What is User Interface Design?
Demystifying User Interface Design, one of the 8 core disciplines of UX
User Interface (UI) Design focuses on anticipating what users might need to do and ensuring that the interface has elements that are easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate those actions. User Interface Design sits within the Skeleton layer described in Jesse James Garrett’s Elements of UX.
Overview
User Interface (UI) Design focuses on anticipating what users might need to do and ensuring that the interface has elements that are easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate those actions. UI is another multidisciplinary area of study. It brings together concepts from Interaction Design, Visual Design, and Information Architecture.
Interfaces are the access points where users interact with designs. They come in three formats:
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
Users interact with visual representations on digital control panels. A computer’s desktop is a GUI.
Voice-controlled interfaces (VUIs)
Users interact with these through their voices. Most smart assistants — e.g., Siri on iPhone and Alexa on Amazon devices — are VUIs.
Gesture-based interfaces
Users engage with 3D design spaces through bodily motions: e.g., in virtual reality (VR) games.
Often confused with UX design, UI design is more concerned with the surface and overall feel of a design. UI design is a craft where you the designer build an essential part of the user experience. UX design covers the entire spectrum of the user experience.
Getting Started
Everything stems from knowing the users, including understanding their goals, skills, preferences, and tendencies.
Keep the interface simple. The best interfaces are almost invisible to the user. They avoid unnecessary elements and are clear in the language they use on labels and in messaging.
Create consistency and use common UI elements. By using common elements, users feel more comfortable and can get things done more quickly.
Be purposeful in page layout. Careful placement of items can help draw attention to the most important pieces and can aid scanning and readability.
Strategically use color and texture. You can direct attention toward or redirect attention away from items using color, light, contrast, and texture to your advantage.
Use typography to create hierarchy and clarity. Different sizes, fonts, and arrangement of the text to help increase scanability, legibility and readability.
Visibility of system status. Always inform your users of location, actions, changes in state, or errors. The use of various UI elements to communicate status and, if necessary, next steps can reduce frustration for your user.
Spotting It In The Wild
Growing in User Interface Design
Relevant Principles & Heuristics
- 10 Usability Heuristics. Jakob Nielsen
- User Experience Honeycomb. Peter Morville
- PARC: Basic Principles for Non-Designers. Robin Williams
Recommended Reading
- Steve Krug. Don’t Make Me Think. 2000
- Steve Krug. Rocket Surgery Made Easy. 2009
- Jenifer Tidwell. Designing Interfaces. 2005
- Everett N. McKay. UI is Communication. 2013
- 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design by Nielsen/Norman Group
Training and Courses
- User Interface Principles Every Designer Must Know. Nielson/Norman Group
- Emerging Patterns in Interface Design. Nielson/Norman Group
More Articles on UX Disciplines
To learn more about these disciplines, read any of the following articles I’ve written about each discipline of UX.
