Creating a business presence on both mobile and desktop devices is all-important to gain significant user traction. While accessing the business online using any device, users expect consistency in design elements and the same experience delivery.
Meeting this consistent UI/UX design need requires businesses to make intelligent and informed decisions while following user interface guidelines. UI/UX design agencies help businesses maintain consistency and adhere to UI/UX standards. In this blog, we will delve deeper into UI/UX design, an overview of design consistency, and UI/UX design practices that designers must follow.
What is UI/UX design?
UI/UX designs are often mistakenly considered one but are entirely different and intersect at one common point. UI design is about visual design elements such as buttons, icons, images, and others using which users interact with business applications. On the other hand, UX design ensures the project is user-friendly, seamless to navigate, and enjoyable, which improves user experience. The user experience is directly linked with the user interface because user interactions with visuals define how the user feels after using the application.
What is design consistency?
Creating the right set of UI elements together wherein every element is differentiated with predictable actions is called design consistency. Designers need to consider design consistency that helps in delivering the best experience to users. For example, when users view a button in red color, they understand it’s a CTA that directs them to act. The uniformity that users experience in UI/UX design across every platform makes the product usable, strengthens brand identity, improves trust, and reduces the learning curve.
Which design consistency practices are helpful to UI/UX designers?
Design consistency results from following user interface guidelines and following best practices. Here are a couple of design practices that designers should follow.
Conduct research
Designers should start with an audit followed by quality research to ensure the product is built within time and budget. It includes target user research, user journey analysis, devices used for product access, UX research, and more in the initial stage so that users always stay at the heart of UI UX design. This way, design audit, and research forms a solid foundation for the best UI/UX design creation.
Know users’ perception
Identifying why users use the product helps designers know the users’ goals, which are instilled in the UI/UX design process. For example, the eCommerce app facilitates users to browse and buy items anytime, anywhere, followed by notifications for the latest deals and offers. It’s not enough.
Users expect to see recommendations for the products they are interested in, suggestions for new arrivals based on their browsing pattern, notifications to check out for the products added to the cart as they are about to go out of stock, and more. When these users’ goals are defined proactively, users’ expectations are met through design. Hence, UX designers should keep user’s perception in mind while creating product design.
Determine UI patterns
Making UI/UX design unique with new UI patterns turns out futile as it adds an extra learning curve for users to understand UI interactions. Using recurring UI patterns makes it easy for users to understand design interface and get around the product quickly. However, it doesn’t mean copying UI in as-is condition; instead, UI designers should change the user interface patterns of the product and apply filters based on user goals.
Enhancing UI patterns based on modern UI design trends is good, but don’t play with standard patterns. Say users always look for the search button in the upper right corner regardless of their device.
Optimize UI/UX design
Users always have a short time, so they prefer online products. Design consistency also includes allowing users to accomplish tasks in fewer actions. When the tasks are completed within 2 steps, it makes no sense to let the users complete the same in five steps. Designers should optimize UI/UX design by modifying UI patterns that make application usage- fun and time-saving for the users.
Establish a visual hierarchy
The hierarchy of UI design elements created wonder for consistency as it makes the users pay attention to the UI elements with which they interact. The visual hierarchy is created with a science behind it wherein UI elements such as bright colors, large font size, and others catch the human eye’s attention over others.
Also, UX designers should prioritize screen visuals based on users’ viewing preferences, which helps keep the elements in the same order. For example, the functionalities that perform faster are set at the top and remaining at the end.
Define UI elements
Various design elements together make a UI pattern, which requires maintaining an inventory of UI elements so that they are optimally leveraged to create a consistent design. UI/UX design agencies ensure that consistent branding elements, UI components, typography, patterns, and templates are used to deliver the best user experience.
Nowadays, UI UX designers also use design systems as a reference that ensures all the team members are on the same page. It’s just a guidebook with required information about UI elements, patterns, and components.
Ensure smooth workflow
User-friendly applications ensure that users can discover functionalities and use them intuitively without any confusion. Users expect the same thing for every new functionality added to the product.
By making the action consistent, UX designers can minimize the learning curve for the users. Designers can do it by identifying how all features of the product behave, how all features are interrelated, and how easily users can interact with them.
Get into content review
UI/UX design is not only about graphics, animation, or other design elements; instead, textual content is equally important. Designers also check that consistent terminology is used and presented in a proper structure followed by apt user defaults, eliminating user confusion.
Make user interactions consistent
User interactions with every feature of the product are a form of communication that makes it successful if it’s consistent. Displaying helpful information such as error messages or thank you notes promptly delights the users because, as a part of UI/UX design, these are self-explanatory and clear up the users on what to do next.
Test and improve
Designers are trying their best to create UI wearing users’ lenses, but it’s not guaranteed that users will respond to it as expected. That’s where usability testing, mobile responsiveness testing, compatibility, and others are revealed by gathering feedback from the product users to improve it and fix inconsistencies continuously.
Conclusion
The ultimate goal of UI/UX design is to be consistent everywhere, but designers still fail at some points and need improvement. It requires UI/UX designers to follow the design consistency practices that ensure that there will be no inconsistencies from start to finish. The user feedback at the end is extra cherries on the cake, which guarantees that the consistent design impresses the users. Go through design practices given above and get the best results that you were looking for.