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Do you have a capable website or web app? Capable? What does the capability mean?

Let’s clear this for you. Capability of your website or app means its ability to attract, engage and delight your users. Now your next question will be, How to make your digital property capable? The simple answer to this is, by having a good User Interface done for it.
User Interface is simply the way in which user interacts with your app or website. In technical terms.

User Interface is anticipating what your users might require to do and designing the elements which make it easy for users to understand, use and navigate. User Interface design, commonly known as UI design is playing most substantial role in attracting more users and getting them converted to loyal customers.

We are living in a digital world surrounded by user interfaces as soon as we start our day. Right from mobile phones in our hands, to displays in our cars, Light and temperature controls in our houses etc. we are using UI in many things. But as users are getting more used to all this, their expectations on quality and convenience has also risen. For businesses and UI designers it is indispensable to offer their users a good user interface.

What comprises to make a good User Interface?

Here are a few points to consider for a good User Interface.

• Simple and ClearA good UI does not need to be flashy or decorated, but it should be as simple as possible.
  Comprising just the necessary and logical elements, User Interface should be designed keeping in mind “Does my user need this element to complete this particular task?”In other words, a simple and clear UI design has a sole purpose of helping the user to complete their task for which they are on your site or application. Facilitating them to easily interact with your system, conveniently navigate and complete the desired task is what your User Interface must have.

• Consistent“Consistency is the key to success.” We all must have heard this phrase many times in our lives. Same is true for a good UI design.Maintaining a consistency throughout your user’s journey on your website or app will make them feel comfortable and develop a usage pattern. You can improve your users’ experience by emphasising consistency in terms of maintaining language, design and even the layout on other screens as well. Even these patterns are of great help for users to understand how things work and how they can get maximum out of it.

• FamiliarAs the name suggests, familiar is something which is already known to us. Same is an important feature of a good User Interface Design. In technical terms, it is called intuitive. It means that when a user comes to your website or web app he or she should not feel a need to read instructions or find what he/she should do next to continue journey.
  So it is advisable to identify the things that your users are familiar with and leverage it into your UI. Incorporating familiar features into your design does not mean that you should not try anything new. But you should always try something creative staying within the scope of intuitiveness.

• HierarchyHierarchy is nothing but “to put in order”. In other words it means that your design should be such that it communicates to the user on what is more important. Creating hierarchy is not a very tough job. You can easily make use of contrasting colours, varying sizes of text and even placing the important elements at places that catch the eye of your user.Carefully selecting the typefaces, fonts and focussing on readability helps a lot in accomplishing well defined visual hierarchy. This in turn helps the users in accomplishing their tasks without getting frustrated.

• ResponsiveToday we all are quite familiar with this word. But responsiveness in terms of UI/UX design has more than one context. In very first context, responsiveness refers to a fast interface. A quickly loaded website or web app will face lesser abandonments and hence lower bounce rate. The lesser time, for which your user has to wait for your page to load, the better will be the user experience.Second context of responsiveness, is that your interface should be responding to every important action of the user. In other words, your interface should give feedback to the user and let him/her know that their command has been acknowledged and is being processed. This way they will get to know that something is being processed rather than assuming that it is stuck. This again helps in lowering your bounce rate.

Conclusion

A good User Interface Design not only helps people to have an amazing user experience but it also guides them well throughout the interface without having to incur training costs. And we all know that when a user has experienced something worth spending time at, does not require any pushes, he/she will keep coming back to you time and again. Hence incorporate the above listed features to leave your users delighted and bag them into their loyal customers forever.

Stay tuned for more of such incredible and engaging topics for you and your business.