20 Road signs leading to a good UI designer

Guide: Interface designer Joshua Porter published this article in his blog, which lists 20 user interface design principles that designers need to follow in their design work, and they can provide better guidance to designers.

interfaces exist to facilitate interaction

The presence of the interface, so that users and our world interactive enhanced. They can help users clear, articulate, enable, and so on to display relationships that not only make us work efficiently, but also manage our applications and access related services. The behavior of design interfaces is not art, but there are rules to be found. The excellent design interface can inspire, arouse and strengthen our connection with this world.

Clarity is a very important job.

Clarity is the interface design, the first step is the most important work. If you want to design an interface that works and is liked, you have to fully understand what the interface is. Why do people use it? It is important to understand how the interface interacts with the user, such as when the user is using, to anticipate what is happening, and to successfully interact with it. Some interface design is not too clear, although to meet the user's momentary needs, but look at its confusing interface is not the future. A clear interface can arouse people's information and promote their further use.

Protect users ' attention at all costs

We live in an interrupted world. In our daily life, there are always many things that distract us, making it difficult for us to concentrate and read quietly. So it's crucial to be able to attract attention. So don't distract people with the clutter of your important application around you ... Remember the importance of neat screen to attract attention. If you want to display the advertisement, please show it before the user reads it. Protecting and respecting the user's attention not only makes the user happier, but also makes your ad more effective. Therefore, in order to design a good interface, to protect the user's attention is a prerequisite.

Ensure the user's control ability

Humans tend to be happy to be in control of themselves and their environment. Software that takes away users ' control without considering others ' feelings, forcing users to enter unplanned interactions, not only makes users uncomfortable, but also has unintended consequences. To ensure the user's control ability, let the user determine the system state, a little guidance, I think you will achieve your desired goal.

Direct operation is the best

When we can directly manipulate the physical objects of our world, the best interface design is nothing. But it's not easy to implement, because the icons we add to the interface design are often not necessary. For example, we use too much of the buttons, graphics, options, attachments, and other cumbersome things so that we can eventually manipulate the UI elements rather than the important things. And the initial goal? is to simplify and directly manipulate ... so interface design, we want to be as small as possible interface encapsulation, as much as possible to understand some human natural gestures. Ideally, the interface design should be concise, so that users have a direct sense of operation.

There's a theme on every screen.

Each of the images we design should have a single theme that will not only allow users to use its real value, but also make it easier to learn, more convenient to use, and easier to add or modify when necessary. screen, if supporting two or more than two themes will become very confusing. Like writing an article, there should be a single theme as well as strong arguments, and so should our interface design, which is the reason for its existence.

Stay two times.

Screen with a single main action can have multiple two actions, but they need to be maintained two times! The reason for your article is that people can share it on Twitter ... so many things exist for people to read and understand. Therefore, keeping the secondary operation can improve vision and help the main action to achieve.

Natural transition

Few interactions can last, so thoughtful design takes into account the next step in the interaction. Consider what the next interaction is, and support it with design. It's kind of like a conversation, to provide a word for deep talk. When the user has completed the steps, do not let them be overwhelmed. Give them a natural way to go on and achieve their goals.

Veritable

People are most comfortable with the behavior they expect. The behavior of others, animals, things, or software always meets our expectations, and we feel that we are in good relationship with them. This is also the design of dealing with people should do. In practice, this means that users should be able to predict how interactive elements behave without thinking more. If it looks like a button, it should act like a button. Designers should not be smart about basic interaction issues and be creative at a higher level.

Differentiate the focus

Then, if the visual elements behave differently, they should behave in a different way. Conversely, if the behavior is the same, the performance is the same. These two points always have to be. To maintain consistency, junior designers often use the same visual effects (often reusing code) for elements that should be differentiated, but in fact they are the right ones to treat differently.

Clear Hierarchy

Visual elements, if they have a clear browsing order, should be clear about their hierarchical relationships. That is, if the user browses the same thing every time in the same order, the unclear hierarchy cannot tell him that it is the point, and it will eventually become messy and confusing. In the case of changing the design, it is difficult to maintain a clear hierarchical relationship, because all elements of the relationship are relative. If all is emphasized, then quite is not emphasized. If you want to add a particularly important element, the designer may want to consider resetting each element to reach the clear hierarchy again. Most people don't pay attention to the visual hierarchy, but this is the easiest way to enhance the design.

Appropriate organization

As John Maeda in his book, "Simplicity," the proper organization of visual elements can simplify and help others to understand your expression more easily, such as the inclusion of content. The relationship between elements can be naturally expressed by the orientation and direction of the organization. The proper organization of content can save many users from thinking, and he doesn't have to think about the relationship between elements because you've shown it. Instead of forcing the user to make a distinction, the designer displays it with the organization.

Use color carefully

The color of the physical world will change as the light changes. When the sun shines and the sunset sinks, the scenery we see is very different. Color can easily be changed by the environment. Therefore, color in design should not be a determining factor. Color can be eye-catching, as a guide, but should not be the only element to make the difference. In the case of lengthy reading or long time facing the computer, in addition to the content to be emphasized, should use the plain or aphonia dark background color. Of course, depending on the reader, you can also use bright colors.

Sequential presentation

Each screen only exhibits the necessary content. If the user needs to make a decision, show enough information to choose from, and they will find the required details on the next screen. Avoid excessive interpretation or inclination to show all at once. If possible, place the selection on the next screen to show the information in steps. This will make the interaction clearer.

Inline help

In an ideal user interface, help is unnecessary, because the user interface can effectively guide the user to learn. A similar "next step" is actually a "help" embedded in a contextual context and only appears in the right place when the user needs it.

The designer's task is not to create a Help system where the user needs it, to shuffle the user's obligations to find the answer to their questions in the Help system. Instead, make sure that users know how to use the interface you provide, and that users are instructed and learned in the interface.

Critical moment: 0 States

The user's first experience with an interface is very important, and this is often overlooked by designers. In order to better help users quickly adapt to our design, the design should be in a zero state, that is, nothing happened. But this state is not a blank canvas, it should be able to provide users with direction and guidance, in order to help users quickly adapt to the design. In the initial state of interaction there will be some friction, once users understand the various rules, it will be a high chance of success.

Valuable and existing issues

People seek to solve existing problems, not potential problems or future problems. Because, do not design interfaces for hypothetical problems, observe existing behaviors and designs, and solve existing problems. This is really not a very exciting thing, but it is the most valuable thing because the user is using your interface.

The great design of being neglected

One of the strange attributes of a great design is that the design is often overlooked by its users. One reason is that the design was so successful that its users focused on accomplishing their goals and ignoring the interface they faced. Finally, they achieve their goals perfectly so that they do not need to react to any situation. As a designer, this goal can be achieved, when our design is very good, we will not be a lot of flattery. Great designers enrich themselves with excellent design, because satisfied users are often silent.

Multi-domain Design

Vision, graphic design, typography, copywriting, information architecture, and visualization, all of these areas of knowledge should be part of the design that should be included. Designers should be involved in this knowledge, or even specialized in learning. Don't look down on this knowledge and get a lot of things worth learning from to improve your ability to work. Designers look to the long term, to be able to learn from seemingly unrelated things, such as: publishing, programming, binding, skateboarding, fire and even karate.

The existence of the design must be used

In most design areas, the key to successful interface design is that users are using it. Like a beautiful chair, although exquisite but sit uncomfortable, then the user will not use it, it is the failure of the design. Therefore, the interface design is not only to design a use environment, but also to create a worthwhile work of art. Interface design is not enough to satisfy the vanity of its designer: it must be useful!

This article compiles from: Takamatsu, Zhang Yong, Wei Bing.

Source: CSDN, reprint please indicate the source link.