Paul Rand pointed out that sadly, we're more familiar with bad design than good design. And that's caused us to be more conditioned to prefer bad design.
But we don't have to put up with it. We are delighted when we experience good design.
Speaking to a room of developers at Silicon Valley Code Camp, Uday Gajendar, Principal Product Designer for Citrix, gave a session on the "Fundamentals of Good UI Design."
As you go into any screen design project, remember, said Gajendar, every button, icon, text, tab, menu item is just yet another visual and cognitive signal that a user must process and learn, thus increasing the choices to be evaluated even if it's just for a split second.
After the presentation, Gajendar and I joked about how the audience was looking for tools and recipes to create the perfect design. The problem is design is not an exact science. It's never clear when you have it perfectly right. It requires lots and lots of practice.
Eight fundamentals to good UI
Gajendar broke up his presentation into eight fundamentals. The first half are the visual presentation of communications. The second half have to do with interaction and experience.
