UI Design made easy for Beginners

What’s a Good Interface? Design is not just about good visuals and bright shiny elements. It actually is the tool, the bridge that defines the behaviour and relationship between a user and a product. Therefore it should have both, as in it should be able to clearly broadcast the right message to the end-user, meet their needs and look amazing too.

So addressing the first matter at hand what’s the easiest way to broadcast your message? Simple. Exactly, keep it clean and simple. That’s the basic rule of exceptional designs, They’re not complex. Even companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Instagram understand the value of neet and simple UI, see for yourself.

That’s Login page for Google Account before and after The appreciated Re-design of Google products

This is how Facebook looks now, Clean, Simple, Easy to use and Amazing at the same time.

Secret to A Good Design is keeping it Clean, Simple and Easy to Use.But if you really want to be a pro in lesser time, Learn Typography and Color grading stuff, Make sure you look for inspiration for your designs and don’t feel limited to Any rule but these two that It should be easy to use, and clean. Being a UI Designer you can relate to this that the sense of design often improves with time therefore keep practising. Dribble is a nice place to look for inspiration if you ask me.

Simple and Clear UI, Don’t you think It looks Marvelous? It’s just a concept but a great one at that

With keeping in mind you’re a basic designer, I’ll suggest that you go through as many inspirations as you can, learn and make keynotes of what you liked particularly in them. If needed, try visiting the website of Material Design, and other design systems time to time.

Let’s Design some Elements

There’s only a little difference in Default UI and a good one.

So What are the ultimate takeaways from the Image above?

• Simple and few colors, try making a color theme to make it easier, for example, dribble’s theme has Pink and white, Different grades of the same colors can be accepted yes.
• Spacing around components, because even empty space matter in Design. Because components need to stand out while keeping the design clean, So let your design Breathe.
• Using rounded corners. Not everywhere but yeah these can be useful. 2px, 5px, 11px, 16px, 21px are the one’s I use mostly in simple designs.
• Simple icons, try using one icon pack at a time, using multiple icon packs can ruin your Interface. Material Icons, Font Awesome, Moon icons are some good ones to start with.
• Alignment, Typography, and fonts, Roboto, Sans-serif, Arial are the one’s that are mostly pre-installed in devices, But what fonts I mostly use are Alata, Ubuntu, Mukta and sometimes Righteous too. Knowing when to use left, right and center element alignments in a design is one of the key factors as well. Google’s Material Design as well as many other Design Systems have detailed analysis on typography and Alignments. You can check them out.
• Shadows, Borders, and Slightly darker background of elements. Using shadows, or borders to make a Component stand out is common practise now, although using backgrounds to make an element standout is a little tricky for new designers. But if I have to put pluntly I’d say use the theme’s primary/sacondary color with 5–10% transparency.

Don’t Do Something like this.

Remember, You don’t have to copy some design. It’s not wrong to take slight inspirations from others to evolve but don’t be a lazy to try something new. Experiment with design, try to make it look different than others, It’ll take practice and time but ultimately you’ll stand out as a great UI Designer.

Till then, keep practicing. Best of Luck.

• Ritesh Kushwaha (Aiedrow)

You can Check my Patreon, Instagram, Github, Wattpad, Youtube and yeah, My website too.