User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are important aspects of creating digital products.
A proper UI, for example, can increase conversion rates by up to 200%. When it comes to UX, that figure can reach 400%.
On top of that, a delightful experience can also provide a competitive advantage.
That's why implementing UI and UX best practices in your design decisions is so important in Product Development.
Grab your favorite caffeinated (or decaf) beverage and let's dive in!
What are UI and UX Design?
User Interface (UI) involves all the visual elements, layouts and styles normally displayed on a screen that allows users to interact with a product.
Some common elements include buttons, icons, colors, menus, images and dashboards.
The UI involves the overall look and feel of a digital product, building an emotional connection with the user through consistent User Interfaces.
On the other hand, a seamless User Experience (UX) defines every interaction the users have with a product.
As a result, UX delivers easy-to-use products that meet users' needs, giving them pleasant digital experiences.
Top UI and UX Best Practices
Let’s analyze some fundamental principles, or laws, to acknowledge when designing products with consistent experiences:
1. Jakob's Law
First, Jakob's Law states that users are likely to expect your product to work the same way similar products work.
By adhering to common design patterns, it’ll be easier for users to operate your product, reducing its learning curve.
Common examples include shopping cart icons on ecommerce sites and hamburger menus on mobile UX.
2. Aesthetic-Usability Effect
Interfaces with visually appealing and aesthetic designs make users more tolerant of minor usability issues and bad designs.
In other words, visually pleasing designs can lead people to believe products work better than they do.
However, it's key to consider this practice as a way to support good usability instead of relying solely on aesthetics to mask flaws.
3. Fitts' Law
According to Fitts’ law, touch targets and clickable elements should be large enough and have enough space between them.
Contrariwise, arranging elements too close to each other can cause users to select the wrong ones, which will lead to frustration and unpleasant experiences.
The distance between a task area, such as a drop-down menu and the target element, such as an option in the menu, should not be wide.
4. Doherty Threshold
Doherty Threshold law states that "productivity soars when a computer and its users interact at a pace of 400 milliseconds (ms) or less."
Since sometimes it's not possible to guarantee a low screen load time, elements like animations and progress bars can make wait times more tolerable.
Common examples of the Doherty Threshold include any progress indicators that appear as screens load to help reduce the perception of having to wait.
5. Goal-Gradient Effect
According to the Goal-Gradient Effect, users are more encouraged to complete a task when they are closer to its goal.
Designers can use the anticipation of the reward of reaching a goal as users progress in their tasks.
Common examples include gamified features such as levels and badges.
6. Hick's Law
Since decision times increase with the number of choices and their complexity, Hick's Law advises to highlight and minimize available options.
It also mentions that designers can use recommended choices and break complex tasks into smaller steps to reduce cognitive load.
7. Law of Proximity
According to the Law of Proximity, users tend to assume that objects or elements close to each other have similar traits.
In other words, proximity can create a visual connection between elements, helping users understand information faster and more efficiently.
With different amounts of white space, designers can organize objects and help users navigate the interface more intuitively.
8. Law of Common Region
Defining common regions with borders or backgrounds helps create a clear structure in the product's interface.
What’s more, it can make it easier for users to understand the relationship between elements and different sections of the app's UI.
9. Law of Prägnanz
The Law of Prägnanz involves users' tendency to interpret complex shapes in the simplest possible forms.
This Law encourages designers to aim for simplicity when designing UI objects, focusing on closure (complete objects and shapes), symmetry, continuity and similarity.
10. Law of Similarity
Based on the Law of Similarity, users will perceive objects and elements with similar shapes as being related to each other.
This principle applies even if objects with similar shapes are far apart— designers can use shapes, colors and sizes to show that certain objects behave similarly.
11. Law of Uniform Connectedness
Users will perceive UI elements that are visually connected as being part of the same group or being related.
Designers can use similar visual cues, such as colors, shapes, frames, lines and arrows, to create a visual connection between elements.
A great example is how Google's Material Design applies this law by using visual consistency cues, including icons, typography and colors.
12. Peak-End Rule
Users will likely judge a product's UX by the end and peak moments, such as when the product is most helpful or when they complete a task.
Teams can take advantage of those instances to design the most memorable and engaging experiences.
Examples here include animations, positive feedback and reassuring or congratulations messages.
13. Serial Position Effect
Users are prone to remember items placed at the beginning of a sequence, so placing key elements on the far left or right can help improve memorization.
A common example of the Serial Position Effect law is how e-commerce sites place their best offers on the top left or right of a product sequence or carousel.
14. Von Restorff Effect
Users are more likely to remember UI elements that break visual uniformity within a group.
For example, a UI element with a triangle shape will stand out among a collection of circular or rectangular elements.
Designers highlight important information or key actions by making them visually distinctive.
15. Zeigarnik Effect
Uncompleted tasks are way more likely to stick into users' memories than completed tasks.
Due to this, clear visual indicators of progress should encourage users to engage with a task.
Examples include step trackers or learning platforms with reminders to prompt users to return and complete unfinished tasks.
16. Parkinson's Law
Parkinson's Law states that tasks will take as much time as you set for their completion.
For instance, if you allocate half an hour to a task you can complete in a few minutes, it'll still take half an hour.
Therefore, teams should design experiences with tasks that take faster time than real users expect to take.
Examples include using features like autofill and limiting the number of steps to complete tasks such as filling out form fields.
17. Miller's Law
According to Miller’s Law, users can only hold around seven items in working memory, five being the minimum and nine the maximum.
Designers should limit the number of items in UI elements, such as carousels and image galleries, to avoid cognitive load.
You can organize large pieces of content in small chunks to help users understand and process the information.
18. Occam's Razor Principle
According to Occam's Razor principle, the simplest solution for a problem is often the best one.
Removing unnecessary elements and complexities can make the UI cleaner and more intuitive.
The Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) states that this principle can be achieved through streamlined navigation, minimalist visuals, clear messaging and CTAs and consistent design elements.
19. Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle encourages design choices to focus the majority of efforts on areas that will benefit users the most.
According to the IxDF, designers can apply this principle by refining the 20% of features users engage in at least 80% of the time.
20. Postel's Law
Postel's Law suggests that designers should understand user behavior when interacting with the UI.
What’s more, being flexible with user flows can help create positive User Experiences.
For instance, instead of throwing an error when a user mistype a query, you can suggest corrections or return results based on the intended input.
21. Tesler's Law
According to Tesler's Law, all systems involve at least some level of complexity, which must not be removed.
Simplicity does not always equate to better design.
Due to this, designers should not sacrifice functional elements in pursuit of absolute simplicity.
However, teams can still strive to promote simplicity as long as they do not compromise essential functionality.
Why Follow UI and UX Best Practices?
Following UI and UX best practices in the Design Process can help designers address users' needs better for increased user satisfaction.
By implementing UI and UX best practices, design teams can help ensure the final product will provide intuitive navigation while meeting user expectations.
As it happens, intuitive navigation leads to many other benefits, such as increased conversion rates, engagement and reduced bounce rates.
Conclusion
These UI and UX best practices promote simplicity, clarity, efficiency, intuitiveness and ease of use.
As a result, they can lead to a boost in user engagement and customer satisfaction while reducing cognitive load.
As a dedicated UX-driven Product Development agency, we know the role of UI and UX best practices in delivering successful digital products!
Would you like to hear about our unique approach to bringing ideas to life that achieve business goals? Get in touch with us!
