How I Improve my UI Design

Designing good and attractive user interface have been something of concern to me. I realized I have not really been paying attention to elements of good UI design after presenting my work for review at Andela Bootcamp (cycle 29). I was completely confused when I was told to redesign my UI templates. Where will I start from. I did try redesigning using bootstrap, but the design and redesign was a mess. I was throwing classes into my html element tags without really knowing how they work. I observed the works of others, I know I have to pay more attention to how to design a better, responsive and attractive user interface for good user experience for people who will be using my sites or applications. To improve my understanding of UI design perspective, I know I have to devote more time to learning. The past few months have presently opportunities to improve my UI design. So I would like to share some of the lessons and resources that have aided my learning.

First step in improving my user interface design was seeking for video resources that focused on teaching the concepts of designing good user interface, outlining the difference between UI and UX. With the videos, I was able to take a new look and my UI design process to make it better.

I have also leverage online articles (especially from medium) on how to approach designing the template for a website or web application. Amongst my takeaway from I have learned what that ‘you have to make your site usable first, after which which you can make more attractive’. I also have a change understanding of combining and applying colors to UI elements.

Among the resources that I found helpful in improving my UI design is www.goodui.org an online document that explain the dos and don’t of good UI design and best practices. In the process, I learned that when presented with a project, instead of just jumping in to my text editor and creating markups, I want to conceptualize the project structure, understand the requirements, know who my users are. Then I need to create wireframes and mockups of how the final project will look like.

I was able to practice what I was learning while working on a project. This enable the concepts to stick more. When presented with a any project, I am better able to approach it. Of course, I still have much to learn in improving my UI design capabilities. As an aspiring world class developer, I know the future will present to me opportunities to learn new skills and improve on what I already. Being open minded and willingness to accept challenges will help me to to achieve my goal. If you are presented with an opportunity to learn something new or challenging, the best way to overcome it is to immerse yourself in the process, seek for resources and seek for ways to apply what you are learning and you will experience significant improvement.