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UI design is such an archaic term. What actually goes into the design of a user interface? Aesthetics? Usability? Accessibility? All of them? How do all of these factors unite to enable an optimal user experience and which should come first?
Accessibility should always come first, laying the foundations for optimal usability. And then, when a UI is both accessible and usable, it should already look rather decent in terms of aesthetics. Let’s take a closer look at the foundational elements of most designs and what can be done to ensure visual consistency.
CHOOSE YOUR TYPOGRAPHY
Paragraph spacings, letter spacings, font sizes and line heights should enhance readability and communicate the visual hierarchy of different snippets of UX content
Great typography (like many aspects of design) boils down to accessibility.
Visual design certainly adds to the user’s overall experience but at the end of the day, users are interacting with the UI, not viewing it as art. Legible letters result in clarity and readable words are what help users digest content efficiently. Both are more important than any visual aesthetic.
However, well-designed typography can still be aesthetically satisfying. Black-on-white Helvetica (or a similar font) can be a thing of beauty after only a few simple typographic enhancements. By enhancements, what I mean is tweaking the font size, line height, letter spacing and so on – not the font or the colour of the text.
‘Beautiful’ typography is actually ugly when it’s unreadable because frustration always trumps aesthetics. Great design is balanced and harmonious.
Like many aspects of UI design, fine-tuning visuals to balance accessibility and aesthetics isn’t the challenge. The challenge is maintaining consistency throughout the entire design.
This story is from the March 2020 edition of NET.
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This story is from the March 2020 edition of NET.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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