A good user interface leads to a pleasant user experience – and returning customers!

What a good UI and UX on a website should look like

Imagine you're going on a short trip today and everything goes smoothly: you arrive at the station, the train is already waiting, and as soon as you arrive, the sun is shining and a café in town has just freed up a spot for you.

The staff is friendly, the table is super clean, and the menu is clearly laid out and appealing. And before you know it, a cappuccino is already in front of you. But if you have a very different experience—with unfriendly staff, long waits, dirty tables, and even a wrong order—you likely won’t return to that café.

"A good UI makes the UX on your website pleasant and easy!"

That’s about how we imagine a good UI and UX on a website. At first glance, they may hardly be noticed—but they make the journey through your website smooth and pleasant: clear navigation from page to page, all content easy to find, and fast loading times. If that’s the case, users will definitely be happy to return to your site!

Essential for Every Project: User Interface and User Experience

In your projects, you’ll often come across two terms: UI and UX – meaning User Interface and User Experience.

To briefly explain the difference: The term UI refers to the user interface, or the user-facing part of the system that enables interaction with an application. While there’s no single rule that dictates exactly how a user interface should look, several proven design principles have emerged over time that should be considered during concept and design.

"Why UI and UX should always be part of your projects!"

UX, on the other hand, refers to the overall user experience – the feeling and impression users have when interacting with products, websites, apps, or services. And this experience always happens – whether consciously or unconsciously! That’s why you should always keep these two aspects in mind in your projects – to offer something that is not only easy to use, but also leaves a positive impression.

What Does UI Actually Mean for a Project?

In the previous video, we briefly touched on what UI means in general. But what does it actually mean in practice?

When is a UI – that is, the user interface – good, and when is it poor? From a designer’s perspective, the following questions come up first: What kind of overall impression should the interface convey? Subtle or bold? Informative or eye-catching? What color scheme makes sense for the application? Background, primary, secondary, and font colors? What fonts and font styles are appropriate? How do I structure the basic layout of the page? And how can related information be well organized – for example in the main navigation or content area? Does the layout work on both large and small screens?

"In a good UI, all elements are self-explanatory, consistent, and well thought-out!"

This aspect is often a key topic in complex data applications. For all of these questions, it is also crucial that all elements or components are self-explanatory, consistent, and carefully designed.

What Makes for a Good User Experience?

As with many things, user experience often only stands out when something doesn't work as expected — that's when negative experiences stick and may prevent a user from returning to your site.

This means users should be able to trust that a website behaves and functions as they expect. The most important aspects to consider are: a clear menu structure, short paths to content, fast loading times, a clean and well-structured content area, working links, and if necessary, prompt support.

"A good user experience leaves a lasting impression"

It’s also a good idea to include subtle animations, well-designed images and videos, pleasant color schemes, and appealing typographic elements. All of this helps create a positive impression. So be sure to keep these factors in mind for your projects to leave your website visitors with the best possible experience.

Why It’s Essential to Know Your Target Audience

Understanding your target audience is a fundamental prerequisite throughout the entire concept and design process.

Many decisions will be based on insights about your audience. If you develop your product without keeping your audience in mind, it can significantly weaken the expected impact!

"Gain real-world insights through usability testing!"

It’s also important not to rely solely on self-created personas or user stories but to incorporate real-world insights and findings from usability tests. For example, you can gather valuable feedback early in the design phase using clickable prototypes and directly apply that to improve your layouts.

Also keep in mind that design shouldn’t be set in stone. Of course, you won’t scrap the entire design, but it’s often worthwhile to tweak certain elements to reduce or remove barriers identified in user testing.

Form Follows Function

Depending on the type of web application you want to develop, the design must naturally be taken into account accordingly.

For example, when we think of a brand website, the focus is typically on presenting the brand and possibly its products. Accordingly, we need to strike a balance between emotional design and product information.

If we're communicating a new product via a web special, we can shift the focus much more toward effects, large-scale imagery, videos, and concise marketing texts.

"A clean and meaningful design is based on the data provided."

However, if we’re dealing with a database application with highly complex tables and structures, it's absolutely necessary to focus on the manageability of attributes, values, user roles, permissions, and so on. The concept of “form follows function” applies here – the form follows the function. It’s essential to know in advance how the data and information are structured in order to develop a clean and practical design.

The Importance of Style Guides

In our projects, we frequently work with client style guides that need to be applied across various applications.

Style guides are, generally speaking, design guidelines presented in print or digital format and intended to define the visual identity of a brand or product. At their core, they address the same questions we've already discussed in previous videos. The larger a company is, the more beneficial a style guide becomes.

"Ideally, a style guide defines all relevant design guidelines."

Ideally, a style guide defines all relevant design specifications, such as brand-related elements like logo, color scheme, typography, image style, or the appearance of icons. It can also include detailed guidelines for websites, apps, print materials, trade show booths, and more. So, always evaluate your specific case to determine whether you need a style guide, and if so, how comprehensive it should be—while still allowing you enough flexibility to launch new projects efficiently.

Good User Experience Is Rewarded by Search Engines!

At Google, the user comes first—and that's why search engines reward websites with good user experience with a correspondingly strong ranking.

Whereas in the past it was enough to use meta tags and adjust headings and texts, today it's necessary to factor in the entire UX.

"Good user guidance leads to happy users and strong rankings."

Always focus on simple page structures and intuitive navigation! Prioritize fast loading times—it's one of the key factors in Google's ranking criteria. Ensure text and interactive elements are sufficiently large and readable, and be sure to optimize image sizes.

Also, provide relevant and engaging content and focus on optimizing your site for mobile devices. A simple and clear user journey not only makes your users happy and improves conversion rates—it also boosts your visibility in search results!

How to Offer Users a Pleasant UX

When we implement a project in our company—such as an application for managing your data—we naturally want to offer users a pleasant UX under all circumstances. These might be applications like a PIM or MAM, a flyer tool for generating print media, a multilingual website, and so on.

Even if a complex application is behind the website, we aim to reduce barriers between the user and the interface as much as possible! The user should intuitively understand, for example, how to easily generate a print document. They should be able to find the fastest path to the desired product and the shopping cart.

"We support our clients throughout the entire journey from design to implementation."

We make it easy for users to find what they are looking for—even in a complex data-driven application! At the same time, we keep your company culture, your tools, products, and services in mind. That’s how we support our clients across the entire journey from design to implementation.

What Makes a Good Interaction Between UX and UI?

Let’s summarize what defines a good interaction between UX and UI on a website.

First, the "Look": The site is designed in a way that picks up users right where they are—creating trust and clearly communicating the product or service on offer.

"Look, feel, form follows function, teamwork – that’s how great UX and UI work together."

"Feel": The goal is to make users feel comfortable and enjoy interacting with the site. "Expectation": Users should get exactly the information they are looking for. That means we need to understand them well—know what they’re searching for and what they expect. "Form follows function": The design follows the purpose of the application and is shaped accordingly. And finally, "Teamwork": For an optimal user experience, researchers do the groundwork – but designers, developers, business analysts, testers, content strategists, and others must work closely together throughout.

We wish you great success and look forward to your experiences and questions in the comments!