User Interface (UI)

User Interface (UI) defines the way humans interact with the information systems. In Layman’s term, User Interface (UI) is a series of pages, screens, buttons, forms and other visual elements that are used to interact with the device. Every app and every website has a user interface.

User Interface (UI) Design is the creation of graphics, illustrations, and use of photographic artwork and typography to enhance the display and layout of a digital product within its various device views. Interface elements consist of input controls (buttons, drop-down menus, data fields), navigational components (search fields, slider, icons, tags), informational components (progress bars, notifications, message boxes).

Types of User Interface (UI):

• GUI (Graphical User Interface)
• Command line interface
• Menu Driven Interface
• Form Based Interface
• Natural Language Interface

Significance of User Interface (UI):
A good User Interface (UI) focuses on making user’s interactions simple and efficient. User would appreciate a website with intuitive user interface that leads them towards their task in most engaging way. User Interface (UI) design focuses on thinking of a user, what they might need to do when they visit website and ensure that the interface has elements that are easy to access and understand. Being a UI designer, one need to understand the goals, skills, preferences and tendencies of the user to make a better interface.

Why is User Interface (UI) important?

• How you present your product matters the most.
  The presentation (the interface) of a badly designed application or website can drive away the incoming users and leave a bad impression on them. Navigation through a site can be made efficient and simple by effective UI design.
• Great design is great business
  The color scheme, layout, graphics, tab and button placement, typography usage and other design elements determine how well the site/app communicates visually with the user.
• At a given time, finding right thing at right place is essential
  Consistent navigation that is equally easy to locate and browse through is basic need of any app/website. If navigation is complex for a user to work, there is no way he would want to work on that site/app.

Advantages of User Interface (UI):

• No need to learn complex commands/languages for working with UI.
• Easiness for non-technical people. A beginner can navigate through a site with ease if its simple and well informative.
• Usage of blocks and typography makes user experience better.
• Easy setup and ready to start working are awesome. Hiding the complexity of actions from the user and display only the required information is key to good interface.

Disadvantages of UI :

• When not properly built, it can be very difficult to work with.
• Takes time to built a Perfect UI.

Example: It shows a Bad UI design and a Good UI design. See the differences and try to understand how important it is to have a good UI design.

As the User Interface can make or break the incoming users, it’s important to take care of below points when designing a UI:

• Keep the interface simple: Clear and simple interface are best. Avoid unnecessary elements. Best interfaces are invisible to user.
• Be consistent and use common UI elements: Using common elements, users feel more comfortable and are able to get things done more quickly. Create pattern to facilitate efficiency.
• Placement of items: To draw attention to most important pieces of information careful placement of items is necessary. This can improve users readability and engage them.
• Use of right color: To direct attention towards something take advantage of color, light, shade, contrast and texture. It’s important top make use of good color combination as a bad color combination can easily distract or irritate a user.
• Anticipate: Make the user to work less by having pre-chosen fields, reduce the burden on the user, anticipate the goals of the users who come to your site. The things which can be mostly searched by the users are presented so that the users need not to work to search for it.
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