interact smoothly with the system. It is the most crucial element of a good User Interface design. An inconvenient design is not very much appreciated. For instance, you have an eCommerce clothing site, and your customer is willing to filter the attires based on the price factor. In such a case, if your design takes too long to respond or load, it will lead to nothing but the loss of customers. 

Creativity and Familiarity

Just as the basic human tendency, we tend to go for what looks familiar. Navigation becomes relatively straightforward when the user knows about your site and its behavior. It is recommended to identify sections your visitors are accustomed to and integrate them into the design. At the same time, visitors expect creativity. Something unique but not so run-of-the-mill experience will do a perfect job. But the most important thing to remember is that while experimenting, don’t lose the familiar touch.

Responsive

Responsiveness stands for a couple of things. Firstly, it means speed. The interface, if not the backend work, should be fast. Waiting for pages to load and using a slow and laggy interface is very annoying. Experiencing quicker loading or at least a good user interface speed improvise the experience a user takes back. In some cases, responsive also means the interface provides some feedback. The interface needs to interact with users and inform them about what is happening. 

Intuitive and Consistent

All the control channels and information must be laid out consistently and intuitively for an interface to be easy to utilize and navigate. It is not an excellent approach to change the layout drastically to achieve varying functionality that a business may require from time to time. The process of designing needs to be logical. That is, the features that are majorly used should be kept on topmost priority. And the controls should be made consistent so that the user knows how to repeat their actions. 

Maintainability

A good user interface should be able to incorporate all the changes made without causing any conflict in the interest level. It is nothing but a sign of a flaw in the design process. For example, you wish to add some new functionality to your website, and your interface is so convoluted that there is no space to draw attention to this new feature. The addition results in a compromise of something else or makes the whole design look unaesthetic. 

Efficiency

A user interface is representative of the company. It is the vehicle that occupies your place. These places are various functions of software developed. A nicely done UI should allow you to perform these functions quickly and with the least effort. Now, efficiency sounds like a vague trait- if you combine all the attributes mentioned above in the list, aren’t you going to end up with an efficient product? Well, that is not the case!

What is required on your end to make your interface efficient is to step into the users’ shoes. What I mean by saying this is- figure out what your users want. What exactly are they trying to accomplish? And let them do it without any chaos. Do you need to figure out how your application should operate? What functions are to be integrated? What are your targets and objectives? Implement a design that lets people achieve what they desire, and you have done your job. 

Wrapping Up!

When you try to look at the big picture from a 360-degree angle, it’s easy to understand what role a decent User Interface Design plays. How your website application speaks to your audience and how your audience views your company has a lot to say about the amount of traffic you will receive. The icebreaking factor determines whether a company will succeed or fail.