How to Avoid Common UI Design Mistakes: Part 2

As a UI designer, you desire to deliver aesthetic and intuitive interfaces. We continue to share more mistakes people make when designing digital products. Quick check: You should check out neat interface designs on UILand. These are some of the best designed apps on the planet and you can learn a lot from studying their screens. Back to the lesson!

UI Design Mistakes to Always Avoid

In expanding our list from the first part of this article, here are some more UI design mistakes the novice UI designer must avoid.

Poor use of icons

Icons are neither merely decorative nor just an easy aspect of design. As fundamental parts of modern UIs. Sometimes, icons are even equivalent to buttons (think Snapchat), so such interfaces mostly consist of icons.

Even with icons, you need to use appropriate symbols to communicate the meaning of the element, while maintaining consistency in style across the product’s icons.

Here are best practices for using icons in your app:

Opt for vectors/SVG icons. Your icons will appear sharp in any device r at any resolution.

Be consistent in style. Ensure you use filled or outlined icons and use a consistent line thickness and corner radius.

Use clear messaging on every icon.

Unaligned elements

Alignment projects symmetrical beauty onto a layout. You can use a 12-column grid or baseline grid for this purpose. They won’t appear in your final UI but are useful for achieving a balanced interface.

Always align related elements to the same side because it connects them visually.

Low contrast

Low contrast between UI elements causes it to be dull and hard to read. This hampers usability.

These tips can add contrast to UI design:

Use contrast to guide the user’s attention through the interface.

Use it to distinguish UI sections.

Use contrast to separate elements from the background.

This website is useful to check if there’s enough contrast between 2 colors.

Confusing forms

Forms are important in the user journey. You see them at Checkout, Login, Sign Up, and so forth. Design better forms this way:

Color alone is not enough to indicate error. Actionable feedback can make it easier to type in a correct input.

Break up long forms into logical sections.

Conclusion

Now that you have more strategies in your repertoire to generate high-quality UI designs, you can confidently tackle complex projects and enhance user experience on your terms.