The design process might seem pretty straightforward, but if you’ve never done it before, you may not know exactly what to do or why you’re doing it. It can help to have some guiding principles to follow when designing your product, so that your UI and UX aren’t just effective, but also aesthetically pleasing and memorable. Here are the top 8 UI/UX design principles you need to know about and apply to your projects today.
Principle 1: Take advantage of negative space
Negative space is the area around and between objects. It’s not just about what you put in your design, but also about what you leave out. We think that negative space should be used to highlight important elements, attract attention to something or create a sense of depth. Negative space can be created with color, texture or lines and it’s important for designers to consider their use when designing interfaces and websites.
Principle 2: Create consistency through repetition
Repeat the same elements throughout your interface in a way that makes sense. For example, if you have a button on every page, use the same button. If you have a logo on every page, use the same color and size.
If there are certain elements that only show up on one page or section of your site, then make sure to keep these elements consistent with other items that are repeated in these areas. For example, if you have an email newsletter sign-up form as part of your checkout process and it doesn’t appear anywhere else on your site, then make sure to keep it consistent with other buttons and forms that do exist elsewhere on the site by using the same colors and size for this form as well.
Principle 3: Establish relationships among elements
It’s critical to have a sense of hierarchy in your design. Every element in your design should have a visual weight, and this will help establish relationships among elements. Sometimes it’s best to use contrast, other times its best to use similarity. But using both together can also be effective in establishing relationships among elements.
Principle 4: Use simple shapes
It’s not just about what size the text is; it’s also about how wide the buttons are, how much space there is in between each button and every other element on the page, etc. Elements that take up more screen real estate should be larger, while those that don’t require as much attention can be smaller. For example, a call-to-action button will usually be larger than a secondary action button.
Principle 5: Size things appropriately
When people visit your website, they’ll be looking at everything on a screen that’s smaller than what they’re used to. It’s important to size things appropriately, so you don’t make it difficult for your visitors to see what you want them to see. For example, if you have an image and text next to each other, then make sure the text is big enough for people to read. Also, don’t use a font size smaller than 12 pt.
Principle 6: Balance the visual weight of elements
One simple way to do this is by using space. The eye will naturally gravitate towards the area of greatest contrast and you can use that to balance out the visual weight. If you want an element to stand out, give it more space in relation to other elements on the screen. If you want an element to recede, surround it with more space or overlap other elements over top of it.
Principle 7: Provide contrast between elements
Contrast is a powerful way to make a design more effective. It creates separation and draws attention to important elements in the design. There are two main types of contrast:
1) Dark on light, which is when dark colors are placed over lighter colors or backgrounds. This type of contrast is most commonly used to highlight text or other important objects on a page. 2) Light on dark, which is when light colors are placed over darker backgrounds. This type of contrast can be used to draw attention to less important items in the design, such as buttons or links.
Principle 8: Give appropriate feedback
One major principle of user interface design is giving appropriate feedback. When the user interacts with a system, the system should provide appropriate feedback to let them know that their interaction was successful or unsuccessful. For example, when you enter your username and password into a login form and press enter, a message should appear saying Please wait while we log you in. If you try to log in and there is no message displayed after pressing enter, it is likely that either your username or password are incorrect or something else went wrong with the login process. Another example is when you click on an item in a dropdown menu but nothing happens; this means that it’s likely that something about your interaction needs to be fixed.
Final Note
Hire UI/UX Design Agency in India. UI/UX Design is a field that needs to be constantly improved upon and as such, we need to be on the lookout for designers who can help us meet this demand. If you want to make sure that your users have the best experience possible when they are using your product, then it’s important to make sure that you’re hiring top talent in UI/UX design.
If you’re looking for a UI/UX designer in India, then the team at Pepper Square is here to help. We have been creating digital products for over 20 years and have some of the best design professionals in India on our team.
