UI & UX Micro-Tips: Volume

Two

A co le tion of 30 powe ful tips to

help i prove your designs i stantly

By Marc A drew

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 When cr a ing e cient, a ces ible, and bea t ful UIs, it takes only the sma lest

tweaks to i prove your designs.

In this handy little guide, I’ve brought t get er a co le tion of my easy to put

into pra tice UI & UX m cro-tips.

Tips that can, with little e fort, help i prove both your designs, and the user ex-

pe ence.

Let’s dive in…

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 1. Try to keep the Tab Bar a co stant
wit in your M bile App.

If the user is g ing more than two levels deep into your app, make sure the Tab Bar

is there to help them get back to where they need to quickly.

Too many taps aren’t cool and will bring fru tr tion to any user.
Try to keep the Tab Bar a co stant wit in your m bile app, and avoid those un-

n ce sary tap backs.

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 2. U ing only Weight can cr ate Em-
ph sis and H e a chy wit in your Type.

E pha is and Hie archy u ing only Weight? Oh yes!

Sta ing wit in the same type fa ily and simply var ing the fa ily me ber's

Weight can si nal a shift in Hie archy even when the point size is u changed.
Som times Weight is all you need to cr ate E pha is and Hie archy wit in

your type. Yup. It's r a ly that si ple.

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 3. Try and cr ate ge e ous ta pable
a eas on M bile.

When desig ing for m bile, try to make Ta pable Areas large enough for gers

to tap su ces fully.

The mi i um r co me ded Tap Areas for both iOS and A droid are -
44 x 44pt for iOS

48 x 48dp for A droid

Our gers come in var ous sizes, so give ‘em some room and make it easy for

the user to tap a cu ately without too much fru tr tion.

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 4. Make your site's na g tion as con-
si tent as po s ble.

Fo low best pra tices and try to keep your na i tion co sis ent across your site.

Even minor changes can cause co ni ive di so ance and fru tr tion for the

user.
There may be minor e ce tions to the rule on ce tain types of sites but keep

that na i tion co sis ent for the m jo ity.

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 5. Co tent-heavy site? Make that
Search a pro inent fe ture.

Whene er po sible, aim to make Search a pro i ent fe ture on your co tent-

heavy site, e p cially when viewed on des top.

Try not to hide your search fe ture solely b hind some teeny-tiny sy bol as it
plays an e se tial role on co tent-heavy sites, and d mands a little more a te tion.

Make it pro i ent and vi ible on des top and you're good to go!

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 6. Don't just choose font sizes at ran-
dom. Use a Type Sc le.

When you need to de ne a co le tion of font sizes fast, pra ti ally, and without any

gues work, use a Type Scale.

As the name i plies, a Type Scale o e ates on a scale factor (say, 1.25).
The a proach is to start with a Base font size (ie; 18px) and mu tiply (or d vide)

it by the scale factor (ie; 1.25) to get font sizes of a hig er (ie; H1, H2, H3, etc.) or

lower hie archy (ie; Ca tion, Bu ton, etc.).

U ing a Type Scale will help you cr ate texts that look ha m n ous, and quickly

bring co sis ency, rhythm, and hie archy to your t p graphy.

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 7. Keep your me sages short and
sweet. Cut out the uff.

A ways try to keep those me sages short and to the point, and talk to the user in a

voice they’ll ea ily u de stand.

If there’s no r quir ment for any ja gon-speak, then cut it out. Avoid the uff.
Presen ing clear and co cise me sages to the user will a sist them be ter in

achie ing their d sired goals.

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 8. Give 20pt a try when you’re cr a ing
long-form co tent.

For long-form co tent (i.e., ar icles, pr ject d scri tions, etc.), use 20pt (or even a

little more) for your Body copy.

This d pends, of course, on the Typeface used, but most po lar Body
Typefaces look great at 20pt and provide a si n antly be ter rea ing e pe ence

for your users when they’re prese ted with a wall of text.

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 9. Don’t rely on just colour alone to
co vey i fo m tion with e ror mes-
sages.

As powe ful as co our can be in your designs, don’t a ways rely on co our alone to

co vey i por ant i for tion to the user.

For e ample, with form e ror states, choo ing the ‘im gi tion-free’ red bo der

isn’t hel ful enough for a large se tion of users.

Brin ing som thing like an icon and d scrip ive text into the mix will co vey

your me sage in more d tail and aid a ces i i ity at the same time.

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 10. Cr ate a ha m nious ve t cal
rhythm with the 4pt Bas line & 8pt
Grid.

When it comes to Type, co bi ing the 4pt Baseline Grid with the 8pt Grid re ults in

a much more ha m n ous ve ti al rhythm across your designs.

Align type to a 4pt Baseline Grid, which e ploys a line-height value that is a

mu tiple of 4 (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and so on).

Why 4? For me, sca ing my Baseline Grid in mu tiples of 8 in the past has

pushed the lines too far apart when wor ing with sp ci c type sizes, wher as u ing

the 4pt Baseline Grid provides more ne-grained co trol and si n antly be ter

re ults.

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 11. D crease the le ter spa ing, and
line height on those Hea ings.

As o posed to long-form body text, hea ings are ty i ally much shor er, a lo ing

you to r duce the line height sp cing a little.

They’re also most likely to be a much bi ger font size, with the sp cing
between the le ters a pea ing o ti ally la ger, so r d cing the le ter-sp cing will

help your hea ings look more vis ally ba anced.

Go ahead and d crease that le ter sp cing and line height on your hea ings

for o ti al rea a i ity.

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 12. Use mu t ple sha ows, or a su tle
bo der to make those e ments pop!

U ing mu tiple drop sha ows or a very subtle 1px bo der (just a shade or two dark-

er than your a t al sha ow) around ce tain el ments can make them a pear sharp-

er and more de ned.

Fo lo ing this simple met od can make your el ments pop a little more, help

avoid those muddy-loo ing sha ows, and bring a subtle touch of po ish to your

designs.

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 13. Start your me sages with the goal
rst, not the a tion.

A ways try and co struct your me sages to the user in the co rect o der.

When d scri ing a goal, and the a tion r quired to achieve it, b gin the sen-

tence with the goal.

Co struc ing your me sages in this format will make them more ea ily u der-

stan able and help r duce user e ror at the same time.

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 14. Are your sha ows a t a ly co ing
from one light source?

Make sure your sha ows are a ways cast by one light source, which, su prise, sur-

prise, is us ally from above.

Cr a ing sha ows cast at di fe ent angles is a simple mi take to make, yet it can
leave your designs a pea ing sloppy.

R me ber, we don't i ha it a land with a tho sand suns.

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 15. Use White Space well to achieve a
more r bust Vi ual H e a chy.

White space. Ne a ive space. Get the ba ance right to build a so id vis al hie archy

on the page.

Too little white space can co pletely erase vis al hie archy and leave the user
fee ing ove whelmed and di tra ted.

White space needs to be ba anced to pr serve rea a i ity, su port sca na il-

ity, and aid the user’s f cus.

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 16. I prove rea abi ty by choo ing
the right line length for your body
text.

Wor ing with Body text and d ter i ing a sui able line length can be a ba a cing

act.

A line length of 45 to 75 cha a ters is widely r garded as a equate for a single-

column page, with a 66 cha a ter line (which i cludes both le ters and spaces)

found to be the sweet spot.

Of course, font-size and line-height play a factor in d ter i ing rea a i ity, but

for line length, stick to the 45-75 cha a ter li its, and you'll be ne.

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 17. Prompt in tial user a tion with
hel ful em ty states.

Empty states. Highly b n cial in i pro ing the user e pe ence, but so o ten neg-

lected.

Use empty states as an o po tu ity for the user to quickly di co er fe tures that
will b n t them, get them to a co plish their goals soo er, and use the site or

app as you i te ded.

Please don’t leave your user at a loss on what to do rst, and start them off on

the right foot.

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 18. Set your line-height based on the
Typ face’s x-height for o t mal read-
abi ty.

Typefaces with di fe ing x-heights need, well, di fe ent line-height mea ur ments to

achieve o ti al rea a i ity and legi i ity.

Me r weat er, for e ample, is a Typeface with a large x-height, and as such re-

quires a la ger line-height.

In co trast, som thing like Mr Eaves Sans with its small x-height r quires less

line-height to achieve the best rea a i ity.

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 19. Yup. Whit space is a d sign ele-
ment. So use it well.

Don’t ove stuff your designs. Let both your design and user breathe.

Whitespace is as i por ant a design el ment as t p graphy, co our and im-

agery to co m ni ate your site or apps me sage clearly and bring a much be ter
e pe ence for the user.

Just b cause you have all that screen space avai able to you doesn’t mean you

need to ll every part of it. Use Whitespace well, as you would any ot er design

el ment.

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 20. Mai tain a sui able co trast r tio
b tween light text and i ages.

A ways check that light text is legible against ligh er i age bac grounds.

Som thing as simple as u ing a slightly opaque dark bac ground b hind your

text will mai tain a nice co trast r tio between those el ments.
It also e ables you to quickly switch between dark and light i ages without

cha ging the text co our.

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 21. Get the pe fect Ve t cal Rhythm for
your Hea lines and Body Text.

When you want to achieve an e ce lent Ve ti al Rhythm, as well as a so id Vis al

Hie archy between text el ments in your designs, you need to get your Ma gins

just right.
I've seen a lot of designs, most ty i ally in ar icle lists, where they've a plied

equal top and bo tom ma gins to hea ings and, as a re ult, lost the co ne tion

with the body text b low it.

I'll a ways give more top ma gin to my hea ings and a little less at the bo tom in

cases like these. This makes the co ne tion between the hea line and co tent be-

neath more r bust, and an e ce lent Ve ti al Rhythm and Vis al Hie archy is pre-

served between all ar icles in a list.

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 22. To d te mine the rea abi ty of
your ch sen typ face, use the x-height
or Il1 test.

The x-height is the height of a lower-case 'x' in r l tion to an u per-case le ter (i.e.,

T) in the same Typeface.

If your font has a large x-height, it will have co si e ably be ter rea a i ity, es-

p cially when used in long-form body co tent.

Now, a ot er way to d ter ine the rea a i ity of a Typeface is to do the Il1

Test.

With this test, you co pare three le ters from the same Typeface: U pe case i

(I), Lowe case L (l), and the nu ber one (1).

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 How di fe ent the le te forms look against one a ot er can help d ter ine

rea a i ity, e p cially when wor ing with Sans Serif Typefaces.

When choo ing a Typeface for your Body text, a ways aim for the best legi i ity,

either via x-height, Il1, or both.

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 23. D pen ing on the size of the text
block you use, a just your line-height
a cor in ly.

Not all line-heights are equal.

When wor ing with text blocks of var ing sizes, you need to nd the line-height

sui able to a sp ci c block.

With a large block of text, for e ample, adding e tra line-height a lows the eye

to ea ily di ti guish the end of one line from the b gi ning of the next and move

smoothly through the la ger pa sage of text.

And when your text block is nice and short (just 3 or 4 lines) and of a much

shor er line length, you can go ahead and stick with its stan ard line-height or re-

duce it slightly without wo r ing about legi i ity i sues.

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Tweak those line-heights to t.

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 24. Keep your text colour pa ette sim-
ple and just use Tints & Shades.

If the pr ject a lows, don’t feel that you need to use a crazy amount of di fe ent text

co our choices to present your me sage well.

For some, e p cially when not wor ing from pr ject specs of any kind, n ing
di fe ent co our co bi tions that work well t get er can be a struggle.

Save you self all the stress and look at u ing tried, and tested Tints (ligh er vari-

ants) and Shades (dar er var ants) of som thing like your Primary co our, for ex-

ample.

Check out maketin san shades com to see how you can make this whole Tints

& Shades pr cess even quic er.

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 25. Pro i ty. A key D sign Pri c ple.
Use it well.

Pro i ity. One of the many Design Pri ciples that can help you pr duce stronger

and clea er UIs for your users.

With Pro i ity in play, you e sure that r lated design el ments are placed to-
get er, which in turn si nals a r l tio ship between them and helps speed up the

user’s co n tion when u ing your site or app.

Use it re larly and use it well.

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 26. A ways make e ments in your UIs
di ti guis able from one a ot er.

E se tial el ments in your UIs should a ways be ea ily di ti guis able from one an-

ot er to i prove the user e pe ence.

Take, for e ample, Bu tons and N t tions.

Bu tons will take pr ce ence in most ci cu stances, so make sure they're the

most pro i ent thing on the screen and can be r co nised ea ily from ot er com-

po ents such as N t tions.

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 27. Check out these Sans-Serif fonts;
Pe fect for both Hea lines and Body.

I know how great Type can i stantly i prove a design and help get the right mes-

sage across to the end-user of your site or app.

I've used this s le tion of Sans-Serif fonts many times b fore, and they're
equally us ful for both Hea lines and Body copy.

You can nd all of these great fonts at fon s.adobe com

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 28. Check out these Serif fonts; Pe fect
for both Hea lines and Body.

Like I me tioned in the pr v ous tip, great Type is one of the key el ments to help

lift a design from ‘Eh’ to ‘Ama ing’, and this s le tion of Serif fonts can help you do

that.
I’ve used a few of these co sis ently for both Hea lines and long-form Body

copy and highly r co mend them.

You can nd all of these bea t ful Serif fonts at fon s.adobe com

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 29. Loo ing for great font co b na-
tions fast? Use S pe f m lies.

I've di cussed S pe fa i ies pr v ously, but I wanted to me tion them again be-

cause they can be so hel ful when you're ha ing trouble n ing great font pai ings.

S pe fa i ies are sets of Typefaces that can come in Serif and Sans-Serif a-
vours and are d signed to work t get er in pe fect vis al ha mony.

If you want to mix Typefaces e fec ively without wo r ing about s lec ing a not-

so-great co bi tion, a S pe fa ily is an e ce lent place to start.

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 30. Sh dows. Go su tle or go home.

Drop Sha ows. Used subtly can act as powe ful vis al cues in your designs.

R me ber. Sha ows in the real world are nearly a ways u notic able for most

of the time; thus, you should aim to re li ate this type of b h viour in your UIs.

When it comes to sha ows in your UIs, go subtle, or go to your place of re id-

ence.

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 I hope with this co le tion of m cro-tips, you've rea ised how the sma lest of a just-

ments to your designs can pr duce be ter re ults for both you self and your users.

Oh. And if you’re wan ng more aw some tips like these then you can Join my

Wee ly New letter here - https://www ma ca drew.me

Many thanks

Marc

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