Chapter 8. Displaying items in the app
This chapter covers
- The principles behind a good user interface
- How everyone can find and use what they’re looking for
- Making visual elements clear and consistent
In this chapter, I cover one of the most obvious aspects of an app. It’s what most people focus on, and it’s the most visible—it’s what you display onscreen. What you display and how you do it are crucial to your app’s success. To not give people adequate consideration can leave you with an app that’s confusing, misleading, or otherwise hard to use.
The creation of UIs is a large and complex topic. Many books focus solely on this topic, so for me to try to cover everything in this one chapter is unrealistic. Instead, this chapter focuses on the core aspects of UI design, which you can apply to any mobile app platform. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to create an app with a good layout and logical navigation that people can easily use even if you don’t consider yourself a designer.
At the core of creating a UI that contributes to an intuitive UX is the idea that what you display will preemptively answer questions people have before they ask them. It’ll also avoid users asking questions not directly related to their task. A person shouldn’t need to ask, “How do I do X?” This should be clear from what’s onscreen. Similarly, don’t cause someone to wonder why something looks the way it does or how to interact with it.