This document provides an overview of user interface design principles and best practices. It covers topics such as the goals of UI design, layout types, typography guidelines, using color effectively, and common UI patterns. The key points emphasized are that the interface should be simple, clear and consistent; typography must have good readability; color should be chosen based on semantic meaning and context; and patterns help solve common design problems. Usability principles like the 7±2 rule for menus and 3-click rule for tasks are also reviewed.

1. An Introduction to User Interface
Design and Usability
Workshop on UI & UX
May 2010
For educational purpose only.

2. Outline
• UI Design in Modern Application
• The Art & Science of Layouts
• UI Typography: Guidelines & Common Mistakes
• Guide to Fantastic Color Usage
• Usability Principles for Modern UI Design
• Common UI Design Patterns

3. Section 1
UI DESIGN IN MODERN
APPLICATION

4. UI Design in Modern Application
• User Interface (UI) is not about how it looks, but
rather about how it works.
• Interface is your product.
• Primary aim: communication.
• The main goal in UI design: Simple & elegant,
clear & consistent.

5. Eight Characteristics in Good UI Design
1. Clarity
2. Concision
3. Familiarity
4. Responsiveness
5. Consistency
6. Aesthetics
7. Efficiency
8. Forgiveness

6. Main Building Blocks of
Visual Interface Design
• Layout & Positioning
• Shape & Size
• Color
• Contrast
• Texture

7. Practical Techniques for
Crafting Effective UI
• Use white space to build relationships
• Rounded corners define boundaries
• Convey meaning with colors
• Direct attention
• Shadows and darkened background for focus
• Emphasize core actions
• Use hover controls to simplify & de-clutter
• Labels inside input fields
• Context-sensitive interface element
• Icons
• Make it responsive: loading indicators & pressed state
• Undo & restore
• Confirmation dialogs

8. Use white space to
build relationships
• Definition of white space
– empty spaces between various content elements
• Great tool to tell relationships between content
elements.
• Tight space forms grouping, vice versa

9. Rounded corners define boundaries
• Aside from polishing your interface, rounded
corners actually defines borders

10. Convey meaning with colors

11. Direct Attention
• Use animation to direct attention.
• Color and contrast are not enough.

12. Shadows and darkened background
for focus
Source: vhc.apptivity.com

13. Emphasize Core Actions
• Shift focus to primary actions for your user

14. Use hover controls to
simplify & de-clutter
• Hover controls:
• De-clutter:

15. Labels inside input fields
• Save space & emits clear messages

16. Context-sensitive interface element
• Additional functionality for experienced users
without complicating the interface

17. Icons
• Good practices of modern icon design are as listed in
Android Launcher icon design guidelines:
Source: developer.android.com

18. Make it responsive: loading indicators &
pressed state
• Do not make your user wait without any indicators

19. Undo & restore
• Be forgivable
• Provide extra protective measures for your users

20. Confirmation dialogs
• To ensure that the user really wants to go ahead
• Always provide other options close by
• Do not overuse: will introduce interface friction

21. 改善 (kaizen)
“UI design, especially in modern web application,
doesn‟t have to be in a finished state because you
can always keep evolving it and improving it.”
• Dmitry Fadeyev
Designer/Developer
Founder of usabilitypost.com, themesboutique.com, logospire.com

22. Section 2
THE ART & SCIENCE OF LAYOUTS

23. Four Major Layout Types
Fixed-
Width
Layout
Hybrid Fluid
Types
Elastic

24. Fixed-Width Layout
• Static grid layout with its width with fixed value,
in pixel unit.
• Good for precise interface design.
• Not recommended for Web application.
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width= "200" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="200" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
</Grid>

25. Fluid Layout
• Adjust its width in proportion to the size of the
user‟s view port.
• Provides user the freedom to resize the
application.
• Designer must design carefully: resize impact on
text display and overall interface.
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width= "200*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width= "Auto" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
</Grid>

26. Elastic (Zoomable) Layout
• Scale the content instead of overall size of the
layout.
• Advantage: design proportion is well kept,
ensuring proper readability & positioning.
• Disadvantage: design proportion are not easy to
keep when manipulating with text size.
• Silverlight tool for image manipulation:
– Silverlight Deep Zoom

27. Mathematics in Design
Golden Ratio Design
• The Golden Ratio layout (1:1.618033987)
• Good practice in layout designs
• Best for photo galleries, portfolios and product-
oriented websites.

28. Calculation with Golden Ratio
62% 38%
To calculate the width of Golden
Ratio, get total width of a
rectangle and divided by 1.616
(top). Apply the Golden Ratio to
get the height for a specific
rectangle based on the total
width of the rectangle (right).

29. Golden Ratio Sample Layout (1)
Source: net.tutsplus.com

30. Golden Ratio Sample Layout (2)
• 6 Golden Rectangles, 3 rectangles per line, each 299 x 185 pixels.
• 299/185 = 1.616
Source: spacegeek.com

31. Mathematics in Design
Fibonacci Design
• Based on Fibonacci sequence
– 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144...
• The Golden Spiral
• Applicable to layout and font size
• Best for blogs and magazine layouts

32. Fibonacci Design Sample Layout
• Fibonacci sequence on columns and font size

33. Gutenberg Rules
• Defines Reading gravity.

34. Applying Gutenberg Rules
Source: goodbarry.com

35. Section 3
UI TYPOGRAPHY: GUIDELINES &
COMMON MISTAKES

36. Introduction
• Typography is a powerful medium that allows for
precise, effective communication.
• Typography exists to bring orders to information
by dividing and organizing – helps user to get
what they are looking for.
– i.e.: make textual stuff looks pretty!

37. Designer’s Main Concern
• Readability
• Measure (Line Length)
– Width of the block
• Leading (Line Height)
– Height of a line in the block
• Tracking (Letter Spacing)
– Tips: check if “VV” and “W” are distinguishable
• Word Spacing
• Color: Strive for consistency.

38. Typography & Grid
Example of modern Typography UI with good use of grid & negative space:
Source: www.montylounge.com

39. Choosing the “Right” Type
• Consider context & narrative
– “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”
• Choose by the typeface‟s specific functions
– Brush Script is common, with its bad readability, it is not
built for serious text blocks.
– Microsoft Expression Blend choose Segoe UI as
default font for good readability.

40. Choosing the “Right” Type
• A beautiful face is the one that serves its
purpose.
Both typefaces are from the serif family, however, Haptic (left) is
attention-seeking header, Mrs. Eaves XL (right) is for good readability

41. Good Font Size
• Define a set of font size and do not change
• Classic scale:
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 18 21 24 36 48 60 72
• Fibonacci Sequence:
8 16 24 40 64 104

42. Good Practice
• Pay attention to Widows and Orphans
– Creates awkward rags, impairing readability.
“An orphan is left behind where as a widow must go on alone”
This is bad for UI design.

43. Good Practice (cont)
• Clean rags and hyphenation
5 hyphenations A poor rag (top)
in a row is creates distracting
unforgivable (top), shapes in the white
this can easily space of the margin.
avoided by Correct this by
changing the line making manual line
breaks (bottom) breaks (bottom).
Source: fonts.com

44. Good Practice (cont)
• Hanging punctuation
– Place bullets points, punctuation marks before a
justified paragraph.
– Avoiding reader‟s flow to be disrupted

45. Good Practice (cont)
• Treat text as a user interface
Source: cameronmoll.com

46. Common Mistakes in Typography
• Using double hyphens instead of resized dash
• Using periods instead of ellipses
• Using dumb quotes "" instead of “”
• Double-spacing between sentences

47. Common Mistakes in Typography (cont)
• Improvising a copyright symbol.
• Using too much emphasis.
• Underlining your hypertext links with border-bottom

48. Common Mistakes in Typography (cont)
• Faking families in Photoshop
• Not using accent characters
• R4nDomz cAp!taLizAti0n & uNNec3s2ary
sYmBÖlz! (Öᴥ<)/
• Comic Sans is a sin! Do not use!

49. Section 4
GUIDE TO FANTASTIC COLOR USAGE

50. Simple Must-Do List
When Designing with Color
1. Choose the right color palette
2. Pump your color schemes to your prototype
3. Get feedbacks

51. 1. Choose the Right Color Palettes
• Understand the meaning of colors

52. Warm Colors
• Red (Primary), Orange (Secondary),
Yellow(Primary)
• Reflects passion, happiness, enthusiasm, and
energy.

53. Warm Colors
• Red – hot & emotional color. Keywords: fire, violence warfare, love,
passion, anger, importance
• Bright Red = energetic; Dark red = Powerful & elegance
Source: darkcrimson.com

54. Warm Colors
• Orange – vibrant and energetic color. Keywords:
Friendly, Inviting, Change and Movement
Source: neighborino.com

55. Warm Colors
• Yellow – brightest/energizing color. Keywords:
happiness, sunshine, deceit, cowardice, danger
Source: foodtease.com

56. Cool Colors
• Green(Secondary), Blue(Primary), Purple
(Secondary)
• They are the colors of night, of water, of nature,
and are usually calming, relaxing, and
somewhat reserved.

57. Cool Colors
• Green – down-to-earth color. Keywords: new beginnings, growth,
renewal, abundance, jealousy, inexperience
• Bright green = energetic; dark green = stability
Source: i-avion.com

58. Cool Colors
• Blue – emotional-impact color. Keywords: sadness, calmness,
responsibility, peace, spiritual
• Light Blue = Calm; Bright Blue = Energetic; Dark Blue = Reliable
Source: sman96.com

59. Cool Colors
• Purple –royalty color. Keywords: creativity, imagination, romance
• Light Purple = Romantic; Dark Purple = Wealth & Royalty
Source: avantgrape.com

60. Neutral Colors
• Neutral colors often works as backdrop colors.
– Associates with Warm and Cool colors

61. Neutral Colors
• Black: Mystery, Elegance, Evil
• Gray: Moody, Conservative, Formality
• White: Purity, Cleanliness, Virtue
• Brown: Nature, Wholesomeness, Dependability
• Tan or Beige: Conservative, Piety, Dull
• Cream or Ivory: Calm, Elegant, Purity

62. Neutral Color
• But they can also be used on their own in designs, and
can create very sophisticated layouts.
Source: timeger.com

63. Pick Your Palettes
• Color Palette is your color scheme
Example of Monochromatic Color Palette
• Pick your favorite tone that matches the mood of
your application and generates a color scheme
that goes well with it.
• Tips & tricks:
– Use a good photograph to create a color scheme.
– Get sample color palettes from 3rd parties

64. Pick Your Palettes
• Get colors from your environment

65. Pick Your Palettes
• With Photoshop
• With Kuler

66. Pick Your Palettes
• With Photoshop
• With Kuler

67. Color Schemes Samples
• Scheme

68. Color Schemes Samples
• Scheme

69. Awesome Tools for Color Picking
• Adobe’s Kuler
– http://kuler.adobe.com
– Community based
• ColoRotate
– http://www.colorotate.org/
– Color Generator for the
Colorblinds

70. Awesome Tools for Color Picking
• Color Blender
– http://www.colorblender.com
– Auto generates palettes
• COLOURlovers
• http://www.colourlovers.com/
– A network of colour lovers!

71. 2. Pump your color schemes
to your prototype
• Draft out your prototype on a piece of paper or
on Expression Blend, preferably in
monochromatic outlines only.
• Reconsider of your color palettes:
– Which color represents your application the most?
• Fill the colors and experiments with different
combinations
– Which color is the most suitable for a particular part
of the application?

72. 3. Get Feedbacks
After reviewing your UI design, get feedbacks from:
• Your team members & mentor
• Your users or clients
• The professionals
• Your family members & best friends
• And any public citizen who is not afraid to mock
your design…

73. Section 5
USABILITY PRINCIPLES FOR
MODERN UI DESIGN

74. Usability?
• The ability to use something and how easy that
something can be used.
• How we measure usability of a product?
– Requires less mental effort to use.
– Less mistakes when using it.
– Do more, with less (steps, clicks, etc).
– Intuitive: Easy to learn/use & familiar to user.

75. Usability: Rules & Principles
• 7 2 Principle (Web app)
– Humans‟ short term memory can retain only about 5-9
things at one time (George A. Miller)
– Limit no. of options in any navigation menu to 7 2.

76. Usability: Rules & Principles
• 2-Second-Rule (All)
– User should not wait more than 2 seconds for any
response.
– „Tell‟ the user if they really need to wait > 2 secs.
– Example: Progress bar, Facebook „loading‟ animation.

77. Usability: Rules & Principles
• 3-Click-Rule (All)
– Access information/feature within 3 clicks.
– Emphasizes the importance of clear navigation,
logical structure and easy-to-follow hierarchy.

78. Usability: Rules & Principles
• Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design (All)
– Strive for consistency.
• Button‟s name.
– Enable frequent users to use shortcuts.
• Keyboard shortcuts in Firefox, Gmail.
– Offer informative feedback.
• Saving a file.
– Design dialog to yield closure.
• Account creation.

79. Usability: Rules & Principles
• Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design (All)
– Offer simple error handling.
• Minimize error, graciously handles errors. Ex: date input.
– Permit easy reversal of actions.
• Undo/back option.
– Provide the sense of control.
• User control app, don‟t force/control user.
– Reduce short-term memory load.
• No information overload, offer hints/getting started guide.

80. Section 6
COMMON UI DESIGN PATTERNS

81. Pattern?
• A pattern describes an optimal solution to a
common problem within a specific context.
Design pattern?

82. Selected Design Patterns
• Auto Complete
– Allows faster user input by removing ambiguity about
expected input data, avoiding potential mis-typed
information as well as narrowing down the correct
choices.

83. Selected Design Patterns
• Movable Panels
– Allows users to organize information that make sense
to them.

84. Selected Design Patterns
• Calendar/Date Picker
– Enables users to easily apply or submit a date or date
range with some default values.

85. Selected Design Patterns
• Progress/Busy Indicator
– Allows the user to know the status of their operation if
the operation takes more than 2 secs or so.

86. Selected Design Patterns
• Input Hints
– Some explanation and/or examples of valid values
near fields to give users hints at the kind of input they
need to provide.

87. Selected Design Patterns
• Sortable Table
– Allow users to change the sorting order of the table
items by clicking on a column header.

88. Resources
• “The Smashing Book” by Smashing Networks
• Smashing Networks
– http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
• Yahoo Design Pattern Library
– http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/
• Designing Interfaces
– http://designinginterfaces.com/