UI/UX design is the process of making the experience for the client of an application as rich, smooth, and practical as possible.
UI stands for User Interface and UX stands for User Experience. Although they’re mentioned together, they are not the same thing. UX designer takes a more functional approach and their end goal is to superior user experience. They tend to focus on the flow and the feel of the application, i.e., does the navigation on the app feels logical, and whether the overall user experience is simple and pleasant. UI designers, on the other hand, approach their work with a more creative perspective. Their ambition is to determine how the application looks, this includes transitions, interface animations, graphical locations of the components, and so on.
Best UI/UX Practices for Web Design
Why Should We Use UI/UX Design?
Irrespective of the type of industry, a fine UI/UX design process always benefits the service of a business by providing exceptional customer experience and satisfaction. Everyone prefers an app or a website that has an excellent design and an easy-to-use interface.
UI/UX design helps in creating an eye-catching impression, improving user satisfaction and also highlighting our website from other competitors. A good design can attract customers and increase conversations.
How to tell if the Website has best UI/UX Design?
In the era of a competitive marketplace, the visitors expect a smooth user experience after visiting the website. This is a matter of just 10-20 seconds by which time we should have an attractive UI/UX design that compels the audience to explore for more.
We can attract the customers by applying appealing designs and graphics. Other considerations include:
- Whether the customers are free to navigate and finish the job they wanted to do with least possible difficulties and within a short time span.
- Whether the customer is benefiting from the interactions with the design.
- What are the chances that the customer will remember how to navigate through the website when they visit next.
UI/UX Best Practices
Building a great user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) for a perfect web design is necessary for attracting the audience.
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Knowing the Audience: First we need to analyze what the audience demands, their preferences and needs in the expected website or app.
After having a clear idea of the demands of the audience we can design the website as per their requirements. This can be done by using different layouts, styles and designs the audience is familiar with and then the website will become easier for them. -
Navigation: We should design the menu such that it is logical and easy to navigate.
Let’s look at how to do this:- Make a logical menu: Designers should build a simple and logical menu to ensure a positive user experience.
- Horizontal Menu: In this type the navigation menu appears at the top or on the bottom of the website as horizontal bar. This practice is used by many websites so that the user can easily find out information about the website such as ‘About’, ‘Contact’, ‘Services’ and many other.
- Vertical Sidebar Menu: In this type the menu bar is either on the left or right side of the website in vertical position.
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Drop-Down Menu: All pages are listed in a drop-down menu that the user can access by clicking or hovering over it. This type of menu is appropriate for websites having a multiple number of pages as it minimizes clutter while enabling access.
The website should highlight on the important content and present them in an orderly manner with relevant information. Designers can increase the user satisfaction by keeping the content precise, visually appealing and easily accessible thereby helping the users in successfully achieve their target.
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Maintain a Simple Layout: Maintain a simple layout as it will influence the user’s experience notably. We should not use too much text or images on the screen as it may overwhelm the users and also use Whitespace or empty space at regular intervals for an even appearance.
The job of the UI/UX designer is to make the interface both easy to look and easy to use. We can use grid system for an effective layout as it will organize the content neatly and will make it look more friendly to the eyes. - Mobile Responsiveness: Nowadays customers prefers to access websites through mobile devices. Thus, it is very important to make the website mobile responsive. A responsive website responds to the size and the layout of the particular device, thereby providing a better user experience on all platforms be it a desktop, mobile or tablet.
- Good Visual Hierarchy: Visual hierarchy means arranging the elements according to their priority. A good visual hierarchy should emphasize on important elements such as size, color and placement to lead the user’s attention to the most essential elements present on the page of the website. The website can be made visually appealing by using beautiful and high quality images and videos.
- Improve the Waiting Experience: We must pay attention to how the UI interface would look like when it is loading. We should try to make waiting as fun as we can for the users. Using mockups of text, photos and other graphical animations will make the loading page look more appealing.
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Work with Feedback: After creating a website it is very important to listen what the audience has to say about it. Not paying attention to this means intentionally ignoring the facts that will make the website more appealing to the desired audience.
By the help of online surveys we can understand the needs of the audience and thus can make further improvement on the website.
Common Mistakes to Prevent
- Ignoring User Demands: One of the biggest mistake is designing the website for ourselves rather than the users. Always consider the needs and preferences of users through thorough research.
- Overloading With Information: Avoid overwhelming designs by prioritizing the contents and using whitespace effectively to create a clean and organized layout.
- Ineffective CTAs: CTAs play a crucial role in guiding the users. So, make sure they are convincing and clear by using action-oriented language.
- Lack of Mobile Responsiveness: With the increasing use of mobile devices, it is crucial to create websites that can adjust to different screen sizes.
- Not Staying Updated: Failing to stay updated with the changing in design trends can make the website outdated and less comparative. With changing user expectations and new technologies the design sector is evolving rapidly. To design a successful and up-to-date user experiences we should engage in continuous learning, usability learning and staying updated with the current tools and software.
Conclusion
The core of the approach shouldn’t be just working with the client’s team; we should engage ourselves as a part of the team and pay attention to the details and analyze them. The benefits and the drawbacks of the applications are thoroughly noticed. The main goal of enhancing the UI/UX is not to modernize the look or make changes purely for the sake of changes. Marketing and sales division always notice the qualitative changes in the design.
It involves a lot of perseverance and hard work to create a proper UI/UX design. But by following to the best practices listed above, we can develop a perfect UI/UX for our website. We should never forget to prioritize the customers and test the product with actual users at all stages of the design process. With the help of customer feedback, we can keep on improving the design and thus develop the best user experience.