A well-designed user interface can make a significant difference in the success of a product. there is a list of 25 tips to help you improve your user interface design skills.

These tips cover everything from layout and colour to typography etc.., and they’re suitable for both beginners & experienced designers looking to enhance their skills. So, let’s dive in

1. Linear Gradient to Show Contrast

When designing cards with headings and background images, it’s important to create a visual contrast between the two elements. One effective technique to achieve this is by adding a linear gradient on top of the background image with a lower level of transparency.

2. Don’t Use Pure Black as Background: Tip 1

Using pure black as a background can often create a jarring effect that feels unnatural. Instead, it’s recommended to use a near-black color like #0F0F0F for creating a more natural and aesthetically pleasing background. This colour can be especially useful when designing dark mode user interfaces.

3. Don’t Use Pure Black As Background: Tip 2

When designing dark mode interfaces, you may come across situations where you need to place colour-heavy cards on dark backgrounds.

For instance, a full blue colour card may look better on a dark navy blue background rather than on pure black.

Experiment with same colour of card by lowering the brightness value.

4. Measured Alignment vs Optical Alignment

When placing a square and a circle of the same size side by side, they may appear visually different due to the way our eyes perceive shapes.

it’s important to use optical alignment techniques. This involves adjusting the placement of the square and circle so that they appear visually aligned, even if they are not perfectly centered.

5. Even Spacing

One effective technique is to use multiples of 8 for the spacing between elements. This is because most developers use eight-point grids to structure their designs, reducing the likelihood of errors and streamlining the development process.

6. Blur Effect

When applying blur effect, make sure to set the blur value to be double the Y coordinate. This creates a harmonious and balanced effect that looks visually pleasing and can improve the overall user experience.

7. Desaturated Colour on Dark Background

Desaturated colours have a lower level of saturation, creating a more subtle effect that is easier on the eyes. On the other hand, highly saturated colours can feel heavy and overwhelming, causing eye strain and making it harder to read text.

Keep experimenting with saturation of colours, useful when using red, green, blue, yellow colours

8. Ideal Font Size for Content

Choosing the right font size is a crucial aspect of designing a user-friendly interface. When it comes to setting the font size for paragraphs, an ideal size is 16 pixels. This font size strikes a balance between legibility and readability.

16px is a commonly used font size across various devices and platforms.

9. Padding For Button

Double the value of the vertical padding for the horizontal padding. looks perfect.

Above example, the button has 12px vertical padding (top, bottom) and 24px horizontal padding (right, left).

10. Visual Contrast In Content

By using different styles and colours, you can create a hierarchy of information, making it easier for users to scan and understand the content. For instance, using bold and larger font sizes for headings can draw attention to important information, while using a lighter or smaller font size for the tagline and content can help create a sense of continuity and flow

11. Designing Icons For Navbar

When designing the bottom navigation bar for your interface, it’s important to maintain consistency in the style of icons used.

This means that all icons should be either filled, outline, or any other consistent style, rather than mixing and matching styles.

12. Active Tab Icon In Navbar

Differentiating the active tab from inactive tabs in your navigation bar is essential.

By using a distinct style, such as a filled icon or a different colour, you can clearly communicate to the user which tab is currently active and enhance the overall user experience.

13. Exporting Perfect Icons

When exporting icons for your user interface, it’s important to ensure that they are aligned and balanced visually when placed side by side.

To achieve this, it’s recommended to place the icon inside a frame when exporting. This helps create a sense of consistency and balance among different icons. This technique can be especially helpful when creating icon sets.

14. Designing Carousel

When designing a carousel, show a bit of the next or previous card when it nears the edge of the container. This technique can help users anticipate the next card and make the interaction feel more natural. By providing users with a clear indication of what’s coming next.

15. Changing Button Action

You can change button action to create a more intuitive and efficient user experience. For example, after a user adds an item to their cart by clicking on an “Add to Cart” button, the CTA can be changed to “View Cart” to allow the user to quickly and easily access their cart without having to navigate to a different page.

This technique can be especially helpful for e-commerce websites or other applications that involve multiple steps or actions.

16. Nested Corners

If the corner round radius of the card and the content do not match, it can create an uneven or unbalanced look.

Always try to match the corner round radius of the card and the content inside it. This technique helps create a perfect balance in spacing.

17. Ideal Line Height

The ideal line height for content in a UI is generally 1.5 times the font size. This technique allows for sufficient breathing space between lines of text, making paragraphs easier to read and reducing visual clutter.

When line height is too tight, it can make the text appear cramped and difficult to read, always pay attention.

18. When To Use Title Case

Use title case for CTA text as it emphasises the button. Title case means capitalising the first letter of each word in the text, except for articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. Using title case makes it easy for users to scan through the text and identify the key message of the button.

19. When To Use Upper Case

Uppercase letters have a stronger visual impact than lowercase. Consider using uppercase letters for tags, statuses, and other similar elements to create a clean and precise look that stands out from other elements, while keeping in mind the overall visual balance of the design.

20. Using Gradient

It’s important to keep in mind that most UI elements are square in shape. Therefore, using radial gradient backgrounds can sometimes look out of place or unbalanced in the design. Instead, it’s generally a better idea to use linear gradient backgrounds, which can help to create a sense of depth and contrast in the design

Linear gradients can be particularly useful in designing dark mode UI

21. Bottom Navigation Bar

Always keep in mind it is not about the space between each tab but make sure all tabs takes up the entire width of the navbar. when each tab takes up the same width, the distance between each icon in each tab will be the same. So, when designing a bottom navigation bar for mobile, be sure to consider the width of the screen and the number of tabs you are going to have.

Check mobile apps like Instagram, Linkedin, Spotify, Twitter etc.. its all about equal spacing between each icon & having fixed width for each tab.

22. Highlight Active Tab or Page

Active tab should easily be distinguishable from the inactive ones. One way to do this is to highlight the active tab using a contrasting background color or some other visual cue. For instance, you can use a light background color to make the active tab stand out from the rest, useful in designing

23. Context For CTA

Although it may not seem important but adding a one-line context below a call-to-action (CTA) can be quite useful for informing the user about the next steps, especially in cases such as payments.

24. Text Fields Alignment

For uniformity and consistency in input forms, it’s best to place each label above its corresponding text field rather than to the left or right. Avoiding this layout can help to ensure a clean and organised look to the overall design

25. Text Fields Visual Style

For a consistent visual style in input forms, make sure that the height of text fields and the main call-to-action (CTA) button are the same. When designing input forms, be sure to pay attention to the height of these elements to ensure a clean UI.

Source : https://uxplanet.org/30-practical-tips-for-effective-user-interface-design-59e1e46ac370