Top 50 UX Web Design Tips for Aspiring Designers
In a world where ‘Google’ has replaced the word ‘search,’ it is hard to say anyone hasn’t seen a website. But do you know what goes behind it to give you the best experience ever? It’s UI/ UX.
The difference, you ask? Well, let’s clear that out in the next section.
Difference Between UI & UX
Often coined together, these words can be confusing for people to understand. Although both are designs, they are different from each other.
UI Design
In simple words, UI or User interface (UI) design is how designers create interfaces in software or computerized devices focusing on aesthetics or style.
UX Design
User Experience Design (UX) is how design teams create products with meaningful and relevant experiences.
This includes the design of the entire acquisition and integration process, including branding, design, usability, and function.
Now that we are acquainted with these design terms let’s dive into the fundamental UX design tips and tricks that can help you improve it.
Top 50 UX Web Design Tips for Aspiring Designers
1. Understanding the Goals of Users
Before designing your website, you need to know and understand your user’s goals.
Whether they want to spend time researching or looking for quick solutions, the flow of the website should direct them accordingly.
2. Top-Most Priority
The top section of any website design is crucial. Users prioritize their attention to the top section of the website compared to the bottom. Placing the right tabs at the right place will make your user’s experience comfortable.
3. Say no to DEAD END
While you’re working towards making your user’s experience better, make sure not to leave them hanging in between with nowhere to go. Any dead-end page will kill your website’s user experience and leave them in a pile of confusion.
Therefore, seal your website with quality links at the bottom or direct them to a call for action to other pages to maintain a reticulated flow.
4. Blend it in
Sometimes standing out of the herd doesn’t help. Use standard web-friendly designs rather than the new and complicated ones.
Making your user learn something new will not only take more time and effort from their end, but it may also push them to other websites.
5. Scrolling is the ‘New Normal’
Infinite scrolling has been the latest user-friendly trend, thanks to Instagram. With google adopting the same for the mobile search, it is best to follow it too.
Moreover, in terms of user experience, scrolling is better than clicking; just remember not to make pages too long.
6. Something Blue only for Links
Human brains associate different colors with different things. For example, we know when there’s a red sign out there, it is a sign of danger. Similarly, people are used to the idea of links being in the color blue.
Using blue color for some other relevant text can create unnecessary confusion for users.
7. Colour me one
We suggest using only one single color for all your CTAs throughout the website.
Call to action is a significant part of your website; hence, choosing the right colour and sticking to it is essential.
8. Play with Colour Palette
Color palettes can be fun to play with when designing. Warm colors are bright and come out, whereas cool colors stay in the background.
Be wise while playing around with the color schemes; nobody would appreciate a rainbow sending them mixed signals about the overall look and feel of the website.
9. Smooth Sailing Goes Long Way
The more the loading time, the more users you’ll lose. No matter how great your website/app looks and feels if its loading time is slow, you have lost the battle there.
For example, using a lot of animations may add to your loading time so avoid doing that.
10. Picture it Later
The 1st and most important rule to follow in loading a website is that the text should come 1st. It’s simple; pictures, animations, and videos comparatively take longer to load, whereas texts are faster.
Loading texts 1st will allow your users to read it while the rest of your pages process.
11. The Bigger, the Better
For Mobile-specific interfaces, larger tappable elements are better. We all know that mobile screens are smaller; hence, small tabs can be not-so-user-friendly and create an unnecessary mess.
12. No Pinky Promises Here
If you see someone using a pinky finger to interact with your website on mobile devices, understand that the interface targets are too small and not easily accessible.
Eventually, people would get tired of it and switch to a different one.
13. Stick to One Vertical
There should be only one vertical swiping on your webpage. Too much vertical swiping will spoil the fun experience of the visitors, making it less user-friendly.
Remember, the idea is to keep it functional and not useless.
14. Right Thumb, Left Thumb
Are you designing for multiple devices? Like a tablet or an iPad? If so, it is crucially important to use the ‘Thumb’ action while designing it to stay on-fleek.
An intelligent design will have important tabs near thumbs (bottom left and bottom right) for a quick click.
15. No Double Trouble
Double tapping on a desktop is easy, whereas double tapping on mobile creates more hassle. Single-touch interaction is convenient for smaller devices.
16. Single hand or Double Hand
A little bit of R&D goes a long way. If done so, you’ll understand your target users’ behavior and use of their hands. Many people would like to use their left or right, single or double hand while browsing their mobiles.
Right R&D will help you determine the right way to design it, keeping your users in mind.
17. Stand out for Link-ups
Want to add links to your website? Make sure they stand out. Blue color and underline are the most prominent formats for links. But it should look like links and not some design.
A precise and straightforward approach is helpful.
18. Click Able
All the links provided on your website design should be clickable. For example, if a picture is supposed to direct the user to another page or website, it should be clickable.
Cross-checking all the links before making your website live is an important step, and you better not miss out on that.
19. No Hunting
If there’s a link provided for your user’s benefit, it should exactly do that. The text should directly mention where that link would direct them rather than going on a not-so-adventurous quest to figure out where that link is leading them.
20. Setting the Format
Stick to the standard formats. If you have a specific structure, for example, links should be blue and underlined, then follow it. Do not use a different format since that would leave your users in a puzzling state.
21. The Right Size Tappable Buttons
The tappable buttons should be of proper size depending on the devices and the design’s layout. Having it a little bit smaller or bigger can hamper the user experience.
Having proper space in the buttons can make your website more popular than your competitors.
22. To Click or Not To Click
How do you hint to people that a button is clickable? Just have a simple blend of background colors, visible borders, and action-oriented texts, and you are good to go.
23. Interaction is the Key
Even if your design for a button is a flat one, you can add different design elements and colors to it to make it stand out. A perfect action-oriented label will make it more prominent.
24. Be aware of Accidents
Accidental tapping on buttons that may lead to deleting or changing data is the most common mistake that we should avoid.
Therefore, these buttons should require more effort or unique elements like double-tapping to prevent unnecessary clicking/tapping.
25. Cue the Visual
Any website should straight up indicate that a button is clicked. The standard time expected is 0.1 seconds for a successful interaction.
26. Let the search begin
Having a search field on your website is always a plus. Unless and until your website content is quite limited and your website is slow, you should consider adding this feature to your design.
27. Look the Right Way
The search field should be placed at the top right since that’s exactly where the users might look for it. You should also consider adding a little text box near it that would suggest typing in for the easy understanding of the users.
This standard form of search field will help your visitors locate things quickly on your website.
28. Bigger Field
Search Fields should be bigger and wider to fit in the entire text. If users cannot see what they are typing in, it would be difficult to search for anything.
29. Say No to Carousels
Carousel slides are pretty forgetful; people cannot focus on multiple slides at one time. So it is better not to add those.
Moreover, there are only about 1% of users interact or click on the carousels.
30. No Pointed Arrows
Let’s say you are using the carousels for your website, and it switches to the next slide once you click on the arrow it has. Now, this arrow feature works fine when it comes to desktops.
Since the size of a mobile screen is small, these little arrows may not even be visible. Try and use specific labels instead.
31. Play According to the Accordions
Multiple devices can be complicated to design for, especially when it comes to mobiles. The challenge designers generally face the size of the screen. Everything has to be compact without compromising much on the original design or structure.
Accordions can help you with that. Use it subtly throughout the site to keep things concise and save your content and design from butchering further.
32. Smart Use is the Best Use
Be smart with your accordions. If you are not smart about it, you might end up being the victim of the classic case of ‘out of sight, out of mind.’
Accordions are always the preferred option compared to adding too many links leading the visitors to different pages.
33. Hint it
Your website should have relevant hints to help the user if they face any difficulty interacting with it. Maybe there’s a hidden tab they have been looking for or a pop-up link for their search.
Although too many hints can irritate them, placing them correctly is something you should be careful about, or it may backfire. Only one hint at a time.
34. Help with HELP
The help section is the most neglected one among all. Visitors are likely not to use help on your website as much as possible. Hence it is an absolute must to make it stand out.
Help or instructions should be precise and different in terms of designs.
Use and Instructions should look different in design, colors, or structure since they cannot blend in with the regular text.
They can either use arrows, color code or use other elements depending upon the design.
35. I-Can Icons
Icons are a simple yet valuable feature of any application or website. Your icons should visually command the exact function it is meant for with the suitable designs. If not, then these icons can be pretty misleading, leaving the users perplexed.
36. No Overdose Here
One pinch of extra salt is enough to ruin a perfectly made dish. Similarly, one unnecessary icon can destroy your website’s as well as the mobile app’s look and essence.
Using the icons as a decoration is a big no-no. Every icon should serve its purpose perfectly.
37. Be Bold
While designing a website, content becomes a prime focus. Why? Because it is the content that people are visiting your website for and not just the design.
Highlighting the main points and carefully mapping the entire content structure will help your users easily solve their purpose of visiting your website.
38. A Quick Scan
With so many options already flooding online, it is rare to stand out. Users will only be interested in interacting with your website if they get the correct and new information.
According to your users’ time, they may quickly scan your content or just read 1st 2-3 words.
Hence, providing them with the correct information, placing it in the 1st few sentences is highly recommended.
39. Priorities Set Right
You can use different analytic tools to determine what is high-priority content and then place it accordingly.
For example, context, location, and emergency information are usually high-priority content for mobile web browsers.
Remember to keep the most critical information at the top of your website.
40. Be Basic
Being simple and precise is difficult these days. Overly complicated language can send off your users’ running for their dictionaries.
For example, let’s take a sentence,
Pineapples are delicious.
It is simple and delivers the message correctly to the audience.
Pineapples are God sent because of their scrumptiously delightful sweet texture and scent that makes my taste palette woo.
Although the above sentence has the same message, it’s long, more descriptive, and not to the point. This type of content may hamper your design, capturing your space.
41. Can or What
Readability, another major factor to consider when designing the content of your website, is not only about whether you can read it or not.
The question here is whether you want to read it or not?
The content should be interactive enough for your target audience to make them want to read it further and stay for a longer time.
42. Keep it Clear
A clean structure is always soothing to your eyes. Keeping appropriate spacing, listings, and proper bulletin will increase the readability of your content.
Your visitors would spend less time adjusting their eyes to the structure, which in return will be in your favor.
43. In front of the Font
The fonts that are on your website are also part of your design. It should blend right in with your design. However, certain factors should be considered while choosing it.
These are:
- Legibility
- Readability
- Weights
- Styles
44. Size Matters
Small size fonts are not readable enough. Hence it is preferred to use a larger size, and it applies to all the devices. Do not use condensed fonts for any type of body text.
45. ONLY THINKING CAPS ON
IT IS BETTER NOT TO USE CAPITALS WHILE WRITING A HEADLINE OR TAGLINE.
It doesn’t highlight it in any way and makes it difficult to read.
46. A Little Scoot Here, A Little Scoot There
Mobile websites can be tricky to work on. Fonts may look okay on a desktop, but the size may vary a bit on mobile phones.
Always scale the font size according to the mobile screens to avoid any disruption.
47. No Long Routes
Long content can be too much to read and accumulate at a point in time. To counter this, make sure that you use smaller paragraphs that talk about one idea at a time.
Use proper ways to highlight it, and you’ll visually see the increase in readability.
48. All Readers Matter
When you are making a website, you cannot assume what kind of audience will visit it. Your content and readability should cater to all the visitors; hence it is better not to use Italics.
It can be challenging to read for some of the visitors.
49. Ban The Banners
Users often turn the other way around when they see anything, i.e., similar to an ad banner. So, preferably, try and avoid using such designs.
50. Hamburger Not-So-Popular
Hamburger Menus are not noticeable on the desktop. At the same time, they are pretty valuable for Mobile applications. Hence depending upon which device your website/application will be most viewed in, you can change your design.
Too much to take in? Well, this is just the beginning. UX is such a vast and evolving field that it gets challenging to keep up. Although with experience you do learn a lot, one can never replace an entire team of experts.
This is where Noboru World comes in.
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We are known to treat the brands as our own and provide the best solutions. Interested? Check out Noboru World today!
Do you think you got what it takes to be the next marvelous UI/UX Designer? Come and join our team today! Write to People Team – Noboru World with your best work and we will get back to you.
Conclusion
It is said rules are meant to be broken but it should happen in its own time. All the above tips are great to give you a headstart in UX Designing. But expertise comes with practice.
Once you have enough experience under your belt, you can push your boundaries and explore further. Do not restrict your creative mind, and keep on designing!
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