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UX and UI designs of an application or a website respectively play a crucial part in the overall success of the product being developed. Both these elements work closely together but despite their close professional relationship, their roles are completely different. While UI Design is the graphic design or the visual design of the website; UX design is a more analytical and technical field.
In the present time of high competition, it has become a necessity to come with the best UI/ UX interfaces to engage the potential customers. Let’s delve a little more into the best practices of UI and UX designs which can be followed to bring out the best for the customers:
UX Design
A good UX design plays a key role in the success of an application. If the app cannot be used easily by the target audience then, it is of no value how good looking its UI has been designed. So, let’s look at the best UX practices and UX designer responsibilities to come up with an easy to use the application:
UX Designer Responsibilities
Strategy and Content
• Goal Analysis
• Competitor and Customer analysis
• Product structure
• Content Development and marketing
Wireframing and Prototyping
• Wireframing
• Prototyping
• Testing
• Development Planning
Execution
• Coordination with developers
• Coordination with UI Designers
• Tracking the goals
• Analysis
After knowing the responsibilities of UX designers, let’s take a look at the UX principals which help in bringing out the best UX design:
• Hierarchy
Hierarchy is the best tool for a designer to enable users to move through a product easily and efficiently. It furthers includes two main parts:
•Information Architecture
It defines the way content is organized on an app or a site.
• Visual Architecture
It enables the users to easily navigate within a section or a page of the app or a site.
• Consistency
Consistency in developing products is very important and in most cases, it is usually achieved by following a predefined set of guidelines for designing a product.
• Confirmation
Confirmation of irreversible actions is required to be performed to prevent the errors unknowingly generated by the users. The UX should be developed in way that it confirms the action taken by the users like pressing a certain key or leaving a page in certain ways.
• User Controls
It is good to give users control over the application or a site like “undo”, “back” and “search buttons” as well as some keyboard shortcuts for enhancing the user experience. This enhances the navigation experience of the users.
• Access
UX Design should be developed as such that it is easy to use by all the users. It should remove all the errors whether permanent or temporary to enable maximum users to use the application or website smoothly.
Along with all this technical knowledge, a UX Designer must also understand the behavior of its target audience as it is this design only which engages the users and enables them to navigate through the application or website. User’s engagement is very important for the success of a business and therefore, apart from technical knowledge, knowledge about the target audience is equally important.
UI Design
UI Design can be considered to be a part of UX Design which primarily focuses on creating the interfaces between the applications, software, etc. and the users by paying detailed attention to the colors and typography. We can say that UI Design is typically a combination of two things:
1. Visual Design
Focuses on the look and feel of the product.
2. Interaction Design
Focuses on the easy working of the design.
Let’s now take a look at the major responsibilities a UI Designer:
Overall Look
• Understanding the target audience
• Design Research
• Product Branding
• Graphics Designing
• User Guides
Interactivity and Responsiveness
• UI Prototyping
• Animations and Interactivity
• Optimization and adaption to all screen sizes
• Implementation
User Interface Design is responsible for transferring the brand’s visual assets to a product’s interface to enhance the users’ experience. Now, let’s take a look at the UI Design principals to come up with the best interface design:
• Structure
Structure considers the overall architecture of the User Interface and focuses on the models to be clear, consistent and recognizable. It should connect the related things and separate the unrelated ones for bringing out a smooth design.
• Clarity
The design should not be complex and made in a simple yet attractive way to attract users. It should communicate easily with users. Clarity of the purpose of the page of the website is very important to avoid any kind of confusions and keeping the users aligned to the main purpose.
• Consistency
Being consistent in designing the User Interface is very important as it directly impacts the user interaction time. By consistency in UI Design, we mean that if the menu bar is placed on top of the first page, then it should be on top of all the pages and not anywhere else on the pages. Rearrangement of menu items should also be avoided as much as possible as users may get confused where the things are on your site. Hence, consistency makes it easy for users to search on your website or application without any frustration.
• Visibility
The design of the application or the website should make all the required options and materials for a given task visible without any distractions. The design should not distract the audience from the main purpose of building the website or application.
• Reusability
The design should be reusable in the sense that it should be using the internal and external components and behaviors never losing out on the actual purpose of the designing.
• Feedback
The users should be clearly informed about all the relevant actions, changes and all kind of errors and exceptions in a clear way. For example, if a user presses a button, provide an indication that a button has been pressed. One can make it happen in multiple ways like by animating the button or by making it appear sinking on pressing and much more. A simple acknowledgment of the action taken by the user can make a great difference in enhancing the overall customer experience.
UI and UX designs hold equal importance in the success of a product. An application or a website attractively designed but very complex to use does not attract the audience and similarly, a very meticulously developed UX but poorly designed UI will not either attract the audience. So, a perfect blend of UI and UX is the key to the success of an application or website.
