Designing the Future: Unleashing the Power of Intuitive UI/UX

Introduction

Like other industries, the UX industry is also facing continuous changes, due to which it has become harder for designers to grasp the latest trends and tactics. This difficulty in grasping the latest concepts is major because these aspects weren't even introduced to people who attended UI/UX design classes a few years back. This is why we are here to tell you about UI/UX design and some significant best practices that can be used to enhance your UI/UX design.

What is UI design?

User interface (UI) design involves a user-centric design (UCD) approach to design the appearance and feel of an application's or website's interface. Interface in this scenario is the graphical representation of the digital product; interfaces designed are meant to be functional, easy-to-use and visually compelling.

As UI designers individuals are tasked with designing visual touchpoints which help users in interacting with the application. Some examples of touchpoints include colour palettes, animation, typography, buttons and much more. Now then all these touchpoints are necessary to be developed as these assist the users in engaging with the application.

Different Types of UI

User interfaces are of various kinds depending on how they request input from the end-users, all of which have been given below:

Command-line Interface (CLI)

In a command-line interface, only texts are accepted as inputs for performing different functions in an operating system. Such interfaces have been in use since early computers where users had to make inputs with the help of machine language for engaging with the computer after which the users would either get printed results or else the results are displayed on the screen.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

GUI is the most commonly used interface in the current times that interacts through visual elements and the text inputs are needed very less. These interfaces are both easily understandable and visually compelling at the same time. In this interface the resources often get directed towards the graphics thus it might run slower sometimes.

Voice-based Interfaces (VUIs)

Voice-based interfaces also referred to as VUIs (voice user interfaces) let end-users interact with the device through their voice. These are the results of continuous advancements in natural language processing as now a plethora of such interfaces are available such as Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa.

What is UX Design?

User experience design on the other hand involves planning how the experience of an individual would be after engaging with the application. Unlike UI design UX only cares about making the user experience while using an application be it digital or physical simple, engaging and rational.

Focusing on what the user wants is the main aspect of UX design as providing all the required features on the application offers satisfaction and freedom to the user which in turn helps in retaining customers. This process is also based on user-centred design as here also the user is kept in the loop with the whole design process. The most significant aspect of UX design is that it isn't restricted to just physical and digital products as it includes every place where the company or its products and services engage with the end-users.

Major Differences Between UX and UI Designing

Both UI and UX designing come under the product development cycle where at first user experience design occurs and after that user interface is designed. The major difference between both these aspects is that UX is designed for improving the overall experience of an individual while using the product whereas UI design focuses on the functionality of the added features and their appearance.

A user experience designer starts by going through the consumer journey, looks for pain points and then finds the solutions for those pain points. For this purpose, at first, they start by doing user research, after that they organise everything they learned with the help of information architecture and in the end they make wireframes that are basically the blueprints for the product being developed.

Now this is where UI design comes in as after the product blueprint is finalised then UI designers try to use the finalised blueprint to design the visual aspects of the overall customer journey including the touchpoints so as to provide the solution in an engaging manner.

So we can say that a UX designer provides the overall blueprint of the product according to the customer journey whereas the UI designer helps in bringing the elements of the blueprint to life by creating compelling visuals. Also, UI design is restricted to just digital products whereas UX design can be applied to any sort of service, product or experience.

What are the Best Practices for Training in UI/UX Design?

There are a myriad of best practices for UI/UX design that are being used by professionals for getting better results. So let’s take a look and understand what can be done to improve the UI/UX designing process for creating quality products in the context of both visual and functional aspects.

• Maintain Simplicity- The easiest way to achieve success in the UI/UX design field is by keeping everything simple. The more the design will be easy to understand the better will be your chances of success. This is because users will then easily interact with the application while being focused on the major information present in the application. Making the design simple yet catchy is the key to not distracting the users from why they are using the application.

• Understand Your Users- Knowing the user base for your product is extremely essential while designing the UI/UX. Analysing what the customers want and what problems they are facing helps a lot in user research. After that, the information gathered from the research is then used to analyse user personas so as to comprehend the ways in which you can solve the pain points of the users.

• Use Visual Hierarchy- By setting a hierarchy for the visual elements you can ensure that the users stay focused on important information in turn promoting user-friendliness. Apart from that the UI/UX design also looks structured instead of being disarray.

• Design Patterns Consistency- Consistency in the design elements throughout the product is also a major aspect of UI/UX designing as it helps in building an identity of the product in front of the audience.

• Use Responsive Design- Responsiveness in UI/UX design can be defined as the process of optimising your design as per the different devices that can be used for using the product. This is done to ensure that the interface design stays amazing even if the user is using it from different devices be it a mobile, computer or tablet.

Conclusion

Overall it can be summed up that for designing the best interfaces you have to stay in touch with the latest trends in the industry and follow the best practices that are currently being used. So if you are a beginner residing in or near Jaipur and want to gain more knowledge about the UI/UX designing then you can conveniently skill up with the best UI/UX design training institute in Jaipur that inculcates all of the major trends and practices in its comprehensive curriculum.