UI Design (User Interface Design) is a term that’s thrown around a lot, but what does it actually mean? Simply put, it is the design of the user’s visual experience. This entails the design of an app or WordPress site’s screens, buttons, icons, images, text, and any other elements a user will see and engage with.
While this can sound simple, there’s actually a lot more to the story. Visuals need to stand out, create a seamless and smooth user experience, and correspond with the brand identity. The user should be able to effortlessly move through the site as efficiently as possible, never getting lost or confused about where they are. The navigation, the buttons, and typography should be intuitive to the point it feels invisible. At its core, it’s really about the intersection of visuals and human behavior. Let’s take a look at them in a little more in depth.
The Visuals
UI design can be defined as a form of graphic design. It works within the principles of Graphic Design in terms of grid, composition techniques, color, typography, and so on. UI Design is not only the appearance of a product and it’s aesthetics, but it’s also a product’s character and emotion. As stated above, the visual look and feel involves creating the color, type, photos and design of your website or app. But what makes this different than designing a print piece, such as a poster or brochure, is the dynamic nature of the user experience and weaving the visual elements into that structure. It can’t just look pretty. It needs to work for a live environment.
Human Behavior
While keeping all of the visual components in mind, a UI designer is also thinking about human behavior. They are trying to successfully achieve a natural solution for getting from point A to point B. This demands spending a lot of time analyzing how the human mind works. They then use this knowledge to design visual, interactive elements that feel intuitive to the user. A good UI design will identity a suit of design elements, that work for the user experience, that are then applied to the entire site. As opposed to creating a unique design for each webpage individually. This would create more work at every level of the process, including (and most importantly) for the user. Instead of registering in their brain the visual information structure of a site, it would demand of them to continue relearning visual cues at every turn. This extra labor would almost certainly send them on their way.
When a top notch understanding of human behavior works in harmony with visual design, the result is a high functioning and successful WordPress site. To dive a little deeper into the process, it’s good to understand that UI design goes hand in hand with determining the right User Experience (UX Design) beforehand. Here are some UX laws that can help to achieve the best possible user interface and user experience a brand can hope for.