user interface guidelines for web applications

Any product or web application are dynamic and interactive elements that are directly linked to the users and impact the business’s tasks and productivity. A web application has to be designed at the comfort level and ease of use with the end user in mind.Similarly if a web app doesn’t seem to be easily understandable, your efforts are down the drain.

Users wouldn’t hesitate to move on the next in no time. Hence the purpose of web applications is to fulfill the purpose of a user’s needs in adherence to the business rules. Hence it’s important to think always from the end user for whom you are designing the application which increases the usability.It’s appropriate to observe the user actions, than to listen what he says.

Maintain a stable and Consistent UI format.

Your Interface needs to be stable and remain unaltered. Maintain consistency and uniformity in all the pages, and same goes with the style. Getting familiarized to interface is time taking, hence maintaining consistency in elements like style, layout, color and font make it easier for the user. It’s better when standard elements are used.

Try not to get too fancy with buttons, which user should not look for, buttons are linked to the actions, hence users click them very often and there should not be any scope for confusion. The appearance of buttons or checkboxes must look as it is, as users find it difficult if you go fancy and change the pattern of how users are used to.

Guide the user

It’s not the user’s job to do the guesswork which is very annoying. The navigation for the user must be easy and clear to move to the next step indicating how to progress further. Ex: If the confirm payment action is important for the process to continue, the confirm payment button must be highlighted or displayed visibly. Make actions clear so that user’s tasks are completed successfully.

Highlight the Interactive Buttons & Important changes.

Make sure to highlight the interactive elements or objects prominent to differentiate from the rest of the elements.Examples of Call-to-Actions buttons include.

Key feature of a good UI is to make the changes highlighted and promptly visible so that the users can complete their actions successfully. For improved system visibility, AJAX is used in web applications to update changes in the specific places without having the need to refresh every time.

Take Feedback for User’s Interaction and Progressing

If a user performs an action on the web application and is left clueless if the action or click has gone through. The waiting can leave the user an annoying experience, as he doesn’t know if the action is completed or he has to do it again or click multiple times. Taking a feedback minimizes the user’s interactions from knowing if it has completed or not. The feedback ensures the user that he has done something. But if the status is unknown, the user is left guessing if the browser session has timed out or some error has occurred.

Don’t repeat & Keep signup process simple.