Like anything in life, we must have discipline and principles in order to do things correctly. The design world also has principles that we must follow otherwise everything falls apart.
Here are the principles that I follow when I work on UI/UX projects for my clients.
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Simple & easy to understand
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Feels intuitive
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Engaging - users should feel good while using the application or system
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Efficient, the fewer clicks to complete a task the better it is
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Make users feel supported
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Make it easy to recover from mistakes
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Consistency across different pages
Imagine you was on a plane traveling to your destination. But the plane felt very small and cramped, the seats were worn out, ripped, squeaky and uncomfortable. On top of that the staff were not helpful and the food was horrible. This became your worst journey ever. Now you don't want to use that plane anymore. It affected you so bad that you left a really bad review on their website warning others to not travel with this brand. Just like this bad experience on the plane, there is bad experiences when it comes to UI/UX.
If you don't follow the principles to the design and make sure all of these are ticked from the list then, you will have users frustrated, annoyed & very upset. That is a designer's nightmare, not just designers but even companies and brand's nightmare. This is why UI/UX is so important for any business. It could be the decision maker to gaining customers or loosing them forever.
These are the compulsory set of rules I follow for all my UI/UX projects. Depending on the company and client I am working with I like to add additional rules to my compulsory ones. They could be things like, encourage more sales and conversions or get more sign ups to build email lists. I make sure that my design will help achieve those goals. These are more like goals rather than principles but I like understand where the end point will be. So I always ask myself in order to make this happen, what will be the best effective way to make this happen? What are the easiest and straightforward steps for my users? So remember to always follow a set of principles this will make life so much easier and your work high & expensive quality.
Take a look at this app I designed and let me know have I met my design principles?
