5 Tips to improve your UI Designs

Summary

In this video, Jesse Walter shares five essential tips to improve user interface designs. The first tip focuses on creating visual prominence for important elements like price and call-to-action buttons. The second stresses the importance of consistent iconography. The third emphasizes making calls to action clear and noticeable. Tip four highlights the need for increasing line height as typography size decreases to ensure readability. Finally, tip five advises maintaining consistency in shadow direction for a cohesive design. These tips aim to make interfaces more functional, visually appealing, and user-friendly.

Takeaways

• 😀 Bring prominence to key elements in your design using tools like color, size, and proximity to create a clear hierarchy.
• 😀 Ensure design consistency, especially with icons, by maintaining uniformity in their style (e.g., all filled or all outlined).
• 😀 Make your call-to-action buttons clear and prominent. It should be immediately obvious to the user what action they need to take.
• 😀 As text size decreases, increase the line height for better readability and to avoid a cramped appearance.
• 😀 Keep shadows consistent in your design by having them all come from one source of light, which improves the overall cohesion.
• 😀 Design for clarity over subtlety—sometimes simple, bold elements work better than fancy designs.
• 😀 Hierarchy in design guides the user's eye to the most important elements first, improving the overall user experience.
• 😀 Consistency in typography and iconography makes the interface feel more polished and easier to navigate.
• 😀 Ensure your typography remains legible by adjusting line height as font size decreases, improving readability on all screen sizes.
• 😀 Consistent light sources for shadows create a more professional and cohesive look throughout your design.

Q & A

What is the first tip for improving user interface designs?

The first tip is to bring prominence to the most important elements in your design. This can be achieved by using basic design tools like color, size, proximity, and iconography to guide the user’s attention to the most crucial elements, such as the price or call to action.

Why is consistency important when using icons in UI design?

Consistency in iconography ensures a clean, unified design. Using different styles of icons (e.g., filled vs. empty icons) can disrupt the visual harmony of your interface. A consistent icon style makes the design more polished and visually appealing, especially as the design scales.

How can you make your call to action (CTA) more noticeable?

To make your CTA more noticeable, it should be clear, prominent, and easy for the user to identify. Avoid overly subtle or complicated designs. A large, straightforward button or an eye-catching element (e.g., a prominent icon or color) makes it obvious what action the user should take.

What should you keep in mind when adjusting typography size and line height?

As the font size decreases, the line height should increase. This adjustment ensures readability and prevents the text from looking cramped. For example, if the font size is 18px, the line height could be set to 28px to maintain comfortable spacing.

What mistake is typically made when setting line height for typography?

A common mistake is decreasing the line height as the font size decreases, which creates cramped and hard-to-read text. Instead, the line height should increase in relation to the text size for better legibility.

What is the fifth tip for improving UI designs, related to shadows?

The fifth tip is to ensure that all shadows in your design come from a consistent light source. When shadows are inconsistently placed (e.g., shadows going in different directions), the design appears chaotic and disorganized. Consistency in shadow direction creates a more cohesive and professional look.

How can using shadows from different directions negatively impact a design?

Shadows from different directions can confuse the user and make the interface look inconsistent. It gives the impression of multiple light sources, which breaks the illusion of a unified space, making the design feel less structured.

What does it mean to establish a 'hierarchy' in your design, and why is it important?

Hierarchy refers to the arrangement of elements in a way that indicates their relative importance. By establishing hierarchy, you guide the user’s attention to the most critical parts of the design, such as a call to action or key information. This ensures users can quickly understand what to focus on.

Can you explain why a consistent icon style is especially important as the design scales?

As designs scale, maintaining a consistent icon style prevents visual clutter and confusion. If icons differ in style, it becomes more difficult for users to quickly process and understand the interface, particularly when navigating through a larger or more complex design.

What can be done to improve legibility when decreasing font size?

To improve legibility when decreasing font size, increase the line height proportionally. This ensures there is enough space between lines of text, preventing it from feeling cramped and difficult to read, especially in smaller sizes.