11 Principles of Good Web User Interface Design You Should Know

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11 Principles of Good Web User Interface Design You Should Know

January 29, 2019

With 9 out of 10 Americans using the internet, a well-designed website is crucial. Your website should stand out. But it should also be easy to use. A visually stunning website fails if it’s not usable.

Do you have a business in Portland Oregon? Do you want users to stay on your website? Then take a standard approach with your web user interface. Read on to learn more about the principles of web user interface design.

1. Usability vs. Visual Design

When it comes to designing websites, usability is the most important factor. Creative designers strive for beauty but shouldn’t sacrifice usability. If a user lands on your page and can’t figure out how to use it, they’ll be gone within seconds. This is your “bounce” rate – when a user bounces off your page and goes somewhere else. To prevent a high bounce rate, you will need to have a beautiful website without compromising ease of use.

2. Users Are Impatient

Most users are in a hurry. They’re surfing through websites looking for the information they want. Users scan. They don’t read. Don’t make your users fill out long forms to use your site. It’s okay to offer a subscription, but don’t make them sign up first. The more barriers to entry on your site, the more users will leave, decreasing traffic.

3. Play to the Target

Know your target market. This can’t be emphasized enough. You must put yourself in your user’s place when designing a website. But you can’t do that if you don’t know who your user is. A website designed for engineers is worlds apart from a website designed for writers. Learn who your target is before you design the site.

4. Clear, Available Functions

There’s nothing more frustrating than not finding the functionality you need on a website. Remember the above, users are impatient! They won’t take time searching for functions. For instance, make navigation easy. Put contact information on every single page and make it obvious.

5. Don’t Fear the Whitespace

Whitespace is a design element that you ignore at your peril. Don’t be afraid of leaving large blocks of unused space. Overloading your pages with too many images, buttons, and features drives users away. Your pages take a long time loading when they’re overburdened with images. And sometimes too much text is off-putting.

6. Keep It Simple

Using your website should be second nature for your users. Don’t complicate things. Focus user attention through a clear, uncluttered page. Use images and blocks of text sparingly. Users come to your site for information or a product. If they found your site in a search, they want the site to match the search results. Don’t make the information hard to find. Quality content is more important than good design. But bad design can keep users off your page.

7. Common Elements and Consistency

For designers, coming up with something new is fun and tempting. But don’t reinvent the wheel. Use common UI elements in your design. Figuring out new features is not why they come to your website.

Some common interface elements include but are not limited to:

• Radio buttons
• Checkboxes
• List boxes
• Dropdown lists
• Toggle buttons
• Text fields
• Date and time pickers

Users are familiar with these types of controls and what they do. Using common elements helps with efficiency and user satisfaction.

8. Clarity

Reduce the complexity of your site through good use of hierarchical structures. Make the viewing order clear to your users. Put the most important information in bold type and centered on the page. But use bold typeface sparingly. Too much and your readers tune it out. Don’t use too many different font styles. Keep things clear.

9. Color

Don’t use more than seven colors in your color scheme. Stick to your brand colors. You should have one dominant color. Use a couple of complementary colors. Use a text color that’s easy to read. Different colors attract different types of users. Learn a little bit about color theory before you pick your colors.

Green is easy on the eyes and represents nature as well as wealth, health, and nature. Red is passionate. It represents danger, excitement, and energy. Black means luxury, elegance, and power. A good web development service can help with these complex design elements.

Take a look at some of your favorite brands and notice how they use color. Think about your business and your target market. Men and women both favor blue and green. And orange and brown doesn’t appeal to either men or women. Color plays a huge part, so don’t use any random colors for your brand or website.

10. Writing Style

Users don’t read websites the same way they read a book. Adjust your writing style. Write in short scannable sentences. Use eye-catching images as well as bold and italics. Be direct with concise sentences. Avoid long blocks of promotional text. The writing style on your website falls into the “keep it simple” category too.

11. Be Human

Designing a great website is all about the user experience. The content should be trustworthy, true, and useful. Be transparent. Create an experience that connects users emotionally with your product. Make the experience easy. Content should be easy to find. Forms should be easy to fill out. Facilitate repeat visits by letting your customers save information in an account.

The website experience should encompass all these qualities across all your customer’s platforms. The mobile experience is especially important. Almost 80% of Americans now use mobile phones. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, you’ll lose customers.

Web User Interface Design

Web user interface design is one of the most important aspects of designing a website. An eCommerce development service can help. Identify your target market first. Usable design is a must. Remember that users are impatient. They scan more than they read. They want easy navigation and clear available functions. Don’t be afraid of white space and keep everything simple.

Don’t reinvent the website. Keep design elements familiar. Understand how color influences your target market. Avoid large blocks of text and be concise.

Creating a website isn’t easy. Need help designing your website? Turn to a professional and make your appointment now.