In human-computer interaction, the user interface (UI) is the point of visual communication between people and machines. It empowers users with machine feedback to inform decision-making. The primary objective of UI design is to create user-friendly and intuitive experiences, helping users reach desired outcomes with minimal effort.
Keep reading and decode the future of UI design with the latest insights.
Why Do You Need UI Design? The Importance of UI Design
User interface design ensures digital products are both good-looking and comprehensive. Beyond making an app or website visually appealing, thoughtful UI design principles boost usability and accessibility for a global audience. By creating intuitive navigation paths, UI design helps target audience to accomplish their goals. Imagine how confusing it would be to navigate a city without clear street signs.
According to insights from Figma data analysts, a cohesive design system helps teams achieve their objectives 34% faster. This efficiency gain highlights the importance and benefits of implementing a structured design approach in digital product development, often leading to faster turnaround times and higher productivity for design teams.
Learn more about the importance of user experience in our latest article.
What Makes a Good UI? 10 Essential UI Design Principles
Designers might wonder how a visually pleasing and clear experience can be achieved? What constitutes an effective UI? The answer emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a rejection of basic principles of elementalist and structuralist psychology: The Gestalt Principles, also known as Gestalt psychology or configurationism.
Let’s examine some of the Gestalt Principles in UI design. Below is a cheat table that serves as a shortcut for quick reference. We’ll explore practical examples further down.
| Principle | Contribution to UI |
| Emergence | Merging separate elements into a unified whole |
| Closure | Identifying incomplete objects as whole |
| Common Region | Perceiving closed elements as one group |
| Continuity | Recognizing flows and continuous patterns |
| Proximity | Grouping elements based on closeness |
| Multistability | Handling ambiguous stimuli with multiple interpretations |
| Figure/Ground | Distinguishing between object and background |
| Invariance | Recognizing objects despite alterations |
| Pragnanz | Preferring simplicity and organized perceptions |
| Similarity | Gathering similar elements together |
| Symmetry and Order | Favoring balanced and organized visual arrangements |
| Common Fate | Grouping elements perceived to move in the same direction |
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Correct Direction of the User’s Attention
People tend to spend very little time reading most web pages. Instead, we scan them, looking for elements that catch our eyes. Good UI aims to help users navigate effectively, ensuring they reach their intended goal. Two Gestalt principles that can significantly improve this are Figure/Ground and Common Fate.
Figure/Ground distinguishes important elements (figure) from the background (ground) to guide attention effectively. Since a large part of what people are doing on the web is looking for the next thing to click, it’s important to make it easy to tell what’s interactive.
Contrasting colors for call-to-action buttons to make them stand out against the background is a common practice. Check out how brilliantly Spotify designed its well-known green play button icons over a black background.
Common Fate uses coordinated movement to direct users’ attention toward specific actions or information. Users scan rather than read, so designers can create smooth flows by following structured journeys. A properly structured Common Fate principle guides users through a sea of information effectively.
Applying microinteractions or microanimations to dynamically highlight a route is a great example. Subtle fade-in effects nicely represent this idea. Web carousels often convey this dynamic concept. Check out the example below:
Intuitive UI Design
Again, two Gestalt laws intervene here: Proximity and Similarity. Proximity groups relate elements closely for clear visual hierarchy and intuitive organization. When things appear closer to each other, they seem to be part of the same group. If separated, they are conceived as ungrouped, feeling disjointed and harder to connect.
Grouping related navigation items close together in a navigation bar, with consistent styling for related items, is a great representation of Proximity. You have probably seen a menu drop-down button before, a classic example of UI design. When activated, it displays a list of elements stored in the same location. Then, each group goes into a subgroup with more information.
Similarity employs consistent visual cues and aesthetics (color, shape, style, alignment, typography) for related elements to enhance navigation. It subgroups heterogeneous elements within a larger group, making them part of a bigger picture, with small differences only noticeable when looked at individually.
Read Also: Essential UI/UX Patterns to Improve Your Design Projects
Here’s an example: Grouping similar restructured elements with subtle differences. In this case, we can observe how these two groups share similarities in content composition, although various elements do not match exactly.
Adaptive UI Design
Two Gestalt principles relate to this topic: Invariance and Closure. Let’s explore their differences and understand how they can boost the user experience when combined.
Invariance ensures elements remain usable across devices or screen sizes for adaptive design. This Gestalt principle states that even when objects transform their shape (rotation, size, stretch, height, width), they’re still recognizable.
Responsive design is an example born from the Invariance law. It is an approach to web design that ensures web pages render well on all screen sizes and resolutions while ensuring good usability. It is the way to design for a multi-device web. Using responsive design ensures elements reorganize and resize across different devices. Due to its fluid character, elements will change properties depending on the viewport.
Closure creates coherent interfaces despite elements appearing or disappearing based on user interaction or device. This principle can be interpreted in various ways, but here, I’d like to highlight the idea of adaptive design. Adaptive design uses a collection of pre-made layouts that fit different sizes. While responsive design adapts elements to different viewports, adaptive design uses default pre-built layouts in different sizes. The biggest difference lies in efficiency: while responsive design is more adaptable and fluid, adaptive design must be carefully built beforehand for a wide range of sizes, making it especially time-consuming.
Read Also: UI vs UX: What’s the Difference between UI & UX Design?
Uniform UI Design Across All Pages
Consistency is the quality of always behaving or performing similarly. Incorporating this rule will help your site improve its experience rate. A consistent journey with clear directions and a constant structure makes the difference. Two other Gestalt UI design principles related to the harmonious idea of consistency are Common Region and Continuity.
Common Region maintains a consistent visual structure by grouping related elements within defined boundaries across pages. Scanning a region organized by small groups is easier than checking items individually and randomly.
Continuity designs interfaces with consistent visual flows and patterns for a seamless user experience. The continuity principle of Gestalt states that we group elements that seem to follow a continuous path in a particular direction.
Streamline UI grids in your design process. In UI design, grids establish a consistent and harmonious visual order, making navigating and comprehending content easier.
Individual Approach to Each Project
In UI design, an individual approach to each project represents the importance of tailoring design solutions. This approach acknowledges that cookie-cutter solutions rarely suffice when creating interfaces that truly resonate with users and fulfill the distinct needs of diverse applications.
Emergence, one of the main Gestalt principles of UI design, means that complex patterns can appear from simple interactions or elements. Applied to UI design principles, this rule advocates for designing interfaces that evolve naturally from the specific functionalities and user interactions required by each project. Consider a social media platform like X (Twitter). The feed you see on your timeline results from the emergence of design. Each post or tweet is a simple element. However, when these individual posts are aggregated and displayed in chronological order, a complex pattern emerges.
Pragnanz, often referred to as the Law of Good Figure, emphasizes simplicity and clarity in design. For an individual project, this principle guides designers in distilling complex requirements into streamlined and coherent interfaces. By prioritizing minimalism and eliminating unnecessary complexity, designers ensure that the interface remains intuitive and user-friendly, aligning closely with the project’s unique characteristics and objectives.
Here are some design principles that Pragnanz uses to improve interfaces:
- Visual hierarchy
- Simplified layout
- Navigational clarity
- Consistent design language
- Mobile responsiveness
Understanding user patterns can help when it comes to making decisions. This will ensure you to create a quality user-centered design.
UI Usable by Individuals With Disabilities
Accessibility ensures websites are usable by everyone, including those with disabilities and neurodiverse individuals. While UI design rules must prioritize ease of navigation, they must also address challenges faced by users with any conditions and impairments.
Key steps include using semantic HTML, providing descriptive image text, ensuring keyboard navigation, maintaining legibility and readable color contrast, and making multimedia content accessible. Regular audits and user testing further improve inclusivity.
Regarding Gestalt principles, two laws are particularly relevant: Multistability and Closure.
Multistability offers alternative interpretations or interaction modes to accommodate diverse user needs. Common practices include adaptive interfaces, alternative navigation methods such as gesture control or shortcuts, flexible interaction modes, and contextual adaptation.
Closure ensures interfaces remain perceivable and understandable for users with disabilities, even when modifying visual or interactive elements. Grouping and organizing elements (as discussed earlier) can streamline the experience, alongside simplicity and establishing a clear visual hierarchy.
This approach fulfills ethical responsibilities and unlocks opportunities for growth and differentiation in competitive markets.
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Clear Feedback on User Actions
By starting a dialogue between users and products, designers can create experiences that users love, leading to loyalty and endorsement. Early feedback minimizes costly errors and enables iterative improvements that align with evolving user preferences, ensuring longevity and relevance in the market.
In addition to direct feedback, focus groups and usability tests are traditional methods. In a focus group, a small gathering of individuals discusses their opinions on a product or their past experiences around a table. Usability tests involve observing individuals using a prototype to perform typical tasks identifying and addressing any issues that confuse or frustrate them.
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Informative Error Messages for Users
Effective feedback in a user interface includes in-line feedback near form controls and notifications after form submissions. According to w3.org, there are three effective ways of notifying the user:
- Main Heading and Page Title: Use the main heading (<h1> or <h2>) and <title> element to immediately communicate outcomes to all users, including those using screen readers.
- Dialogues for Immediate Attention: Dialogues effectively alert users to critical information or errors, ensuring prompt attention without disrupting the user experience.
- Listing Errors: Errors should be listed prominently at the top of the page before the form, with clear descriptions and guidance on how to correct them, enhancing accessibility and user interface clarity.
These methods ensure effective feedback communication in various interaction scenarios, enhancing user engagement and satisfaction.
Make Easy Ways to Reverse User’s Actions After Error
Designers should identify elements that help users quickly recognize certain interactions or content available. Here are some refined best practices you can follow to achieve this:
- Provide Undo/Redo Options: Allow users to undo and redo actions easily.
- Show Clear Error Messages: Display descriptive error messages to guide fixes.
- Use Familiar UI Patterns: Ensure consistency to reduce confusion and errors.
- Offer Real-Time Feedback: Provide immediate warnings to prevent mistakes.
- Ensure Accessibility: Make error handling accessible to all users.
- Conduct User Testing: Gather feedback to continuously improve the interface.
- Preview Changes: Let users see results before finalizing actions.
- Utilize Contextual Help: Use tooltips to clarify complex elements.
- Implement Smart Defaults: Pre-populate fields with shared values.
- Use Confirmation Dialogs: Confirm critical actions to avoid accidental errors.
Test Your UI Design After All Edits as If You Were a User
The most common methods to measure the effectiveness of our interface are as follows:
- Usability Testing: Evaluates task completion, user behavior, and satisfaction with a UI, measuring metrics like task success rate and efficiency across different stages and settings.
- Surveys and Questionnaires: Collects user flow data on opinions, preferences, and experiences to understand needs, satisfaction, and suggestions for UI improvement.
- Interviews and Focus Groups: Conducts in-depth discussions with users to explore motivations and behaviors related to a UI, generating insights for design solutions.
- Analytics and Heatmaps: Tracks and visualizes user interactions with a UI to analyze behavior, engagement, and identify strengths and weaknesses.
- A/B Testing and Multivariate Prototyping: Compares UI variations to optimize performance based on metrics such as conversion rate and satisfaction, using controlled experiments.
- Heuristic Evaluation and Expert Review: Assesses UI usability against established principles, providing feedback on layout, wireframes navigation, and consistency for improvement.
It’s worth mentioning websites like Userfeel, Userlytics, or Userpeek, where remote users can test your site at an affordable price. This allows designers to obtain actionable data from real-life users before, during, and after the design process.
Explore our insights on creating impactful website homepage design in our latest article.
UI Design Services from Duck Design Meet All the Principles!
Our UI design is crafted to meet all user experience principles, ensuring satisfaction and engagement. Discover the difference a well-designed interface can make for your business.
Several reasons to collaborate with us:
- Duck Design offers three flexible design packages to fit various business needs and budgets.
- Our subscription model ensures predictable costs, making high-quality design affordable.
- We provide custom UI/UX design services that enhances user experience and increases engagement.
- Our team delivers professional, high-impact designs that align with your brand’s goals.
Conclusion
UI principles in 2025 continue to evolve, focusing on the user through principles deeply rooted in psychology and ergonomics. Gestalt principles, visual organization, adaptive and inclusive design practices, and intuitive interfaces are designers’ bread and butter.
Remember to prioritize usability affordance, accessibility, and continuous user feedback. As technology advances, staying attuned to user needs and leveraging robust design frameworks will be crucial in shaping the future of UI design.
