January 23, 2023

How to Be a Better UI UX Designer - The Best Advice from the Top UI UX Designers

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“Design used to be the seasoning you’d sprinkle on for taste; now it’s the flour you need at the start of the recipe.”
- John Maeda, Designer and Technologist

Design is about solving problems. UI UX Design is about solving problems in an elegant and easy-to-use way. It's about understanding the people who will use your product, and creating a design that is both functional and attractive. It's about being creative and thinking outside the box, and getting the job done efficiently and effectively. That's why UI UX Design is an attitude and aptitude that is essential for anyone who wants to create beautiful products that help people solve their problems.

The fundamental characteristic of “Design” is that it adds value to a product, both when a person uses it (usability), and also when they don’t (aesthetic appeal). As long as the feeling of “service” or as we in India call it “Seva Bhaav” is there, you can always be sure of designing for the betterment of people’s lives.

Design follows a hierarchy. The most basic need which design fulfils is “Functionality”. The next layer on top of functionality is that of “Reliability” or Trust. If the users trust the design, they will relate with it better. Atop reliability is an enveloping layer of “Usability”, which somewhere forms the main bridge between what the design does, and what the user actually sees.

Good UI Design and UX Design are extremely “Proficient” which lessens their cognitive load, and increases their efficiency. The overarching layer of the hierarchy is that of “Delight”, which is actually what most designers miss out on conveying.

Good UX design is when you are able to create a vehicle to transport your users into a better space mentally, psychologically and in turn delight them!

User Experience or UX as we popularly know it, is the path of designing for users which is very contextual and relatable to them, and caters to their product journey and strives to make it better. The best experiences are the ones which are co-created with users, or keeping the designs very close to the actual user journey.
"If we can empathise with the users we are serving or essentially designing for, then we can create a fulfilling and satisfying User Experience for them."

Some of the Core Values of a UX designer:

1) Focus on the User: Always design to serve the user. Never design a product which is isolated from the user who is actually going to use the product.

2) The Journeys: Always remember that you are designing for living, feeling, emotive human beings who have a life and a journey around the usage of the product you design. Keeping the emotional intelligence and needs of the user in mind, is a must for any good UX Designer.

3) Bridge the gap between Expectation and Experience: Knowing what the user is expecting, and delivering that experience becomes a complete game changer for the user. They relate very well with your product, and if you manage to exceed their expectations, then it Experience becomes Magical at a whole new level.

4) Multi-sensory: Good design excites the eyes, but great design touches the soul. It mesmerizes the user, and infuses a sense of mystery and disbelief. When all the senses (visual, auditory, touch) come together to absorb a piece of design, then that makes the user become a loyal customer.

"Good design excites the eyes, but great design touches the soul."

User Interface or UI is a subset of User Experience. It involves visual and aesthetics, along with an eye for detail.

Some of the Core Values of a UI designer:

1) Observant and Relatable: Nature has all the possible colour combinations and elements to take inspiration from. A good designer should always notice where the users are coming from, and try to inculcate a similar sense of naturally occurring colours for the product designed for them.

2) We see 3D: We should never forget that the human eyesight has binary vision. We should try to achieve different layers, shadows, textures in our designs to make them look visually pleasing to the eyes, and give a sense of wholesomeness to it.

3) Attention to Detail: As UI designers, it is a must to have an eye for details. Even a slight inconsistency in design can puncture the entire product experience for a user. Essential care must be taken to ensure that spacing, padding and other visual details are done with perfect diligence.

"UI is that element of design, which also acts as a 'competitive edge' to companies over other market players

People ask many times what is the difference between UX and UI, or more often than not, it is used interchangeably.
The best way is to quote the metaphor which goes, “You can’t make a lemonade without Lemon and Water”. Similarly, a complete design consists of a good dose of both UX (user experience) and UI (aesthetics).
You need to understand the user’s journey throughout the product lifecycle, understand their pain points, and then come up with a visually appealing design to solve for the same.
UX and UI go hand in hand for all kinds of designs, especially digital products. The combined use of both becomes essential for digital products, because it has to connect with the user over a screen. It needs to be as interactive and enjoyable as possible for the user to continuously engage with a product for a long period of time.

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