WHAT IS UI DESIGN?

UI Design works on the visual part of user interfaces. This can relate to a mobile application, a website, a product or any interactive screen on a device. It is the meeting point between an interface and users, but above all, between a brand and its customers. 

A good UI requires an ergonomic design, allowing users to achieve their goals. Here are the criteria for optimal ergonomics:

BE EASILY ACCESSIBLE

The UI design must allow all users, regardless of their constraints (geographical, material or physical), to quickly access your interface. 

Good accessibility requires HMI interfaces that give access to all users. This also applies to people with disabilities.

HAVE CLEAR NAVIGATION

Fluid navigation is essential for building natural communication between the user and your interface. The design of an effective navigation system calls upon interaction and information design principles. This straightforward navigation requires the creation of shortcuts, menus and links that are both aesthetic and functional.

MAKE THE DESIGN IMPACTFUL

A graphic design must arouse an emotion in the user in the order of trust or satisfaction. This design combines several criteria: 

• typography 
• colours 
• animations
• micro-interactions
• content hierarchy

The design aims to entice users to explore your interface more deeply. With easy and uncluttered navigation, this promotes user loyalty and consolidates their commitment.

CREATE A COHERENT INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

It is necessary to pay attention to the hierarchy of contents. The goal is to structure the information to make it easy for all users. This is key to creating a clean design and easier interaction with the digital system. 

Information architecture is fundamental in how users navigate the site or application. In this way, choose a structure that adapts to your field of activity, and that is known to your users.

MAKE AN INTERACTION DESIGN

The purpose of so-called “interaction” design is to design an interface with a natural interaction between a human being and the site or application. This brings user-friendliness to the digital interface and allows users to achieve their goals as efficiently as possible. 

This type of design includes several dimensions, such as: 

• catchy labels
• entertaining animations 
• qualitative images

THINK MOBILE-FIRST

Today, thinking “mobile first” is essential when creating a digital interface. This must be optimized and adapted for all mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc.). The UI Designer must take this criterion into account when creating an interface. 

This criterion is all the more important because it allows Google to reference a site or a mobile application better.

UI DESIGNER: A PROFESSION OF THE FUTURE

THE ROLE OF THE UI DESIGNER AND ITS MAIN MISSIONS

Let’s get to the heart of the matter, what does a UI Designer do? He ensures that the digital interface is consistent, easy to use, and aligned with brand objectives and user expectations.  

By becoming a user interface designer, you will have a multidisciplinary job with several hats: the visual, emotional, psychological aspects… Indeed, you will need to understand how each element works and creates a good user experience. You will need to know user expectations through extensive research and design the interface accordingly. 

The job of a UI Designer includes several steps in the creation of an interface: 

Make a graphics benchmark. 

The graphic benchmark makes it possible to centralize the best practices, the most relevant elements and all the design novelties to develop the most adapted, modern interface corresponding to the criteria of the market. For this, the UI designer must constantly monitor trends in digital interfaces. 

Set visual guidelines 

The role of the UI designer is to design all the pages of an interface and to ensure the consistency between each visual with the user journey defined by the UX designer. Every day, he works on the design of the graphic elements, the interactions and the organization of the pages. In general, he creates a visual library to ensure the consistency of the brand image.

Create prototypes and wireframes. 

He will create prototypes and models for the developers in a team with the UX designer. Using these wireframes, they can make a functional design to help users find what they want on the interface. 

Optimize UI continuously 

The role of the UI designer is to constantly test the interface with users to ensure the proper functioning and meaning of each element. If the feedback is negative, he must adjust his choices.

WHAT ARE THE REQUIRED QUALITIES?

To become a good UI Designer, you will learn by practising and making mistakes. Many human qualities are required, among them:

• Curiosity, to always look for the latest trends
• Creativity, to offer an adapted and modern design 
• Rigour and organization to keep commitments on time 
• Empathy, to better understand the user
• Team spirit, to better communicate with all stakeholders

SKILLS OF A UI DESIGNER

A good UI Designer should:

Know the web and applications to create modern interfaces that are easy to use and meet the habits and needs of users. This knowledge will allow him to integrate graphic elements and animate them.  

Know how to master computer and graphic design tools such as the Adobe suite or even Figma for prototyping. 

Know good elements of psychology and sociology to identify the targeted users best. This will allow the UI Designer to adapt UI choices based on user behaviours. 

Have a developed sense of creativity to create unique and attractive digital interfaces that will arouse positive emotions in users.

HOW TO BECOME A UI DESIGNER?

Just like for the profession of UX Designer, there is no typical profile or studies devoted to this profession. It is necessary to highlight the skills and soft skills that you already have. 

Several paths are available to you to become a UI Designer; you can choose to do a BTS, a DUT or a license in digital engineering, multimedia, graphic design, webdesign, web marketing, communication or even applied arts. 

The UI Designer, or interface designer for users, comes from a wide variety of training. Business, tech or even marketing profiles can learn the necessary additional skills. 

Indeed, in addition to design skills, UI Designers must, above all, know how to work in a team, in particular in pairs with a UX Designer, understand users’ emotions and be creative in the design of an interface.

WHY TAKE A COURSE IN UI DESIGN?

There are some training courses online or in centres dedicated to UI Design and the challenges of this profession. These pieces of training require basics in the field mentioned above and will allow you to develop your skills and knowledge of the area. 

They will teach you: 

• The creation of an automatic and faithful visual journey of the user’s needs

• The development of a coherent design between all interfaces

• Collaboration with a multidisciplinary team bringing together UI and UX designers, web developers, and communicators… 

• Prioritization of content to identify unnecessary or missing content 

• The development of interactive models and prototypes 

• Familiarization with the principles of mobile navigation and the constraints that this generates

• The choice of colours, icons and typography according to brand image and readability on digital interfaces

• Emotional design awareness that puts user emotions at the centre of the experience

UI DESIGNER AND UX DESIGNER, COMPLEMENTARY?

The professions of UI and UX designers often need clarification. However, there is a real difference. 

Unlike UX designers, who focus on ergonomics and user experience, UI designers focus on digital interface design. The objective of UI Design is to meet the visual needs of users by improving the work of organizing content designed by UX. 

The two have very distinct roles, although they are complementary: we first work on the user experience, and to best meet their needs, we design the digital interface.

UI DESIGNER VS WEB DESIGNER

The job of the UI Designer is very different from the role of the web designer. 

The web designer puts his creativity and technique at the service of designing layouts that reflect a brand’s image. Its mission is to create the graphic charter for the pages of a website and the design of web interfaces, unlike the UI Designer, which works on a user-centric approach. Its mission is to define the needs and behaviours of users to align the interface with their expectations.

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The user experience, also called UX for User experience in English, aims to qualify users’ feelings when discovering an interface. UX design, therefore, consists of thinking and designing your website in such a way as to offer the best user experience to Internet users. The objective is to provide an efficient and transparent customer journey to respond primarily to the customer’s expectations and not of the company. In other words, it’s the customer first.

Improving the user experience of your website will surely bring you results. Getting simplicity and efficiency to Internet users can only benefit your business. By making it easier for them to navigate your site and clearing their way of any obstacles that may be there, you will create a relationship of trust with your customers. If the customer journey and the shopping experience are appreciated, the customer will be more inclined to become attached to your brand and thus be more loyal.

Here Are 5 Tips To Offer The Best User Experience To Your Internet Users.

Create Simple Pages

These must be understandable at a glance. Be careful not to overload your pages with colors, animations and features that are not essential and could ultimately hinder the understanding of the information present on the page. Don’t be afraid of empty spaces. These are not bad things, and on the contrary, it is an excellent way to air your content and let Internet users breathe. At the moment, fashion is for minimalism and simplicity, so don’t complicate your life. Think about understanding first.

Prioritize Your Pages

So that the information you put forward on your website remains logical in the minds of your visitors, consider setting up a hierarchy. Don’t get overwhelmed with too much information. Use different text sizes, color codes or icons to sort your page. Remember to make your titles stand out, mainly when your page contains many elements. If you don’t know how to prioritize your content harmoniously, ask yourself what you want your users to see first and what is only secondary or optional.

Use Calls To Action

I imagine that your goal in creating a website is to attract more customers and convince them to consume your products or services. Your website is therefore used to convert leads, that is to say, to transform simple visitors into customers. For your customers to be able to get in touch with you if you are, they must be guided. For this, you need to set up effective calls to action. They can have several objectives:

• Request a quote.
• Redirect a specific page.
• Download an ebook.
• Make an appointment.
• Subscribe to the newsletter.

Your calls to action can also take different forms: pop-ups, buttons, or even banners. The design and content of these are fundamental. Choose colors that will highlight your call to action while being careful not to attack Internet users. As far as content is concerned, I prefer verbs that will tend to appeal more. Work on the content of your call to action to engage the visitor to click.

Think About The Loading Time Of Each Page

What could be more annoying than a page that takes time to appear when you have a good connection. Today everything is going faster, and we have become impatient. The loading time of a page can influence the behavior of Internet users, even making them leave the website. Here is how you can improve the loading speed of your pages. 

First, reduce the size of your images. Reducing the size of your photos does not necessarily mean having poor quality images. There is much software to compress images while maintaining good quality. Then lighten your animations and don’t overdo it. Finally, hosting matters a lot in page loading. Having quality web hosting is important to get your pages to load quickly.

Work On Your Content

We can never repeat it enough, but working content is essential for a website. First of all, well-crafted content will earn you a few places on search engines for SEO issues. But good content is also a user who is satisfied to find what he is looking for, and the content reflects your image and expertise.

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If you’re ready to launch or revamp your website, check out the 12 web design trends to look out for in 2021.

Use Vector Images

Vector graphics are among the latest new trends in graphic design. With Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), you can resize the image to fit your screen while preserving its original quality. High-quality photos allow for optimal page loading time, especially on mobile devices. Loading time entails an essential factor when it comes to indexing your site on search engines.

Create Motion Design Videos

The animation is much more likely to capture our attention than static images. And they say that 83% of our memory is visual! So it’s no surprise that motion design has been shown to effectively attract website visitors, as long as the video is entertaining and easy to follow.

Communicate In Numbers

Numerical data has a more significant impact than words. It also proves to your clients and prospects you are worthy of their trust. You can highlight your numbers using visuals like an infographic.

Go For Fancy Colours

2021 marks the beginning of a new decade. The latest trends reflect our emerging, extremely high-tech universe. Futuristic themes and bold, vibrant, saturated colours, neon shades and glitch* are all going to be a big deal this year.

Also Read: Here’s Why You Should Focus On A Responsive Website Design

Make Your Website Accessible

These days, inclusion is non-negotiable. All websites must take into account the needs of people with disabilities. Everyone needs to be able to browse and engage with all content easily. You can make this happen through:

• Colour contrasts
• Focus indicators
• Instructions with built-in form fields

Building an accessible website will help you perfect your user experience (UX), which will boost your conversion rate and SEO.

Use Big, Visible Headings

Typography has always been an essential element of graphic design. Clear headings make it easy to structure the different parts of your web page. When well defined with the proper tags (H1, H2 tags), titles are also instrumental for SEO.

Opt For Big Characters

In this new decade, fonts are getting bigger, thicker and tighter. For a more modern aesthetic, showcase your content with a more oversized typography style and capture the attention of your visitors.

Go For A Clean, Slick Look

Avoid unnecessary information. This creates a more effortless browsing experience for Internet users. You also need to get rid of any extra elements in your website design. Websites with fast loading times are rewarded with improved SEO. And we see a comeback of a more colourful version of the flat design trend from a few years ago.

Stick With Organic Shapes

Geometric shapes are no longer the rage in 2021. We’re talking smooth, round, asymmetrical and curvy. Natural shapes will improve your layout, letting you divide your website’s different sections without sharp angles or straight lines.

The Magical 2-in-1 Photo + Illustration

Combining accurate life shots with drawings, this trend should continue in 2021. By juxtaposing graphic elements with photos, you infuse more creativity and elegance into your designs.

Set Up A Chatbot

Over the past few years, chatbots have seen rapid development. In 2021, with artificial intelligence and machine learning evolution, they will gradually become the norm for web communication.

Dark Mode

We’re going to see more dark mode this year. Business owners and service providers will start to use it on their websites since its advantages include:

• Reduced eye fatigue
• A contemporary style
• Improved battery life, and more.

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