User Interface Rules

Expert designers work hard with the aim of creating interfaces that are logical and easy to use for everyone, because a perfect user interface is very difficult to notice, it is even invisible to users and coming up with a perfect interface is quite difficult.

It is stated that the majority of application users crave simplicity of access and that with the research and experience shown by the global technology research and consulting firm ISG, they find that users prefer a platform that is personalized for each one, “Our research and experience show that almost all platforms have to be customized by adopters to some degree,” says Yadu Singh, platform and solutions leader at ISG.

“The out-of-the-box user interface may be difficult, in particular, for users who have developed learned behaviors using older versions,” this can be caused by updates that platforms may have. Just as the interfaces are also essential for e-commerce pages and any other platform or application for different purposes, such as sales, blogs, entertainment, etc.

“Most of our customers insist on some level of customization to comply with their standard processes,” says Singh, as new interfaces, used for example in applications like Salesforce or SAP, have been seen to help users do easily clicking through to the relevant screens, which somewhat enables and enhances the need for customization across platforms, however this does not eliminate it entirely.

Likewise, younger users should be taken into account, since they have less tolerance for delays that may occur in the interfaces of a platform and their attention span is quite limited, which leads us all to think that the most important thing for these users is the productivity they can achieve, as well as the need they have to do multiple tasks, for the same reason Singh affirms that “Anything that slows them down, such as systems that don’t add default values for missing data that can be corrected later, is not well tolerated.”

Clarity

Clarity is possibly the most important UI design rule to consider. Whizpool founder and CEO Zeeshan Arif, which is a website and software development company, says that clarity is very critical when it comes to user interfaces.

Buttons and actions:

Keeping in mind that clarity in the interface is important, Arif advises us that “When you are designing an interface, you need to make sure that your users understand what they can do at all times”, which means that when you add buttons that fulfill a certain action on the platform, these must be correctly labeled and there must be no unexpected changes or surprises that could confuse users.

“If a button says ‘delete’, then it should delete what it’s supposed to delete, and only that,” he also mentions, which is very important and essential as any button error can cause conflicts with users, such as For example, Arif tells us “If you have a button that does something else, then either make it a different color or label it differently, but don’t put in something in that looks like a delete button but doesn’t actually delete anything. ”

Simplicity

“If you have too many buttons on one page, and none of them are labeled well enough for someone who isn’t familiar with them, users will probably just give up before they even get started using your product, service, app, or website ,” says Arif, since having many functions or buttons that may not be necessary can confuse users, the interface design must be clear and simple so that everything that the platform has and does not have is understood extra options or functions that are not entirely necessary.

Proximity

This is a rule that should never be forgotten or omitted in an interface, according to Sarah Walters, manager of The Whit Group, which is a web design and digital marketing agency, mentions that proximity is the rule that cannot be forgotten, This rule states that the user should be able to find what they need easily and quickly,” says Sarah.

In the same way, she mentions that the best thing that can be done is to group the elements that are on the platform and interface in a logical way, since it makes it easier for users to search and find them more quickly and easily. “For example, if you have a list of items, and want users to know what each item does, you can group them by purpose,” Sarah suggests this example option.

Guided action

The idea of this rule, as the name mentions, is to guide users to do a specific action, without the need to guess what the next step may be to perform on the website or application in which they are. Also, this prevents users from feeling frustrated and deciding to leave the website or application due to confusion.

For example, we have Harry Morton, founder of the Lower Street podcast production services company, who mentions the use of banners that indicate the user’s action guide is not entirely necessary, but produces good results, “From creating banners and effective call-to-actions to incorporating elements that draw a user’s attention to specific buttons, this isn’t a law you should take for granted if you want to see tangible results,” says Harry.

Least Surprise

The interface of the platform must be quite coherent for the users, the most important thing is that there are no unnecessary surprises that can create confusion. Farzad Rashidi, co-founder of web backlink service provider Respona, also tells us “If the user interface behaves in a way that’s unexpected or confusing, it will cause users to become frustrated and may cause them to give up.”

“Consistency allows for more fluid interaction and provides familiarity and predictability”, Leandro Cassa, head of user experience at Digibee, also mentions to us, which is a business integration platform, since consistency is very important, “Consistency also reduces friction and the time needed to complete a task.”