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8 (more) tips to quickly improve your

UIs
More small and easy to put into practice tips to improve your designs.

Marc Andrew Follow

Jun 3 · 4 min read

Creating beautiful, usable, and efficient UIs takes time, with many design
revisions along the way. Making those constant tweaks to produce
something that your clients, users, and yourself are truly happy with. I
know. I’ve been there many times before myself.

But what I’ve discovered over the years is that by making some simple tweaks
you can quickly improve the designs you’re trying to create.

In this follow up article (You can find Part 1 here), I’ve put together a
small, and easy to put into practice, selection of tips that can, with little
effort, not only help improve your designs today, but hopefully give you
some handy pointers for when you’re starting your next project.

Let’s dive on in for some more UI & UX goodness…

. . .

1. Lighten up your text if it looks a little on the

heavy side
When it comes to long-form content, certain Regular weight Typefaces can
still look a little too heavy, and stark.

Easily fix this by opting for something like a Dark Grey (ie; #4F4F4F) to
make that text a little easier on the eye.

. . .

2. The smaller the font size, the more generous the

line height
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.
 . . .

3. Choose a Base Colour, and then use Tints &

Shades to add uniformity

You don’t always have to stuff your design with a multitude of colours.

If the project allows it, simply using a restricted colour palette, by choosing
a Base Colour and then using Tints and Shades, can add uniformity to your
designs in the simplest of ways.
 . . .

4. Give prominence to the most important elements

By using a combination of Font Sizes, Weights, and Colour, you can easily
give prominence to the most important elements in your UI.

Simple adjustments to make the user experience that little bit better.

. . .

5. For Consistency, make sure your Icons share the

same visual style
When implementing Icons in your UI, 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.

 . . .

6. 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 contrast, 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.
 . . .

7. 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?

. . .

8. Give Prominence to the most frequently used

action in a Menu
When designing a Menu to use inside of an application, make sure to give
the most frequently used action (ie; Upload Image, Add File etc…) the most
prominence on the screen.
 Want even more helpful Design Tips? Please follow me on Twitter… I’ll be
bringing more Design Tips exclusively to Twitter, so it would be awesome if
you could follow me there.

Want to Design Better, Smarter, and Faster in Sketch & Figma? Check out
my Design System/Starter Kit. 24 Hour Flash Sale – Use the code
CABANA30 to receive 30% Off. Thanks for reading the article.

Marc.

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