I wrote this piece while working with our designers on our CodeTactic site. Many of the basics of UI and UX have been taken into strong consideration and put into action with our own website design…
UI and UX are the sex words of today website design. The User Interface (UI) of a website or app is the imaginative element behind how the website functions. The User Experience (UX) of any website is the blueprint of the website’s design.
Having an engaging, practical design that makes your website easy to view is the main purpose of the UI and UX
But, in order to structure a UX and UI, what are the main components that you should know?
1) It’s all about the User Experience (UX)
When designing a new website, the most compelling thing that one should be focusing on is the experience of the user. Will this design be naturally coherent for your users? Will they be able to browse through the structure easily and find it clear? Navigable?
Before looking into any visuals, you must be clear on how your design will work for the end user’s experience.
Having an understanding of what your end users think they know about UI and UX plays a vital role in how they will use your site. Try to recognize what the user anticipates happening when they click on a certain button or where this will take them. This reminds me of going to see Penn & Teller or Copperfield in Las Vegas. We know what to expect from various illusions, yet we get immense entertainment from the direction and misdirections as our eyes follow with amazement.
Similarly, keep in mind that the design of the website is not meant to be for you. But rather meant for your visitors. They need to be directed (or misdirected). The eyes tend to follow what they expect to see. The User Experience is about engaging and directing users in a natural way.
2) Rapid loading is crucial
If you design an understandable and coherent interface but it takes too long to load, all efforts would have been for nothing. The speed of sight is essentially the speed of light, plus the speed needed for our brains to form a mental image. Extremely quick! If your site takes too long to load, a big percentage of users dis-engage altogether. Everything should function at the speed of the user – Thus the loading velocity is vital for UX. The Jeff Bezos’ of the world realized this early on and have created platforms such as AWS to deliver lightning quick content.
Visual elements like videos, images, etc. must be optimized and enhanced to load rapidly. Reorganizing the majority of your websites UX may be required in order to remove visual elements that are irrelevant or unneeded.
Rapid loading websites allow your users to relate with more confidence with your brand, as both the user and your product/service are in sync. This benefits the complete users experience. All UX or UI elements on a website must positively affect your site quickness.
I have recently recommended clients and even our own CodeTactic site to be on the Amazon Web Services platform to take advantage of its CDN and rapid content loading.
3) Mobile development.
Every website’s UI and UX must be improved for Mobile use. Approx 64% of users over the internet use mobile devices. More than half of these mobile users that report bad browsing experiences would not interact with the poorly represented business.
Designing a mobile UX is a necessity. Mobile development is inevitable and it will guarantee more traffic to your website. A Mobile friendly user experience means that images need to be optimized to properly show on devices and text ratios are easy to navigate via thumb or index motions. Many novice website developers simply make a site to be “Responsive”. I hate this word, as it implies that mobile devices are an afterthought and not a pro-active design blueprint.
4) Smooth design
Every element of your website must be consistent with each other. Users must be able to interact with your content and navigate your website, learning more about your brand without losing focus on what they need.
Brands must be able to provide a coherent and smooth design, helping their users to browse their site with a seamless structure. All components must perform together perfectly.
5) Simple but engaging UI
Websites don’t have to be mind-boggling. A good design is about building a simple, friendly and gracious experience for the end user. Keep your UI simple, with relevant content and navigation menus. There is no need to make your website overly full of unnecessary visual elements.
Less is definitely more when it comes to user experience. Users must be able to identify the key components of your site. Put your website to the test and pretend you are the end user for a little while. Are you able to find the key elements like the “Contact” page? Does the website’s distribution work visually?
Keep in mind what is relevant to your site and brand, and what is not. There is no need to provide more information than needed. Seek for the meticulous yet, simple UI where your users can easily find what they need to know first hand.
You don’t need an overwhelming number of options, and you don’t need a ton of information cranked into one spot. Try to eliminate oversaturation and condense your website down into its core functions. Make sure users can easily find information and nothing is overcrowding your UI.
Conclusion
Use the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid). Keeping your UI and UX design simple and creative will function better for your users. It’s all about the user – Trying to overcrowded your website with too many visual contents or navigation menus will complicate your user experience on the site.
Overall, your website must run smoothly and have an engaging display. Maintaining your websites’ speed is also imperative when designing. This impacts the user’s interest to engage the user with your site or back out and continue browsing the internet. Lastly, Mobile development is fundamental in today’s social world.
Would you like to have a team of web developers and professional designers to help improve your website? Provide your clients with an engaging site. Contact us today to start.
