Ultimate UI Design Guide: Learn UI Principles, Best Practices & Pro Tips for a Stunning User Experience

User interface design is a branch of graphic design courses, but a user interface designer is not a graphic designer, because the graphic field and graphic designing include the print industry, but the user interface is just for digital pages. If you want to work professionally in the UI/UX field, we suggest you download Mastering Figma from 0 to 100 (UI/UX Mastery Course) and enjoy its valuable content. By using this course you can achieve your desired level as soon as possible. 

Introduction

Our technology depended lifestyle, making interaction and using web and mobile applications a necessity for us. Also, some business owners know that having an interactive and useful interface has a direct effect on user engagement and results in selling more to customers. By paying attention to these facts, different teams and individuals compete with each other in creating an interactive and useful user interface. In this paper we describe what a user interface is and what it should contain. 

Basic definition of UI Design Guide

First we will describe what the user interface is. The user interface, which is also known as UI, is a part of a tool. The user interface interacts with machines from that part, and it is the visual and tactile part of that tool. The user is directly in contact with the machine from that part. 

When a user orders a machine through the user interface, the machine answers the user through that interface too. In this process we say user and user interface are interacting with each other. One of the important user interface designer duties is to present a simple, enjoyable and durable interface for users.

User interface designers just know about the computer world such as the web and applications and don’t know anything about the printed world. 

If your site or application user interface is not designed in a good and professional way, users face problems, and they will delete the application or leave your site inevitably. 

The user interface is very important for site and application users. An implemented user interface can increase user and program interaction, or it may destroy it. It depends on how much you pay attention to site or application design. 

Types of user interfaces based on their nature

As we said before, every interface or contact between human and machine needs user interface design. Here we explain some of them:

1. Hardware user interface: such as mouse, keyboard, microphone and speaker, …
2. Software user interface: such as menus, windows, icons and …
3. Command line interface: if a program needs a user to enter some commands on the keyboard and then the program answers them with a specific operation, we say that the program has a command line interface. 
4. Selective interface: if commands are available to users through selective lists (menus), we say that interface, selective interface. 
5. Audio interface: Audio interface contacts users through audio and sounds, such as Siri on iPhone, Alexa on Amazon, Cortana on Windows and …
6. Figure interface: users are involved with body gestures in 3-dimensional spaces. Such as 3D games and virtual reality, … .
7. Graphic interface: if a program shows information graphically and the user needs a pointer to interact with the program, we say that the program has a graphical interface. 

User interface design steps

From the beginning till here, we speak about what the user interface is and what its types are. But, what are user interface design steps?

First: Needs assessment

The user interface designer should first check the project completely. Find main targets and contact features, then categorize them. Whatever designer knows more about users, they will provide better design. 

Second: Initial sketch

After analyzing the data and getting the clues, the designer starts his work from the initial sketch. In this step, it’s not necessary to pay attention to details and all he needs is paper and a pencil. 

Third: initial presentation

Through a session, an initial sketch is presented to employers, and we speak about design Generalities, which are about whole components, button spaces and …. This session is necessary to confirm the general framework and changes defined by consultation. 

Fourth: wireframe

The initial sketch is entering initial implementation in this step and its systematic process. Button sizes, every section detail, and connection between pages are specified in this step. It is also defined what will happen when we click on a button. After final confirmation of an employee, the project will be implemented. 

Fifth: final implementation

 After implementing the necessary changes, it’s time to select colors and graphics. It’s better to deposit this step to a graphic designer, and it is worth mentioning that this step may be done in the initial step.   However, most specialists suggest designers, at the beginning of designing, don’t pay attention to appearance, while it may result in not paying attention to the main target, which is a simple interface. In this step, the design is implemented with complete detail. 

These steps may differ in every team or company, but the whole process of gaining a good user interface is the same. 

8 steps to having a beautiful user interface

First: identifying users

As we mentioned before, before starting to design, identifying the user and his needs is required. Designers or analysts can contact users face to face and ask questions to identify user needs and provide them with the best solutions. 

Second: easy interaction

Before designing a user interface, how to use it should be clear. Users contact your user interface in 2 ways: 1) They directly contact a product component by dragging and dropping an item with the tip of their finger, touching a button, or 2) In addition, they contact an external component like, using key commands and shortcuts, pointers and clicking with mouse, typing in a form and ….

Who your users are and what devices they use influence your decisions. If you are designing an interface for old people or people with difficulties with their hands, you should not just focus on drag and drop screen elements. If you are designing an interface for programmers or writers who, most of the time, use keyboard to interact with programs, use shortcut keys to help them reduce the time of working with the mouse. 

Third: Setting expectations

Most sites site or application activities, such as clicking on a button, produce sensitive results such as buying a product, deleting information, asking for a service, sending a file, … . Most users don’t like unexpected events. So you should make sure the user has the necessary knowledge and knows what will happen after clicking. This process can be easier to understand if you use clear designs and good text. For example, if you want to have a clear design, use visual icons such as bin, negative and positive signs to decrease and increase. Color Psychology is also very important in design. For example, red means danger, stop, delete, fault and … . Texts are also important. For instance, writing the work “delete”, showing messages and error texts after user clicks, helps users make sure what is happening. 

Fourth: decreasing faults

With the increasing use of touchable devices, it unconsciously raises errors and faults that result in deleting or sending a file wrongly. Users may be at faulty, but designers can prevent these kinds of mistakes or find a solution to these kinds of errors. 

For example, you see a lot of error-preventing techniques in electronic commerce and form design. While you don’t fill all fields, buttons will remain inactive. Forms detect if an email address is correct or not. Pop-ups ask you if you really want to leave your shopping card. These are messages to alert users or confirm their decisions. 

Fifth: feedback

After every action, such as sending a file, uploading a page and … users are waiting for the result. Most digital user interfaces are returned to the previous page and make us that if we have to re-upload upload the page? Restart the system? If a file is sent to not? Or we have an internet connection problem!

Here, a designer can show the result with just one pop-up. If there is uploading, internet or network or other kinds of problem, he can request the user to do the operation again or check the network connection. If the operation is done successfully, he can declare also. To show the user how much of the process is done, he can use a ribbon to declare where he is and how much speed he has. 

Sixth: size and distance of elements

If you are focusing on a specific button, you can specify it with a different size and color to grab the user’s attention. If your users are old people with less visual ability, you should use bigger buttons and fonts for them. Paying attention to these kinds of items is very important for user retention. 

Seventh: Compliance with standards

Most designers like to implement new and creative designs, but this way is not always Respondent. Using creative or new designs makes users think about what they are contacting about, and they may be forced to learn it from begging, and it will result in overload. It is clear that rebuilding an item is logical when the design is really improved, otherwise it really is overload. 

Eighth: simplifying 

The only reason that simple design has more fans is that it remains better in short-term memory. So you should focus on using as much as simple things to help user use your interface better and more efficiently, and they do not need to remember very much. You can simplify this process by dividing information and shrinking items into small components. 

Conclusion

Nowadays, user interface design influences a lot on your users. With heavy competition in the digital world, gaining audience trust is very difficult. If users don’t feel the slightest bit comfortable after installing your application or visiting your site, they will leave or delete it and will go to your competitor’s content. 

So to have a popular, usable, attractive and comfortable site or application, pay attention to its user interface. Notice that the more comprehensive knowledge, research and user survey you gain before starting the work, design steps will be faster and obtained result will more be according to your taste.