What kind of UI is a good UI? ——Basic principles of UI
As a product manager, what you often need to do is evaluate a UI. What kind of UI is a good and appropriate UI? As a product, there needs to be an evaluation standard.
The following are the standards for evaluating UI/UE that I have summarized over the years. They are also the basic principles for making UI and can be used as a reference.
1. Easy to understand
As a UI, the most basic function is for users to understand the product.
How to make it easy to understand? Can people understand it at a glance?
It can be considered from the following three aspects:
●Amount of information
The greater the amount of information, the greater the cognitive difficulty. This is easier to understand, and the amount of information must be controlled on the UI.
● Information expression form
Text, pictures, animations, videos, etc. are all forms of expression. Use whatever form is suitable for expressing the information that you want users to recognize. For example, when the amount of information to be expressed is large, it will be better to express it through rich media such as video than through text.
● Information expression method
This is actually an interaction problem, that is, how to express information step by step so that users can easily understand it and make users willing to recognize the expressed information.
● Be consistent with the cognitive habits of the user group
Colors, names, icons, etc. that the product's user base is accustomed to using in specific aspects. Being consistent with their cognitive habits can greatly reduce cognitive costs.
2. Easy to operate
● Properly plan the operating area
In a UI, user operations can be concentrated in one area, or user operation areas can be arranged along user cognition. However, it must be planned reasonably and holistically.
● User perception before the operation is consistent with the results after the operation
Don’t let users have “surprises”. Too many “surprises” will confuse users’ understanding of the product.
● Operation feedback/user behavior feedback
Dynamic effects and result feedback that are easy for users to understand allow users to know the results simply and clearly.