Graphic Design (as a discipline) has evolved in the last 2 decades more than anything else. There was a time when designers were considered only executors. Old-time designers, remember your CoralDraw days? How much do you think we’ve evolved over the last few years?

Today, designers flaunt a swanky new prefix (the likes of IxD, UI, Motion Design), use cutting-edge tools (think Sketch, Figma, Invision) and have the best online resources (think Dribbble, Muzli) to guide them in their day to day work.

Another big upgrade is that today’s designers have a seat on the table. Why, one may think. The reason is that today we are increasingly using more and more digital products and moving towards a completely digital ecosystem. UI Designers are the enablers of those magical, almost life-like interfaces we interact with every day. While designers enjoy a better authority, they also have a bigger responsibility on their shoulders. To create seamless experiences and enable emotional connections between humans and technology.

Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful.

While we’d like to keep discovering and learning new tricks and trends as we grow professionally, it's equally important to stay true to the basic and timeless concepts that drive the essence of UI Design.

Today I would like to take you through some basic but key principles that ensure you achieve something memorable and meaningful every time you design digital products.

1. Hierarchy

Hierarchy, much like its traditional meaning, is the arrangement of items in order of their importance or weight on the screen. Visual hierarchy explains how we can organize content and design elements effectively. It’s natural that elements having more visual weight tend to catch users’ attention. This behaviour should be considered when designing a layout.

• Establish visual relationships among layout elements
• Then add different visual weights to each of the elements
• Finally create patterns of eye movement

E.g., the title of a blog would require more attention than body text. Similarly, in interface design, a call to action (CTA) might need special importance than others. Whenever we attempt to make sense of information visually, we first observe similarities and differences in what we are seeing. These relationships allow us to distinguish objects.

2. Contrast

Contrast is another important principle which helps us design better interfaces. It’s not only about light and dark colour opposites or small and big sizes: it’s more than that. Contrast help us organise our content in a better way, also it helps users to focus on certain elements. Apart from emphasising elements it also creates a visual balance and interest in design. However, too much contrast can be confusing for users. It could create many focal points because of which users may find it difficult to take intended actions. Aim at creating just the right amount of contrast by playing with:

Size

• Colour
• Weight
• Styles
• Fonts
• among
• serif
• sans serif Fill