What Are the Characteristics that Define a Good User Interface?

Creating a good user interface design can often be challenging for user interface developer, trying to achieve success in every aspect without there being conflict of interest. For instance, with the objective to design eye-catchy UI, the ease of use and functionality might be compromised.

A good UI is one that allows your users to perform the intended actions effectively and efficiently, without causing unnecessary distractions. In fact, the best User Interfaces aren’t necessarily the most spectacular designs, but rather the ones that render seamless user experience.

So, what it takes to build a good User Interface design? Here are 5 most important aspects to consider when creating a UI design:

1. Clear & Concise

If your user is unable to understand what the user interface is all about, the time spent perfecting its functionality is considered useless. It is important that there lies no ambiguity over how your UI operates, be it in terms of content or visual hierarchy. The whole purpose of the UI design is to enable users to interact with your software or website by communicating function and meaning. If they cannot make out where to go on your website or how your application works, they will get confused and frustrated. The rule of thumb is the easier and quicker something can be explained with the user interface without losing any factual information or semantic meaning, the better.

Clarity is one aspect of a good user interface; however, a user interface developershould be careful so that they do not over-exaggerate. This is where it becomes important to have a UI that is clear as well as concise. When you add explanations and definitions, you are just over-sizing your user interface, and often, unnecessarily. When you can label something with one word instead of two, do it. The developer should know when to be concise and when to elaborate.

2. Responsive

When it comes to UI design, responsive may mean several things. Firstly, it means fast, i.e. the interface should work quick, delivering enhanced user experience. Users hate waiting for things to load or using slow interfaces. An interface that loads quickly improves user experience. On the other hand, responsive also means that the interface should deliver some sort of feedback, i.e. it should respond to user actions and tell them what is happening. For instance, when a user puts something to load, say download a song, the interface should display “Loading” or “Downloading” status. This helps to keep the user in the loop.

3. Consistency and Intuitiveness

To make a user interface easily navigable and usable, it should have a well laid-out, consistent and intuitive design. Giving your users a completely new layout for interface might be highly rewarding, but can be a major challenge for a user interface developer. Otherwise, you can follow your predecessors and make your users feel at home. Delivering consistent interfaces across all products allow users to build usage pattern, and they feel more comfortable working on your applications. Logic of usability should also be maintained in the design, i.e. features that are used most frequently should be most prominent in the user interface.

4. Aesthetics

Inarguably, aesthetics is one of the most important aspects of an interface; however, you should understand that an eye-catchy look cannot make up for a poor design. To make it attractive, it is important that you perform little research to know what your users are looking for exactly.

5. Efficient

A good user interface is one that allows users to perform their functions faster and with less effort. It involves understanding what exactly the user wants to achieve, and then letting them do it without any hassle.

What do you think? Is your user interface good enough to attract and engage users? Share your opinions with us.