Let’s get to know about interface design principles
Design principles that can be used to implement comprehensive interfaces
Interfaces are the intermediate component between the user and the system. Hence as interface designers, we should carefully design interfaces without distract user expectations and previous experiences. In order to overcome the design of the poor interfaces, we can follow the below principles when designing our interfaces. Each of the following principles are extracted through major concepts of design principles like Shneidermans’s 8 Golden Rules, Norman’s 7 Principles, and Nielsons Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design.
In designing interfaces there are no strict rules to follow but principles are the things we should know generally and be aware of, keep in mind things regards to the design of the interfaces.
There are 14 important design principles that you may consider and one by one of them are describing in below.
1. Affordance
According to the “Affordance” principle, interface design itself guides the user, how to handle and how to use the interface. That can be achieved through providing hits such as the interface supposed to be used.
As an example, we can map interface design with the physical functions like,
Buttons: suppose to be pressed
Cross icon: close a window or stop action
2. Constraints
The “Constraints” principle means that some rules, conditions, or limitations regard the interface design. Rather it is limiting user expectations but it directs correct actions at the first sight. Therefore when designing interfaces we should carefully do that job with not to have too much and not to have too little content.
3. Consistency
There are several sub-components for a particular interface and there are multiple pages within a single website. Therefore we should maintain the “Consistency” principle among them.
As an example, if we have a left-aligned interface we should maintain that layout for the interfaces that are on the same web page because users may not be confused and working in a familiar manner when maintaining the consistency principle.
On the other hand, the interface design can be reusable by following the consistency principle.
4. Discoverability
If our interface follows the “Discoverability” principle, users can easily figure out what should they do whenever they do not know how to do it. This concept is important when addressing novice users.
Therefore our interface should be provided with a visible set of instructions for the users and particular functions should be made visible.
5. Documentation
The “Documentation” principle can be easily understood by the concept of the user manual. Actually user manual is learning material for a particular equipment or machinery item.
When designing interfaces, we should maintain a separate document to learn and it will provide help and make searching easy to use. This will really help when there are lots of interactions and complex steps to follow.
6. Ease and Comfort
“Ease and comfort” principles have the same mean behind them, hence interface design should provide an efficient use and comfort user without fatigue them.
When we compared to the interface design in the past, this is applicable in the present because all of the services through interfaces try to give better performance to users with competing their competitors.
7. Equity
Before explaining the Equity principle, we should know the difference between Equality and Equity.
Equality: Providing the same thing to everyone
Equity: Providing something purposely
Hence we should understand through the “Equity” principle is our interface should provide a facility to have the same user experience for each and every user. It is actually a hard principle to achieve because our interface interacts with users who have diverse abilities.
8. Feedback
When we design an interface it should provide the system state through “feedback”. If the user performs any action or changes the state of the system, our interface should have the capability to inform about the change done by the user.
Providing feedback helps users to interpret the future and can avoid erroneous actions.
It is important to mention that “Poor feedback can be worse than no feedback.”
9. Flexibility
In order to address the user preferences through our interface, we should have a quite idea about what they most prefer as well as what they do not prefer. Therefore “Flexibility” principle helps to make a better interface that is suiting for different personal choices.
10. Mapping
The “Mapping” principle describes that our interface design should be mapped into the real world effects and in a simple manner, our interface design should speak the user’s language.
11. Perceptibility
The “Perceptibilty” principle means that the user should have an understanding of the system state which means the ability to perceive what has happened. This can be accomplished through proper communication between the user and the system.
12. Tolerance
This principle means how tolerance interfaces to the users. If our interface design feels safe and users can do experiments without crashing the system. By following the “Tolerance” principle we can make an effective system and interfaces that are matching the user experiences and expectations.
13. Simplicity
Our interface should follow “simplicity” principles and do not clutter out the visual objects that distract the user’s mind because too many visible things make it harder to see the necessarily available options clearly.
Hence we should carefully choose what are the priorities and what should be more focused on our interface in order to make simple the interface.
14. Structure
The “Structure” principle says that we should consider the architecture of the user interface when we design them because well-organized interfaces according to the user mental model will help to extract the actual value of the interface functions.
On the other hand, we should keep related things near without confusing users.
Cool Friends…😊
Now we have a better understanding of the principles of the interface designs through the 14 design principles described above. When you are designing interfaces, make sure to follow those principles to make effective interfaces that do not distract user expectations.
Hope you will get a clear idea about interface design principles and hit a clap🙌 if you think that this is useful for you.
Thank you for reading ……
