Characteristics of the Best UX

Gourav Goyal

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Oct 7, 2024

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There’s a core human behavior you should never forget: “Humans like to save energy.” Energy is spent when users take actions like clicking a button, typing, or even when they're stuck thinking about where to find certain information on a page. We run on energy (our fuel), and we don’t like spending it unnecessarily.

When you truly understand this, it will prepare your mindset to identify flaws in existing designs, improve upon them, and create new ones from scratch.

1. Minimum Steps: The action a user wants to perform should require the fewest number of steps. Steps could include typing, clicking, scrolling, swiping, etc. Even moving the cursor is an action. The longer a user moves the cursor, the more energy is spent. A confirmation dialog can be shown near the cursor instead of at the top or middle of the page. On mobile, the search bar should be shown at the bottom instead of at the top of the screen.
   • Frequent actions should be completed in a single step.
2. Minimum Time: The action the user wants to perform, or the result they want to achieve, should take the least amount of time.
3. Right Placement: Buttons for frequent actions should be prominent on the screen. For example: send, generate, close, etc.
4. Right Colors: This falls under color theory. Different colors inherently represent different meanings, which further saves mental energy as the brain processes colors faster than written text. For instance, the color red is used for buttons with serious actions, like delete.
5. Descriptive: The main and all related information should be visible on the screen. Showing a bit more information than necessary doesn’t hurt, but intentionally showing less information just to keep the design minimal is a mistake.
   • When using icons for buttons, there should be descriptions when hovering over them.
6. Cautious: “To err is human” — people make mistakes, and design should account for that. Any serious action should have a confirmation (which adds one extra click) or, even better, an “undo” button to save one click!