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 of a good user interface never dies.
But wait!
Did we kept on explaining the significance without introducing the main character? No worries, let’s do it now.
What is UI design?
UI, abbreviated form of User Interface, is a graphical layout of an application. It consists of the text, buttons, images, sliders and all the stuff user interacts with. UI is totally about aesthetics. It is upto the UI designers to make the app’s interface interactive, appropriately themed and visually-stimulating.
What is UX design?
UX, abbreviated form of User Experience, determines how user has interacted with the application. It is the estimator of how easy or strenuous 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 is going to operate.
Why UI and UX matter?
In this fast moving world, the most successful applications are those that respond quickly. Everything is about the consumer. No matter how much effort one has put in developing a software, if the end-product doesn’t satisfy the consumer- it all goes in vain. If your website takes more than 13 seconds to load as compared to your competitor’s site then you know what lies in fate. A decent amount of energy put in UI/UX design is a sure shot way to your users’ heart.
So what takes to design a good User interface ? For more information, Keep reading!
#1: Clarity
It is the most crucial element of a good User Interface design. The core motive behind designing UI is enabling users to interact smoothly with the system. An inconvenient design is not very much appreciated. For instance, take you have an Ecommerce clothing site and your customer is willing to filter the attires based on price factor. In such a case, if your design takes too long to respond or load then it will lead to nothing but loss of customers.
#2: Creativity and Familiarity
Just as the basic human tendency, we tend to go for what looks familiar. When the user is already known to your site and its’ behaviour, navigation becomes quite easy. It is recommended to identify sections that your visitors are accustomed to and integrate them into the design. At the same time, visitors expect creativity. Something unique but not so run-off-the-mill experience will do a perfect job. But the utter most important thing to be kept in mind is while experimenting don’t lose the familiar touch.
#3: Responsive
Responsivity 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 slow and laggy interface is very annoying. Experiencing quicker loading or at least a good speed of user interface improvise the experience a user take back. In some cases, responsive also means the interface providing some sort of feedback. The interface needs to interact with users and inform about what is happening?
#4: Intuitive and Consistent
All the control channels and information must be laid out in a consistent and intuitive manner for an interface to be easy to utilize and navigate. It is not a good approach to change the layout drastically for achieving varying functionality that a business may require from time to time. The process of designing needs to be logical. That is the features which are majorly used should be kept on topmost priority. And the controls should be made consistent so that the user know how to repeat their actions.
#5: Maintainability
A good user interface should have the capacity to incorporate all the changes made without causing any conflict in the interest level. For example, you wish to add some new functionality in your website and your interface is so convoluted that there is no space to draw attention to this new feature. The addition result in a compromise of something else or make the whole design look unaesthetic. It is nothing but a sign of flaw in the design process.
#6: Efficiency
A user interface is a representative of the company. It is the vehicle that occupies your place. These places are various functions of a 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 are going to combine all the above mentioned attributes mentioned in list, aren’t you going to end up with an efficient product? Well that is not the case!
What is required on your end for making 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. 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 let people achieve what they desire and you have done your job.
Wrapping Up!
When you will try to look at the big picture, from a 360 degree angle, it’s easy to understand what role a decent User Interface Design play. It is the icebreaking factor which determine whether a company is going to succeed or fail. The manner in which your website application speaks to your audience and the way your audience comes to view your company has a lot to say in the amount of traffic you are going to receive. This is just one aspect of your functionality that one should never ever skimp on or undermine. If you have just stepped in, or think your website could use a power boosting in User Interface Design, try contacting a professional today. And our web development team at Matellio would love to help.
