UI & UX Micro-Tips: The Ulti-

mate Collection

A collection of 58 powerful tips to

help improve your designs instantly

By Marc Andrew

1
When creating efficient, accessible, and beautiful UIs for your projects sometimes it

takes only the smallest of adjustments to help quickly improve the designs you're

trying to create.

In this short, and easily digestible guide I’ve put together a selection of easy to put

into practice micro-tips that can, with little effort, help improve both your designs,

and the user experience.

Hope you enjoy the guide!

2
1. Make your elements appear more
defined with a subtle border.

Using Multiple Drop Shadows or a very subtle border (just a shade darker than

your actual shadow) around certain elements can make those elements appear a

little sharper, more defined, and help you avoid those muddy-looking shadows.

3
2. Reduce Letter-spacing on your
Headings to give a better optical bal-
ance.

Reducing Letter-spacing on long-form Body text? That’s a big ‘No’.

But for Headings...

... that's a resounding ‘Yes’ from me!

Your Headings are most likely going to be much larger, and heavier than their

Body text companions, so the spacing between the letters can sometimes appear

optically larger, which is not always what you want when you're looking for that per-

fect aesthetic.

Reducing the Letter-spacing, just by small amounts, can make your Headings more

optically balanced, more readable, and generally more pleasant to look at.

4
3. For consistency, make sure your
icons share the same visual style.

When implementing Icons in your UIs, keep things consistent.

Make sure they all share the same visual style; the same weight, and either filled, or

outlined.

Don’t mix and match.

5
4. Using just one typeface in your de-
sign is all good. Ignore the haters.

It’s absolutely fine to just go with a single Typeface when creating your designs,

and doing so can actually help you produce much stronger, and consistent results.

Ignore the ‘Always use 2 Typefaces. Minimum.’ crowd. Using a combination of

Weights, Sizes, and Colour you can still produce perfectly acceptable results with

just a solitary Typeface.

6
5. Whitespace is your UI design friend.
Use it generously. Use it well.

Good old Whitespace, Negative Space, you know the one. Use it generously, or in

moderation, but use it well.

Even just subtle amounts of the white stuff can allow your designs to breathe, and

look more polished.

One of the fastest, and simplest ways to improve your designs, no doubt.

7
6. Creating long-form content? Give
20pt a try.

For long-form content (ie; Blog Posts, Project Descriptions etc...), try going with

20pt (or even a little more) for your Body copy.

Of course this is dependent on the Typeface chosen, but a good majority of popu-

lar Body Typefaces work great at 20pt, and bring a much better reading experience

for your users when they're faced with a wall of text.

18pt is sooo last decade.

8
7. Use a Type Scale to define a harmo-
nious set of font sizes.

Using a Type Scale helps you define a set of font sizes easily, practically, and

without any kind of guesswork.

As the name suggests, a Type Scale works based on a scale factor (say 1.25). The

idea is that you start with a Base font size (18px) and multiply (or divide) it with the

scale factor to get font sizes of either a higher (ie; H₁, H₂, etc...), or lower hierarchy

(ie; Caption, Button etc...)

A Type Scale will help you produce texts that look harmonious because their sizes

increase, and decrease along a fixed scale that you’ve set.

I highly recommend checking out — https://type-scale.com

9
8. Choose a Base Colour, and then use
Tints & Shades to add uniformity.

Guess what? You don’t always have to stuff your design with a mass of colours.

If the project allows it, simply using a restricted colour palette by choosing a Base

Colour and then using Tints and Shades of your chosen colour can add uniformity

to your designs in the simplest of ways.

10
9. Improve your user’s onboarding ex-
perience. Thumbs rule remember.

Enable users to skip your Mobile App Onboarding sequence at any time, and

place that Skip link within easy thumb reach.

Just a simple adjustment that can enable a much better experience for your users...

right from the start.

Thumbs still rule remember!

11
10. Your shadows are coming from one
light source right?

Make sure your shadows always come from just the one light source.

It’s a simple mistake to make, but one that can leave your designs looking less than

polished.

We don’t live in a land of a thousand suns remember.

12
11. Use Superfamilies when you're
looking for great font combinations,
but fast.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope. It’s a Superfamily!

When you're looking to improve your typeface-combining skills and feel a little

daunted when faced with 1000s of Typefaces to choose from, just go with a Super-

family!

Superfamilies are collections of Typefaces that can come in both Serif, and Sans-

Serif variants for example, and are created to work together in close visual harmo-

ny.

A few that I highly recommend are Merriweather & Merriweather Sans, and Roboto

& Roboto Slab which you can find here at Google Fonts.

13
If you want to combine Typefaces effectively, and without the worry of picking out

an ugly looking combination you’ll rarely go wrong when choosing a Superfamily.

12. Improve contrast between your

text and images with a subtle overlay.

Depending on where the text may be positioned over your image, you can either

go with a tried, and tested full image overlay, or a more subtle (bottom to top, or

top to bottom) gradient overlay to achieve a simple contrast between the two ele-

ments.

Nothing too elaborate is required to achieve a good contrast between your text

and images.

14
13. Use Centred Text in moderation.
Too much of it makes for a sub-par
user experience.

Try to only use Centred Text for Headlines and small passages of Text if possible.

For pretty much everything else keep that text left-aligned. Your users will thank

you for it.

15
14. When choosing a multi-use Type-
face, try to find one with plenty of
weights.

Does the Typeface you've been searching for come with a generous selection of

weights, and styles?

Try and make sure it does if you intend on using it for a few of your projects.

Just the one weight, or style. Nah. I recommend steering clear of those if you can.

There are exceptions of course, and certain projects will require that ‘one style only’

more elaborate typeface, but for the vast majority of projects you want Typefaces

with a little more in the way of... well... choice.

Even if you decide on using just two or three weight or styles, give yourself the

breathing room if you need to call on more at a later stage in the design process.

16
15. Darken up your text on light back-
grounds. Ignore the ‘cool kids’.

Don’t make your text too light when working against a light background.

It can look like all the cool kids are (still) doing it, but you’re much smarter than that,

and want to create much more accessible interfaces right?

17
16. Lighten up your text if it looks a lit-
tle on the heavy side.

When it comes to long-form content, certain Regular weight Typefaces can still look

a little too heavy, and stark on the screen.

You can easily fix this by choosing something like a Dark Grey (ie; #4F4F4F) to tone

that text down, and make it a little easier on the eye.

18
17. Always make your ‘Call to Action’
the most prominent item on the
screen.

You think this would be common-sense right? Erm. Not always I’m afraid.

Make sure that ‘Call to Action’ is as prominent as possible, via the use of colour con-

trast, size, and labels.

Don’t always rely on Icons alone if you can. If you can use Text Labels too, use ’em,

to enable much better user comprehension.

19
18. The smaller the font size, the more
generous your line height should be.

As your font size decreases, increase the line height for better, all-round legibility.

The same applies to when your font size increases. Simply Decrease the line height.

20
19. Use the x-height or Il1 test to de-
termine readability of your chosen
Typeface.

Basically, the x-height is the height of a lower-case ‘x’ relative to an upper-case let-

ter (ie; T) of the same Typeface.

If your font has a large x-height, then this will generally make for much better read-

ability, especially when used in long-form body text.

Another way to determine the readability of a Typeface, and to narrow things down

if you have a few Typefaces that you can’t decide between, is to do the Il1 Test

(Credit to Jessica Hische for this tip).

Here you compare three characters from a specific Typeface; Uppercase i (I),

Lowercase L (l), and the number one (1).

21
How different the letterforms look against one another can help determine readab-

ility, especially when working with Sans Serif Typefaces.

Always aim for the best legibility, either via x-height, Il1, or both, when choosing a

Typeface for your Body text.

20. Give Prominence to the most fre-

quently used action in a Menu.

When designing a Menu to use inside an application, make sure to give the most

frequently used action (ie; Upload Image, Add File etc…) the most prominence on

the screen.

22
21. Colour-Pick from your images, and
bring your products to life.

Simply colour-picking from your product images, and then applying various tints

and shades of your chosen colour to your background, text, icons or more, can add

plenty of visual interest, and character to your designs.

23
22. Set your line height based on the
Typeface’s x-height.

Typefaces with differing x-heights need, well, different line height measurements to

achieve the right kind of separation between lines of text.

Even though you may have 2 Typefaces with the same font size (ie; 18px) their x-

heights can differ greatly, and this plays a big part in choosing the right kind of line

height to implement.

Merriweather for example is a Typeface with a large x-height, and as such requires

a larger line height, whereas something like Mr Eaves Sans with its small x-height

requires less line height to achieve optimal readability, and legibility.

24
23. Give prominence to the most im-
portant elements.

By using a combination of Font Sizes, Weights, Colour, and Layout, you can easily

give prominence to the most important elements in your UI.

Just simple, but subtle adjustments to make the user experience that bit better.

25
24. Add an extra visual aid to your
Form Errors.

Adding an Error Message close to the action that the user has just taken can be a

simple, but helpful, extra visual aid for when they’re filling out forms of any kind.

Every little helps right?

26
25. Try to create generous Tappable ar-
eas on Mobile.

When designing for Mobile try to create Tappable Areas large enough for fingers

to, well, tap successfully.

Things can be challenging for Buttons, and Links that consist only of Text so try to

go for an Icon with a Label whenever possible.

Here’s the minimum recommended Tap Areas for both iOS and Android...

44 x 44pt for iOS

48 x 48dp for Android

27
26. Try to use All-caps on short titles
only, such as Kickers.

If you want to use All-caps on your Titles make sure they’re pretty short whenever

possible, preferably one line. Using them for longer texts is a terrible idea.

One of the best places is on Kickers (sometimes known as Overlines). These are

those short phrases, only a few words usually, that can appear above your titles,

and are perfect when you want to put All-caps into practice.

And like the Tip previously, adding a subtle amount of Letter-spacing to titles with

All-caps applied can also allow them to breathe, and look better optically.

28
27. Keep the contrast ratio acceptable
between light text, and images.

Always make sure light text is legible against, well, lighter image backgrounds.

Simply applying a slightly opaque darkened background behind your text will keep

a good contrast ratio between those elements.

It also allows you to easily switch between dark, and light images without the hassle

of changing the text colour.

29
28. Take a look at these great Fonts;
Perfect for Headlines in your designs.

Here’s a selection of Serif, and Sans-Serif Commercial Fonts that I’ve used many

times before, and found they work really well for headlines, bringing a bit of

warmth, and character to any design.

You can find them at fonts.adobe.com (No, I'm not getting any commission).

30
29. Take a look at these great Fonts;
Perfect for Body copy in your designs.

Behold a small selection of both Serif, and Sans-Serif Commercial Fonts that I’ve

used consistently for long-form Body text, and highly recommend.

You can find them over at fonts.adobe.com (No, I’m still not getting any commis-

sion).

31
30. Get that Vertical Rhythm just right
for your Headlines and Body Text.

When you want to achieve a good Vertical Rhythm, as well as a strong Visual Hier-

archy between text elements in your designs it pays to get your Margins in order.

I’ve seen many designs, most commonly in lists of articles, where they've applied

equal top and bottom margins to headings, and in doing so, have lost that connect

with the body text below it.

In cases like this, I’ll always give more top margin to my headings, and a little less at

the bottom so the connection between the headline and content beneath is

stronger, there’s a good Vertical Rhythm, and Visual Hierarchy is preserved

between all the articles.

32
31. For Download Indicators, try to be
as informative as possible.

The one time you don't want to go with the super ‘Minimal’ look is when it comes

to Download Indicators.

For the user, try to make your Download Indicators as informative, and user-friendly

as possible.

You can achieve this via the use of colour, a percentage figure to show the current

progress, and a simple icon giving them the ability to cancel the download at any

time.

33
32. If you can keep your titles short,
and concise... ‘Just do it’.

If you can, and if it’s suitable, keep titles short, snappy and to the point.

For example. Instead of ‘It’s your style, and your way’, simply use something like

‘Your style. Your way.’

People scan, and keeping those titles short, and punchy helps them digest the in-

formation much quicker.

Remember that it can come across quite abrupt this way, and you need to consider

the type of project you're working on, and the intended audience to decide if this

method is suitable, as opposed to the more standard format.

34
33. Choose the right Typeface to give
the correct ‘voice’ to your design.

When working with text on a project, choosing the right Typeface will influence the

kind of voice that your text is spoken in. Be that loud, or soft, friendly or formal, seri-

ous, or fun.

Each Typeface has its own distinctive voice, and it's about finding the appropriate

voice for the project you're currently working on.

When you're new to working with Typefaces this can seem like a daunting task, so

don't be afraid to be inspired by similar projects out there, and take ideas from

them to help both influence your decisions, and improve your understanding of

what is suitable.

35
34. Choose a suitable Line Length for
your body text, and improve Readabil-
ity.

Working with Body text, and trying to find a suitable line length can be a bit of a

balancing act.

45 to 75 characters is widely regarded as a satisfactory line length for a single-

column page, with a 66 character line (which includes both letters, and spaces)

found to be the sweet-spot.

Of course font size, and line height also play a role when deciding on readability,

but for line length keep between the 45 to 75 character guidelines, and you'll be

good to go.

36
35. It’s OK to use purely decorative el-
ements from time to time, but keep
things accessible.

Yes. The majority of text content on the screen should adhere to usability best prac-

tices. No questions asked.

But. There are times when you want to add text purely for decorative purposes, and

that's all good. We don't want all of our designs falling into the realms of bland-

land.

It's OK to pop in the odd element purely for decorative reasons as long as not hav-

ing that element there at all would affect the user experience in any way.

When using decorative elements that are purely visual and not important to the

user experience make sure to call on those ARIA Roles such as aria-hidden=“true”

when it comes round to Development.

37
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/ARIA_Tech-

niques/Using_the_aria-hidden_attribute

36. Make elements in your UIs distin-

guishable from one another.

Buttons. Notifications. Two separate but essential elements in your UIs.

If you can, always try and make sure that your users can tell them apart quickly and

easily when scanning your site or app.

Buttons, in most cases, will take priority, so make sure they’re the most prominent

item on the screen and easily distinguished between other elements (i.e. notifica-

tions).

38
37. Just subtle amounts of shadow are
all you need.

We all love a good drop-shadow, right?

They can serve as subtle but powerful visual cues within your designs when used in

moderation.

But. Subtlety is the name of the game here.

Shadows in the real world are, the majority of the time, almost unnoticeable, and

so you should mimic this kind of behaviour in your UIs.

Lay off the heavy and dark shadows, and dial down the opacity to achieve some-

thing a little more subtle and lifelike.

39
38. Using All Caps? Choose a font suit-
able to achieve optical clarity.

Using All Caps in moderation within your designs is all good.

Applying All Caps to certain text elements can help you achieve some variety, and

contrast between other text elements in your design and enhance the overall visu-

als you're trying to present.

If you decide to style things up with a handy dose of All Caps, try and make sure

you choose a suitable Typeface with a tall x-height and in a heavier font-weight to

enable optical clarity for the user.

40
39. Make Breadcrumbs stand out and
easy to interpret for the user.

Breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs everywhere.

Used frequently on content-heavy sites, but not always shown the love they de-

serve.

With the smallest of tweaks, you can make sure that the user can quickly pinpoint

where they are in a site and where else they may need to go.

This is especially useful if they've jumped to somewhere deep in a site via the use

of Search for example.

Always try and make sure that the last item in the chain is visually different from the

rest. And the links, well, try and make them look like so.

Give breadcrumbs some love.

41
40. Using highly saturated colours? Try
and tone things down with a Tint or
Shade.

Highly saturated colours (brilliant blues, reds, greens etc.) can look great on a site,

but when overused, they can be tiring for the user's eyes, mainly when used with

text-heavy content.

Use them in moderation when you can, and try to combine with muted colours (a

tint or shade variant) of the saturated colour to avoid that dreaded eye fatigue.

Using this method can also direct attention to the saturated colour and make the

most important content front and centre, with the more muted colours taking a less

prominent role and giving your user's eyes a little rest.

Always remember though, that readability and accessibility should be the top prior-

ity when choosing colours.

42
Don’t forget to reach for a WCAG colour contrast checker such as Contrast when

you’re looking at trying out colour alternatives.

41. Use established icons in your UIs

to avoid confusion for the user.

When adding icons to your designs, try and choose an established icon that rep-

resents the action that's about to be taken.

Choose an icon that conveys the correct meaning and functionality, as anything

else invites confusion and becomes a cognitive obstacle for the user.

Don't be too rebellious with those icons.

43
42. Use Proximity to signal relation-
ships between elements.

Among the many tried and tested Design Principles available (Contrast, Space, Re-

petition etc.), there is one that is key in helping you produce clearer UIs for your

users.

Proximity.

Proximity is simply the process of ensuring related design elements are placed to-

gether, signalling a relationship between one another, which helps speed up the

user’s cognition when scanning through your Site or App.

44
43. 4pt Baseline Grid + 8pt Grid = Har-
monious Vertical Rhythm.

When working with Type, using a 4pt Baseline alongside the ever-versatile 8pt Grid

can bring a much more harmonious vertical rhythm to your designs.

You need to align your Type to a Baseline Grid of 4, using a line-height value that is

a multiple of 4 (16, 20, 24, 28 etc...)

Why 4? Well, I’ve found that scaling in multiples of 8 in the past is just not as versat-

ile when working with specific text sizes.

4pt Baseline Grid + 8pt Grid = Sweet Vertical Harmony.

45
44. It’s all good to reduce the line-
height on your Headings.

As opposed to the long-form body text, which needs ample line-height for in-

creased legibility, headings are usually much shorter, so you can ease back on the

spacing a little.

The recommended line-height for headings is usually around 1 to 1.3 times the

size of the text, and the larger you go, well, the less line-height you need to add to

the mix.

Go line-height-light with your Headings.

46
45. Having trouble picking a colour
scheme? Go Analogous on the Colour
Wheel.

Analogous colours, also referred to as adjacent or neighbouring hues, are among

the most harmonious of colour schemes and can help you greatly if you're having

trouble picking colours that play together nicely.

A set of adjoining hues consisting of primary, secondary, and tertiary colours can

help you create a simple, bulletproof colour scheme quickly.

Go Analogous when you need to bring colour harmony into the mix fast.

47
46. Try and maximise the Signal-to-
Noise ratio in your designs.

You can achieve clarity and usability within your designs by maximising the signal

and minimising the noise, which in turn produces a high signal-to-noise ratio.

You can accomplish this by ensuring that relevant information (signal) is presented

efficiently, and irrelevant information (noise) is reduced or removed altogether.

Cut out the fluff. Make things clearer. Increase your signal-to-noise ratio.

48
47. Want to speak in a more informal
tone? Try going all lowercase.

Using a heavier font-weight and caps can come across a little formal and shouty

occasionally.

Try choosing all-lowercase and a lighter font-weight.

Using something like all-lowercase copy can present a more informal, and ap-

proachable message when working on specific projects.

Always remember though to use some kind of colour overlay between the image

and text to achieve a stronger contrast.

49
48. Use weight, size, and colour to in-
dicate hierarchy within your type.

When working with type, elements don’t need to scream “Look at me!” all the time.

But they do need to have a balanced hierarchy in place.

Just subtle adjustments via weight, size, and colour are all it takes to achieve this.

Doing this allows the user to scan and find essential elements, avoiding any confu-

sion in the process.

50
49. Light Text on dark? Fatten up that
font-weight for the best legibility.

When setting dark text against a light background, you can, occasionally, opt for a

lighter font-weight.

But…

When it comes to the reverse: light text > dark background.

It would be best to look at fattening up the font-weight a little, especially for long-

form copy.

Aim for the best legibility, and avoid straining your user’s eyes.

51
50. Create the right emotional re-
sponse with your typeface choices.

Try to choose the appropriate typeface for the content you’re presenting.

Users are savvy and have an intuitive sense when content is talking to them and

when it’s not.

The correct choice of typeface is vital in making your content speak to them dir-

ectly and on an emotional level.

52
51. If you (have to) use multiple type-
faces, try to stick to the 2 max rule.

For me, I try to stick to the 1 Typeface rule whenever possible.

But.

If the project demands it, I recommend maxing out those typeface-combos at 2.

No more.

Combining typefaces well can be tricky for the inexperienced.

Go easy on yourself, and don’t just add another typeface just because you can.

Using a maximum of 2 and a combination of weight, size, and colour can bring in-

stant visual harmony to your designs.

53
52. All-Uppercase + Letter-Spacing =
Better Legibility.

Are you working with short lines of text in all-uppercase?

Well…

It’s a good idea to increase the spacing between those letters to achieve better

legibility for the user.

Doing so makes the words easier to read and process because the letters are more

distinguishable from one another.

Just small increases in spacing between letters are all that’s needed to improve

legibility and add a touch of polish to your uppercase type.

54
53. It’s ok the bend the rules some-
times when it comes to Type Scales
and Grids.

I’m a big advocate of following rules such as a Type Scale of some kind or the ever-

awesome 8pt Grid system.

But sometimes, it’s good to divert from what a Scale or Grid is rigidly telling you to

do and present something that looks better, optically.

Remember that rules are there to be bent, and on occasion, broken.

Be a rule-breaking rebel.

55
54. Make those error messages on
your forms helpful and easy to under-
stand.

When working with Forms, try and make sure that your error messages explain

what went wrong and how to remedy things.

Always keep the user informed, even with something as commonplace as a regular

ol’ Form.

Make those error messages useful, and don’t leave your users in the dark.

56
55. Try and assure the user that some-
thing is happening when loading up
your App.

Displaying a skeleton of your app's elements can help you quickly communicate

the layout and assure the user that something is happening.

System status visibility is an important principle to follow and allows the user to be

informed about what's going on.

Don't have the user playing a guessing game. Keep them informed right from the

very start.

57
56. Inform the user on what’s going to
happen if they apply a certain action.

Always try and inform the user, in detail, before applying a particular action that

can have consequences.

This especially applies to actions with irreversible consequences, such as perman-

ently deleting something.

Let the user know what’s going to happen and ask them for confirmation before

they go pressing that big, red button labelled ‘Delete The Internet’.

58
57. Make sure your most important
screens get priority in the Tab Bar.

The Tab Bar in your app is a prime price of screen real estate, so use it wisely.

Reserve the Tab Bar for the most frequently used screens of your App and hide sec-

ondary screens inside a More icon.

There’s only room for the important stuff inside of that teeny-tiny Tab Bar.

59
58. Don’t hide important actions away
inside of a Dropdown. Front and Cen-
ter people!

Yup. I still see this happening from time to time on Desktop views.

Essential actions that a user needs to take (i.e., Sign Up or Log In) solely hidden

away in a Dropdown that they may not even navigate to.

Keep those important actions accessible and in a place where they’re most expect-

ed.

60
I hope with this collection of micro-tips, you've realised how the smallest of adjust-

ments to your designs can produce better results for both yourself and your users.

Many thanks

Marc Andrew

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