Essential User Interface Practices For All Websites
A website or online store isn’t just there to look pretty, it’s an interactive medium with an important job to do. That job, of course, is to promote your brand, make sales, and earn you money.
That interactivity is the key to achieving your goals, so we’d best make sure all of the important details are being covered. Here’s a crash course in the important User Interface (UI) principles your site needs to be designed around.
Keep it Simple
It’s easier to locate an object on a clear table than it is among a giant pile of bric-a-brac. That’s a statement so obvious you’re probably wondering why we bothered, and the reason is because lots of people are making the mistake of cluttering up their websites with unnecessary details.
Keeping it simple is the best way to ensure everyone who visits your site enjoys navigating it. That means cutting back on colours to maintain a cohesive colour palette, only using a small number of fonts, and leaving space for everything to breathe.
The quicker and easier your visitors can parse what they’re looking at, the happier they’ll be. That’s what UI design is all about.
Maintain A Hierarchy
When discussed in regards to a design, hierarchy is the way elements on a page lead the eye and inform viewers about what is most important.
This is achieved primarily through size and colour. The bigger something is, the more attention it commands, and the more something contrasts with its surroundings, the more it stands out.
With these two simple tools you have everything you need to start building a visual hierarchy.
Use big text to point out headings, immediately informing visitors of what each page and section is about so they can find what they’re looking for fast. Use colour and contrast to make buttons and other interactive elements stand out on the page, you never want customers searching in frustration for the buy button!
A well laid out hierarchy allows you to guide your visitors, controlling the path they take and opening the door to more conversions and an improved ROI.
Make it Responsive
The internet has gone mobile, and there’s no going back. Designing a site to have an excellent UI on desktop, while completely neglecting the mobile experience, is a recipe for disaster.
Ensuring support for all major browsers is also important, don’t just limit yourself to one browser and call it a day. It’s important to look at how your UI is translating across Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari at the very least. Adding in more obscure browsers isn’t strictly necessary, but it never hurts to cast your net a little wider.
And remember that each of those browsers has a mobile version, be sure to check on those too!
By ensuring you’ve considered the UI of your site from every angle, you guarantee a
consistent interface
across all platforms, browsers, and devices.
Keep it Centred on Your Users
If you want to keep your customers happy, you have to give them what they want. To know what they want, you have to listen to them.
If users of your website or online store have problems with it, you’re most likely going to hear about it, so don’t dismiss that feedback! Customer complaints are a blessing in disguise, they’re telling you exactly what you need to do to make them love your site.
And if no one is volunteering the information you need, then it’s time to go out and ask for it. Survey your customers, gather their feedback, and use it to improve what you’re offering them.
You can’t go very far wrong if you’re always keeping the wants and needs of your customers at the forefront of your decision making.
Your UI is the only tool customers have for interacting with your digital offerings, it needs to be easy to use and tailored to match what your customers want. Don’t neglect it.
