Common UI design mistakes to avoid as a beginner

We all make mistakes, it’s how we learn. However, to ensure you can avoid as many as possible (in relation to UI design), we’ve outlined four common mistakes we all made as beginners, with some recommendations on how to overcome them. 

Little to no research

Now, it’s always good to be eager and enthusiastic to jump straight into your UI projects, however, ensuring you have conducted proper and thorough research around your project it crucial. Sufficient research ensures your project will be user focused, backed up by evidence and have substance — allowing you to justify your rationale and design decisions, but also giving you the confidence that you will meet the brief.

Prioritising aesthetics over usability 

We get it, it’s fun and we love aesthetics — but be mindful that at the end of the day usable project is a successful one, and aesthetics can only carry your project so far over the line. Trends change quickly, so the application of fonts and graphic devices essentially have a shelf life, this is why it’s important to also consider your fundamentals and consider what tools of the trade you possess that will help you create timeless designs. 

Just remember that functional and usable designs aren’t ugly, and beauty can be achieved through the functional application of design fundamentals. Lastly, aesthetics are completely subjective to the user, so also remember that your research should help inform the direction you take. 

Lack of user testing

Typography, colour, and layout all play into creating great UI, however, not considering accessibility through real-life user testing can be a huge downfall to a project. It’s important to remember to conduct user testing as much as possible at every considerable iteration of your UI project to ensure that it is user-centric. This will produce results that will inform how your project can be shaped and in turn work for the masses.

Overlooking fundamentals

As a designer, you may be self taught or may have attended a design school, however, regardless of your design education background it’s paramount that you remember and adhere to the fundamental principles you’ve learnt. For example, the correct use of typography, colour, scale and dimension and responsiveness and intuitive CTA’s should not be overlooked. 

The correct application of some of these fundamentals outlined above, will elevate your work to ensure it is user focused and functional, going hand in hand with UX design too.