For an application to be successful, several aspects of design play an important role. Out of them, User Interface (UI) is a priority for any business. It is not just because app developers want to give the users a great user experience but also due to escalating competition.

User Interface (UI) is the space between the application and the user. Everything that involves an active interaction is called User Interface. It varies from application to application and also depends on the platform. It is built up with various UI elements that together contribute to a good User Interface (UI) design.

The functionalities must not demand serious thinking and memorizing. Hence, it is the role of UI design to make the interaction effective. UI should also provoke clear user insight and be self-explanatory. UI must help users satisfy their needs and fulfill goals in terms of what they are looking for.

With more mobile applications than ever, app developers or businesses must be careful and smart when it comes to design. Especially, aspects like User Interface are given a front seat because it is one of the deciding factors of your app success.

Any mobile application user looks at things like appearance, functionalities and the extent of their control over the application. Businesses are looking towards various ways UI tools can be improved and used better than their competitors.

With increasing Smartphone usage, even the smallest of businesses are coming up with their own apps in order to attract maximum users and give them the best user experience.

User Interface ensures that the users understand how the app works and achieve their purpose. Visual elements when designed appropriately can have a psychological impact on the users’ minds and help in establishing a strong user-machine interaction which obviously leads to a greater User Experience (UX).

The two important elements, the User Interface (UI) and User Experience are often confused and used interchangeably. But each term is different and defines two different design elements. While UI is the interaction between the user and the application, UX is the overall user experience.

Some essential characteristics of an effective UI are clarity, responsiveness and easy on the eye. These characteristics can be achieved by considering the needs and usage capacities of the users.

Remarkable transformation UI

Ever since the human need and interaction with computers has significantly increased, new ways to enhance the interaction had evolved. UI has come a long way today and takes a vital role in the area of digital marketing.

From tiring and complex command line interfaces (CLI) where the user had to give the line to line commands to Text User Interface (TUI) which enhanced user interface to a larger extent.

And, today we have Graphical User Interface (GUI) which is easier and take inputs from mouse to touch screens.

But the growing need didn’t stop us there. With the use of ever developing technology tools, we have Natural User Interface (NUI) and Voice User Interface (VUI) like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa.

UI and Personalization

An important feature of UI is personalization. In fact, UI designers strive to give the users a personalized experience like never before.

Personalization means including the essential needs of the most individual on a wide range of devices that users use. Also, giving the user a sense of control by understanding the usage patterns is necessary.

UI designers must work towards minimizing the effort and at the same time present what is relevant to the users in a most attractive way. Even though the app is designed for a large targeted group, every individual must get the personalized experience.

It is upon the designer to make them feel like the app was specially designed for them. These considerations can make an app successful and most sought-after.

Some examples of personalization are apps recognizing the past searches or activity of the user and providing results suitable for them. Personalization also helps to remove or add features depending on the requirement.

Personalization today has an enhanced meaning and a plenty of tools for improvisation. In fact, machine learning has transformed how application personalization is done.

Managing information simplifying monotonous tasks, changes in layout to suit user work preferences.

But UI designers and businesses must understand the challenges of UI personalization such as lack of consistency, privacy issues, lack of control and low predictability could affect the App-user interaction.

These can be avoided by doing an extensive research on user behavior before developing strategies.

UI and Flexibility

Apps target a large group of audiences with varying needs and usage. This makes UI much more necessary and complex to design. Though the key for a good UI is simplicity and easy navigation, flexibility is also important to meet new demands or the expectations of advanced users.

Flexibility is one factor which makes successful apps different from the other. Flexibility is achieved when a large array of users could easily perform an action and meet their needs.

A flexible user interface provides all the predefined elements in the frameworks without the need for external updates in the future. This can be achieved through smart integration with advanced technology tools.

Flexibility also means showing what the user needs and hiding the clutter to avoid confusion. Apps focus on designing features that are not limited to a specific function. More features are developed with future needs and demands of both the ends in mind.

UI and Sales

No doubt that increased personalization results in great sales. Let us take Apple as an example. Despite its restrictive features, Apple gives a great competition to its competitors. Nor the popularity has decreased.

This nothing but because of the simple and no-fuss UI. “Your app might be a technological marvel, but don’t forget that it’s people who need to interact with it” (UXPin team). So the convenience of use is what people look for in an app.

Even if the products are a bit overpriced than those of their competitors, customers buy them for the interactive feature alone.

Another factor of UI that contributes to increased sales is constant upgrading in terms of design but without affecting the consistency and overall experience.

Though the design is an important aspect in getting customers and increasing sales, it is often that part of your business which is not visible. The success of your design purely depends on how attractive and interactive it is and the user experience it produced.

Remember that the first interaction user has with the application and the amount of relevant information acquired by the users define the success of your application.

UI and Brand recognition

Today, we have a number of tools that help strengthen your marketing strategy using various aspects. While developing a strategy, branding or ways for brand recognition are very important.

The idea of brand recognition itself establishes a strong relation to UI. Apart from quality content and entertaining campaigns, a cool user interface is essential. The visual element has more power to attract and keep users engaged for a long time.

For greater brand recognition, the UI must consist of an engaging logo, layout, features, buttons, fonts, and styles. Always remember, “People ignore design that ignores people.” (Frank Chimero).

UI designers must be able to utilize all the UI tools available to reap good results. For example, the number of pages for products and services contributes the maximum to the increase in brand recognition.

Another simple way is to add a unique touch to UI controls and maintaining consistency in terms of colors and layout also help in getting your brand to your audience.

At the same time, it is also important that your brand ideas should reflect in the design. The more interactive the interface is the lesser is the gap between the business and users.

Updates in Real Time

Real-time updates in applications mean instantaneous reactions to the user actions and up-to-date information. With growing needs, responses or changes with less latency and quicker approach are important.

New updates at the time of active application usage are what we are referring today. The key for good real-time updates in applications is to avoid extra efforts from the user end by finding new approaches.

It also affects the overall user experience to a large extent. For example, a local UI refreshing approach demands extra data, battery, and efforts from the user end and is usually considered annoying. Compared to this, silent notifications on apps are more practical and effortless.

Real-time features in your apps help you manage your products and meet customer expectations.

Today, real-time features are a must-have feature on apps. Without any refreshing process involved, data is updated based on the signals like timeouts.

UI is What Users Look for in Your Business

The user- app interactions start with a good interface. In fact, UI is the first thing that the user sees and it is what decides the extent of user satisfaction and user experience. It plays a vital role in converting users into buyers.

A difficult and absurd UI pushes the users away and it will not be a surprise if your app was deleted soon after downloading. The UI design must be simple, usable and at the same time unique and attractive than that of your competitors.

A simple rule is that your users must be able to find the right thing at the right time. UI of your application must be designed with a navigation centered approach.

Everything has to be easily accessible. Make buttons and features recognizable and look like what they are expecting to see. And, at the same time, avoid cluttering of features and content which can annoy the users.

Since the whole idea is to reduce the user efforts, UI design today is integrated with state of the art technologies and tools.

UI and Search engines

Though there is no direct effect of UI on search engines, there is a significant relationship between these two aspects of digital marketing. The time that a user spends on your mobile application might affect your bounce rates.

If the UI design fails to make the navigation process easy, users will immediately bounce back and this will surely reflect in your search rankings.

Internal page linking on mobile applications cannot be ignored too. Page navigational structures are keenly analyzed by crawlers and decide the rankings and popularity of your application.

Apart from this, you can never go wrong with page response speed, which is a great SEO factor. This can be managed with a simplistic design and less cluttering.

Besides optimizing keywords, SEO compatible user interface design must be a part of your SEO strategy.

With many benefits, UI is undoubtedly a strange key to your app success. With a clear knowledge of user behavior, analytics data and creative design ideas which integrate with changing technological tools, UI evolved as an important aspect for any business today.

In fact, this is the first step that decides the success of the user-app interaction and makes your business stand out.