8 UI design HACKS in 180 SECONDS!!

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Number one Getting Started before you begin any UI project you need to ask yourself is this a low, medium or high complexity project in terms of feature set or team size? If the feature set is simple or the team size is small, you can often get away with jumping straight into visual design without needing to do much whiteboarding and wireframing and all that. However, if the feature set is complex or the team size is large, a lot of times it can be better to focus on functionality first with wireframing and low fidelity design and then once everybody's on board with that, then you can switch into typography, color layout and style. Number two Typography Once you are working on the visuals you need to ask yourself have I chosen very deliberate font sizes and have I pushed myself to use as few as possible? Giving yourself a rigid constraint like this early on can keep things more consistent and it will give you more time to explore layout and color. Number three Layout have I used an intentional implicit grid for all of the negative space surrounding all of the elements inside of my designs, especially to define the relationship between each one of them? For example, the space between two different elements, like this block of text and this button, should be larger than the space between two similar elements like these two buttons. Number four Color have I leveraged the power of HSB hue, saturation and brightness to create a full color scheme for my design? Choosing a single hue and only adjusting the saturation and brightness is the easiest way to keep your color scheme cohesive and consistent. Number five Style have I consciously decided on a specific design direction and can I describe my designs with specific adjectives? The adjectives simple, colorful and fun will produce different designs than dark, modern and techy. Choose your adjectives before you begin and stick with them. Number six Imagery Knowing that great images are going to make your designs 10 times better than subpar images, have you deliberately and intentionally selected, sourced or created the best possible imagery for your product? For example, Nike would sell way less shoes if their imagery looked like this. Number seven Elements does your project have a clear navigational structure and ideally prioritize the top five or fewer sections? Too many choices can cause indecision, whereas a select few can have a big impact simply because it causes more focus. And finally, number eight Tactics. Have you tried lots and lots of versions of alternate design decisions and then by process of elimination decided on what's best? You don't need to spend all of your time refactoring the same design over and over and over on a single screen without leaving a trail of your design decisions along the way. Pixels are free, just duplicate it and move on. And I've got a bonus hack. If you look at the link down below, I've got a free UI checklist that you can download that contain all of these hacks and a lot more that you can use to make sure your designs are looking awesome. If you enjoyed this video, don't forget to like comment and subscribe and I'll see you in the next one.