When you see the ‘pull’ tag on the door of your supermarket, do you have to think twice about what action you need to perform? Or when you see the scissor mark followed by a dotted line on your instant noodles packet, do you have to spend time thinking about what it means? No, right? That’s what an intuitive design feels like.
While the term intuitive design has been doing the rounds for quite some time now, most of us are clueless as to what it exactly means when it comes to designing. Let’s go on to understand the holy grail of UI.
What is an Intuitive Design?
An intuitive design means that when a user sees it, they know exactly what to do. They don’t have to think twice about what a bell icon signifies or what the cart option will lead to. Intuitive design focuses on crafting a user experience that is easy to understand, easy to like and easy to use for your users.
Now, let’s take a look at 5 powerful ways through which you can craft designs that your users will love.
1. Know the users of your interface
Have you seen the mobile phones your grandparents use? Those phones have larger fonts, larger buttons and minimal functionalities. Now, compare those phones with the phones we use. There are many differences, right? Why? Because the audiences are completely different and the mobile phones are designed keeping those differences in mind.
To craft an intuitive design, you must first understand your audience. Ask yourself questions like, “Who is going to use my product?”, “What will they want or need?”, “Which interfaces will work well for them?”
2. Have a connection with real life counterparts
Even if you start using a new tool, there are some icons you instantly recognize. It can be the ‘+’ icon that indicates you can add something, the call icon that signifies you can jump on a call with someone, the bell icon that indicates notifications and so on.
This is what is called skeuomorphism. When you inculcate the concept of skeuomorphism, it means that your design objects are mimicking real-world counterparts. For example, the trash can icon denotes that you can delete something because in real life, a trash can signifies throwing away something that is not useful anymore.
Utilizing this concept makes it easier for users to understand the different icons/symbols and makes it easy for them to try out and explore different features of your application or facets of your website.
3. Make it easy to find things
Supposing you selected a communication tool for your organization. Would you like it if to reach every important feature, you have to navigate through multiple screens? Or worse yet, you can’t even find the basic features your team needs. Now compare this with tools like Trello and Slack. Every important feature you need is present on the first screen itself.
Be it direct messaging, different Trello boards, notifications, team members, everything the user needs is right in front of his eyes. He doesn’t have to keep searching for things again and again.
4. Imbibe efficiency into the design
If you have ever gone on to comment on a LinkedIn post, have you noticed the auto suggestions on the top? Or when you wanted to reply to a direct message, there were some suggestions given at the bottom?
Not only does it save time while replying to messages but it also makes using the tool much easier. While designing, ensure you don’t place many steps in the form of questions or screens before a user can complete a simple task. For example, if a product can be placed in the cart using one step only, don’t unnecessarily put 3 steps in between.
5. Help undo incorrect actions
We all have sent across mails with typos or mails with messages that say “Attached a document” but the mail got sent without any attachment. Thankfully, Gmail now has come up with a limited time feature that allows you to undo your sent mails.
Help your users undo their incorrect actions like instead of deleting forever, have a recycle bin from where they can restore files or a feature that allows them to see the previous versions of their website design and so on.
By following these 6 simple steps, you’re on the way to create a product or website that is intuitive in every sense. But can you guess one crucial element that is needed to ensure all these steps succeed? It's making sure that the team working on such projects are communicating efficiently and in synchoronous manner.
That's why we've built Ruttl exclusively to help you craft powerful and intuitive interfaces. Packed with abilities like allowing users to comment on website and editing visual aspects of any website element, Ruttl helps design teams to manage visual feedback on live websites.
Want to see it in action? Several teams across various countries have made the leap and integrated Ruttl into their daily workflow! Make sure to join them by creating an account on ruttl.com and switch to the future of design reviewing today itself!
Follow us on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter for more web design, UI, UX insights.
