Clear and Simple UI Design
TL;DR:
- Strip away clutter and focus on essential elements only
- Keep fonts, colours, and spacing consistent throughout
- Design navigation that feels natural and obvious to users
- Make text easy to read with proper contrast and spacing
- Ensure your design works smoothly on all screen sizes
Clear UI design starts with understanding what users actually need to accomplish. When you remove everything that doesn't serve a purpose, what remains becomes much more powerful.
Start with the essentials
Good UI design is about making choices. Every button, colour, and piece of text should have a reason for being there. If you can't explain why something exists, it probably shouldn't.
Begin by listing what users need to do on each screen. Then design only for those actions. This approach naturally creates cleaner interfaces because you're not trying to cram everything into one space.
Keep things consistent
Consistency helps users learn your interface faster. When similar elements look and behave the same way, users don't have to relearn how things work on each page.
Pick a small set of fonts and stick to them. Choose a colour palette and use it systematically. If your primary buttons are blue and rounded, make sure they look the same everywhere.
This extends to spacing too. If you use 20px of space between sections on one page, use 20px everywhere else. These small details add up to create a sense of polish and reliability.
Design obvious navigation
Users should never have to guess where to click next. Your navigation needs to support the natural flow of how people work through tasks.
Put important actions where users expect to find them. Save buttons typically go in the top right or bottom right. Back buttons go on the left. Breaking these conventions makes your interface harder to use.
Label everything clearly. "Submit" tells users exactly what will happen. "Click here" doesn't. The more specific you can be, the more confident users will feel about taking action.
Make text readable
Poor readability kills even the best-designed interfaces. Users need to be able to scan and understand information quickly.
Choose fonts that work well at different sizes. Sans-serif fonts like Arial or Helvetica are safe choices for screens. Make sure there's enough contrast between your text and background colours.
Give text room to breathe. Cramped layouts make everything harder to read. Line spacing should be at least 1.4 times the font size, and you need adequate margins around text blocks.
Design for all screen sizes
More people use mobile devices than desktops now. Your design needs to work well regardless of screen size.
Start with the smallest screen first. If your design works on a phone, it's usually easier to expand it for larger screens than the other way around.
Consider how people hold their devices. Important buttons should be within easy reach of thumbs. Make touch targets at least 44px square so they're easy to tap accurately.
FAQs
How do I know if my design is too cluttered?
Show it to someone who hasn't seen it before. If they can't immediately understand what the page is for or what they should do next, you need to simplify.
What's the biggest mistake people make with UI clarity?
Trying to fit too much on one screen. It's better to have users click through a few simple steps than overwhelm them with options.
How do I maintain consistency across a large project?
Create a style guide early on. Document your colour choices, font sizes, spacing rules, and button styles. Refer back to it regularly.
Jargon Buster
UI Design: User Interface design – the process of creating the visual elements people interact with in apps and websites.
Responsive Design: Making interfaces that automatically adjust their layout to work well on different screen sizes.
Contrast: The difference between colours, especially important for making text readable against backgrounds.
Touch Target: The area users can tap or click to trigger an action – needs to be large enough for fingers and thumbs.
Wrap-up
Clear UI design isn't about following trends or making things look fancy. It's about removing barriers between users and their goals. When you focus on simplicity and clarity, you create interfaces that feel effortless to use.
The best designs are often invisible – users accomplish what they need without thinking about the interface itself. That's the goal to aim for.
Ready to put these principles into practice? Join Pixelhaze Academy to learn more UI design fundamentals.