Usually when web developers set strategies to design a product based on what their clients/users want they often stumble. Either they collect a lot of backward-looking data, which doesn’t tell them what future customers really want. Or they make risky bets based on instinct instead of evidence. Design thinking is a strategy-making process that avoids these mistakes by applying the use of certain tools from the world of design and shifting the focus to human behaviour and analyzing how certain things will affect different individuals. It was popularized by David M. Kelly and Tim Brown of IDEO and Roger Martin of the Rotman School. Design thinking has three major stages:

Following are the three major stages of the design thinking process that can assure that your design will meet your future customer’s wants. 

Form a few theories about what your users might want, by immersing yourself in their lives. Instead of polling them about specific design features, observe and ask questions about their behavior. And after you know what they might want but don’t have, you can go for the next step. 

Use iterative prototyping on the designs you’ve created and conduct a few quick experiments to see how users respond. Iterative prototyping is basically a repeating cycle of designing, prototyping, testing, and refining multiple “versions” of a product (in this case a web design). After you’re done with the iterative prototyping process, you can make the necessary changes and move on to the final stage of the design thinking process.  

The last stage of the design thinking process involves bringing the new design to life. After you’re done with the iterative prototyping process and you’ve got a winner, you can now start developing the final product based on all the points collected in the previous two stages. 

Organizing your work makes way for improvement and innovation. The same was the case for the manufacturing industry when Total Quality Management was introduced in the 1980s by Toyota. Design thinking has the potential to do for innovation in web development exactly what TQM did for manufacturing. By strategically structuring your whole design process, you can not only improve the process as is but also make room for innovation. Because in the first stage instead of asking the user/client for what they want, what you do is you observe their behaviors and analyze them based on what they would want but not know yet. What this does is that it makes room for innovation because you usually end up making a design the client didn’t actually ask for but wanted and didn't know that they wanted that design. 

By using imaginative, human-centered problem solving, design thinking can help you unlock new markets and identify new strategies for designing your product and effectively target your customer wants.

Importance of developing your design thinking and why it works

A responsive web design or RWD is a modern web solution that allows websites and pages to render across all types of devices and screen sizes. It automatically adapts to the device’s screen whether it’s a smartphone, desktop, or tablet. The way it works is that we use various settings to serve different style properties depending on the specification of the device on which the website will be displayed. 

Since the mobile revolution started about almost a decade ago, a lot has changed in the way we interact with products and how we design them. The first smart device, the iPhone when it launched was basically a pocket sized computer that combined three things, phone, music player, and an internet browser and since then, designers have had to adapt their websites for small-size screens. Nowadays almost every client we get asks for one thing, a mobile version of their website. Now designing a separate version of a website just to fit a different screen is impractical and time consuming, so instead the design industry came up with a web design that would be flexible enough to support various types of screens resolutions, hence the approach called responsive web design or RWD was born. 

Designing a responsive website requires three main ingredients, a flexible layout, media queries and flexible images and videos. 

By flexible layouts we mean building the layout of a website with a flexible grid which is created using CSS. Flexible layouts consist of columns which rearrange themselves automatically in order to fit the size of the screen on which they are loaded. 

Flexible layouts themselves aren’t enough to make a website fully responsive. When the layout gets too small it’s likely to break into columns resulting in a not so pleasing content display. So in order to optimize the design of the website to fit different screens it is necessary to make use of media queries. Media queries allow us to inspect the physical characteristics of the device rendering our work according to that specific device. They also allow us to customize different styles for different screen sizes.

As the layout changes, it is essential for the content of the website to scale with the change in viewport. Using flexible layout and media queries won’t be enough to do so effectively so for that matter it is important to use images and videos that can adjust their size as the viewports change. All elements of a responsive design are distributed in a flexible container which resize themselves as the user switches to another device. A simple solution to making the content of the website scalable is to use the max-width property with a value of 100%.

Is Adaptive Design the same as Responsive?

Adaptive and responsive designs are closely related, however they are not exactly the same. Where responsive designs use media queries to dynamically change the page layout based on the target device’s resolution, an adaptive design, on the other hand, uses static layouts that are based on breakpoints which don’t respond once they’re loaded, making adaptive designs a not so flexible solution for design optimization on various screens. 

Due to the speed at which technological innovations are being made, it is more important now than ever that we start designing websites that are flexible enough to effectively fit into any screen type. And to be clear, understanding how to make a design responsive to the user’s device doesn’t require much learning, rather it is a lot less stressful and more productive than learning how to design a different version of a website for every single device available. Responsive web designs help maintain consistency of the website’s design across various devices, improving the user’s experience altogether. 

Importance of a responsive web design and the ingredients for making one

The problem with the internet is that people generally have the perception that it is clean and environmentally friendly. This is a problem with most immaterial things as people usually don't consider them to contribute much to the carbon footprint. However, statistics show that the internet contributes 3.7% to the annual carbon footprint which is increasing annually. Let alone 3.7% doesn’t look like a lot but when compared to the aviation industry which contributes 2% towards the annual carbon footprint, one can just imagine the extent of the pollution that the internet produces. We’ve covered how the internet contributes to the carbon footprint and how websites have a part to play in that in a previous blog on (Insert Link to How Faster Webs can Lead to Sustainability of the Planet once uploaded). The blog basically mentioned how reducing the weight of a website can contribute to the sustainability of our planet. Now reducing the weight of your website is not a simple thing, it involves taking into consideration a lot of things. For that matter this blog will be focusing on how you can design a website that has little to no contribution towards the carbon footprint and what things you should consider when doing so.

It is very hard to fix something that you cannot see. However, the internet has a very real environmental impact even if we cannot see it, but luckily you can now measure your website’s CO2 emission with the help of this free online tool Website Carbon Calculator. Before you start designing for a carbon neutral website you need to know how much CO2 emissions your website currently produces, after which it is easier for designers and developers to estimate how much they need to reduce the weight of their website in order to reduce as much CO2 emissions their website produces. This tool provides you with data about how much CO2 emissions are produced per page view, the annual CO2 emissions (based on a specified amount of page views), the annual energy consumption and whether or not your website is hosted in a data center that is powered by renewable energy. Using this tool you can also create a benchmark for your website against competitors and set targets for reducing your website's CO2 emissions. 

One sure way of reducing your website’s CO2 emissions is to reduce the amount of data needed to be transferred between servers. Reducing the weight of your website in KBs is not only sure to help you reduce your website’s CO2 emissions but it also has some additional benefits which include faster load times, which improves user experience as well as SEO, and it also reduces data usage for users with limited internet connections. This can be particularly important for developing countries where internet data is very expensive relative to local wages.

One more way of reducing the amount of data transfer is to adopt a minimalistic design for a website. Another way to do so is to not preload your multimedia content, that way the user has full autonomy to choose the thing they want to see, for example if you have an e-commerce website where your sell clothes, what you do is rather than preloading the images of the clothes you sell, you give the user the option to actively choose the picture your user wants to see. This will not only reduce the amount of data transfer but also give the user a more personalized and engaging experience. 


We understand that not all websites can have a minimalistic design. Saying that in order to ensure the sustainability of our planet we need to make the internet minimalistic would be a lost cause because not every website can have a minimalistic design. So for those websites that cannot reduce the weight of their website, who rely on heavy multimedia content like Netflix or Instagram, a secondary solution is available, switch to renewable energy. The root cause of the problem is how electricity is produced which is needed to power the internet. If you remove the root cause then you don't need to focus on designing a website that has a lighter weight or has a minimalistic design. One easy way of making this switch is through CO2 Neutral Website. This website allows you to pay a standard fee for the carbon emissions of your websites - including the traffic of your users. What this organization does is that if you cannot switch your website to renewable energy sources like solar or wind then what you can do is invest in renewable energy and neutralize your website’s carbon emissions. 

In conclusion, it is important to note that all these above solutions do not guarantee that your website would become a 100% carbon neutral, chances are that even after adopting all these tips your website still ends up producing some carbon emission but still lower than it used to. Striving for a carbon neutral internet is not a one man’s game, it requires us all to be a part of it, even the user because it doesn’t matter weather you live in Australia and the website your using is in hosted in USA because at the end of the day we all live on the same planet, under the same roof so it affects us all irrespective of where the problem originates. 

Importance of designing carbon neutral websites and how they benefit everyone

The hardest part of working as a junior UX or UI designer isn’t its tiring design process, it's the wait you do before starting your work. This is that time when you have no clue what to do or how to begin the project. You’re stuck at a stalemate, where you can’t move forward because you have no idea what to do and you can’t go back because you’ve promised your client that you’ll make them a product. However, even if you manage to get your ideas straight about what type of design you want to go for, you are now stuck in actually designing the product and you can’t seem to design a product that the customer wants because you might not have the skill-set to do or the tools to make it happen. However, it is easy to manage the design once you know what to do, how to do it and most importantly if you’re able to do it. 

To make your design process easier you should follow an organized structure for your design process that can serve as a guide to help you when you get stuck in the design process. Below is an image of the process explaining in steps how you should go about your design process:

The first most crucial step towards designing a product be it for anything it is important to actively listen to the client, this is not only important to maintain a healthy client relationship but it is also important in your design process. We believe that the reason why most designs don’t turn out the way our clients expected them to is due to designers not fully understanding what the client actually wants. It’s not that the designers don’t listen to the client, it’s just that the way each client explains something is different because we all have our own way of understanding things and this affects our design process. The only way to solve this problem is to really understand what the client wants from you and what they expect for you to provide them with. Get to know your clients, ask a lot of questions, build a strong relationship with them and understand them flawlessly. 

The second most crucial step in the whole design process is to evaluate whether or not the project at hand is possible or not. One of the most important things to note in this step is that this should always be done and in sequential order to the listening to the client part because as the designer it is our job to identify any implausible ideas that might not be possible within the client’s budget or due to any reason and suggest an alternating solutions. It is also important to note all the problems that may arise during the later phases of the project and inform your client about them in due time. If when analyzing the project you feel like something won’t be possible or you find a problem you should immediately consult with the client and explain the problem and clear your queries. 

Now finally comes the main part, the one we’ve all been waiting for, actually designing the product. To put it abruptly, there is no shortcut to designing how your website will look. It’s not like we can tell you this is how you need to design this and you start working. Designing is a combination of art and science, and with every art it depends on the artist on how he/she goes about their artwork and presents an end product to the client. However, the main variables required by the client are still there, what we’re talking about is the actual creativity that is involved in the design process that will define the project and give it life, your life. The essence of this part is that you know how to design the product and now's the time to use those skills to make that product for your client. If designing the product seems difficult go back to the 2nds step and analyze the project again. 

Lastly, before you complete your project and submit the design to your client it is important to first test the product to see if all the elements in the design are interacting with one another successfully. The last thing you want is to deliver a product that keeps on crashing and keeps disturbing your client. If the test proves your design to be correct then well and good however if it proves that the design is flawed and the product will eventually crash then you can evaluate your project on either of the previous three steps based on the severity of the problem. 

An important thing to note after all this is that this process is not final. Like we said earlier this model will only serve as a guide to organize your work so that you don’t get stuck at any stage and easily compartmentalize your work and rather than letting it drive you, you drive it. One more thing to add here is that these stages mentioned may not necessarily work for you because every project has its own challenge. These challenges will work for the majority of your projects, however the essence of this is to show you that when you organize your tasks you make your work easier for yourself and ultimately end up improving your design process which will ultimately improve our design itself. 

Importance of organizing your design process in order to improve your design

According to Mike Hazas, a researcher at Lancaster University, internet usage contributes towards global greenhouse gas emissions, approximately 3.7%. This is the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions that the entire aviation industry produces, and it is estimated that by 2025 this will double. This is due to carbon emissions that are produced due to generation of electricity that is needed to power the energy intensive infrastructures on which the web relies upon, like data warehouses, servers, WiFi, user displays, and terminals. Before a user can view their required data, the data has to go through an entire chain of electrical equipment. As an example, sending a simple email contributes to around 4g of carbon emissions and sending an email with some form of multimedia content like a video or even a simple picture can produce up to 50g of carbon emissions. Once these carbon emissions reach the atmosphere they cause an effect called the greenhouse effect which contributes to the depletion of the ozone layer which causes global warming, which further leads to climate change. A List Apart estimates that as web makers, our contribution towards the carbon footprint is around 40%, be that directly or indirectly and as a part of our planet it is our duty to help our planet survive especially when our work has a considerable contribution towards global warming.

Faster websites require less time to load and are smaller in size. In order to make faster websites we need to make the website lighter, and one way of doing so is to reduce the size of a website. By removing non essential details and focusing on a minimalistic design, we can reduce the size of a website. Doing so will inevitably reduce the amount of carbon emissions produced by reducing the amount of data needed to be transferred between servers and ultimately reduce the need for more energy for doing so. According to a report by HTTP Archives, In 2021 the average weight of a webpage on a desktop is 2123.6KB and the average weight of a webpage on a mobile is 1917.5KB. Comparing this to 2017 there is a huge difference. In 2017 the average weight of a desktop webpage was 1479.6KB and that of a mobile webpage was 1334.3KB. This means that today's websites are a lot heavier and hence require more energy to load. 

Trust us, when it comes to website pages, size matters. In order for a website to be faster it’s not necessary that it only has less multimedia content to have a lighter weight, it can have better organized code. 

A website with organized code is lighter and contributes to the sustainability of our planet in the sense that it takes less time to test it, which means that the time a developer would spend on a computer coding and then testing the website would reduce, which would reduce the amount of energy consumed, hence reducing carbon emissions. Another way you can reduce the size of a website and make it load faster is to make your website accessible. Accessible websites are designed in a way to help users with disabilities access all the information on the web easily.  Accessibility provides users with less distractions and focuses more on the content, hence reducing the need for unnecessary bits of data like multimedia content ultimately reducing the need for more data transfer. 

Apart from the reason that a faster web ultimately helps our planet survive, providing a faster website that has a faster loading time is also important from a user perspective because according to data from Pingdom, if a website takes more than 4 seconds to load then 24% of the users will abandon it and if it takes more than 5 seconds to load the 38% of the users would abandon it. So in order to ensure that you retain as many users as you can, you need to make sure that your website loads faster and one way of doing so is to reduce the size of your website. 


Even though reducing the size of a website or making them faster or providing accessibility won’t save the planet. However, every small contribution when added together can humbly contribute towards this planet’s sustainability. It’s not about the intensity of our help but our mindset. If we think that websites don’t contribute much to carbon emissions then a time will come that they do and when that happens it will be too late so it’s our responsibility as inhabitants of this planet to take care of it and help it in any way possible, be it in the slightest contribution. It all starts with the first step, it all starts with you, be responsible. 

Importance of making the web faster in order to improve the sustainability of our planet 

A Faster Web can Lead to Sustainability of our Planet

The design of a website is the first thing visitors notice and leaves a lasting image of your whole business because the first impression is the last impression. As a developer it is our job to create a website that is perfect in both functionality and design; however, how would you attract a visitor to keep on using your website if the first impression they get of your website is not a  good one. So for that matter it is as important to present an aesthetically pleasing website to a functional one, because chances are that you may lose some potential customers due to a poor web design.

Websites are generally used for internet marketing and you can consider the web design of your website as the advertisement and if the visitor doesn’t click past the advertisement, doesn’t continue to use your website then the whole idea of marketing seems futile. So in order to attract visitors to keep using your website and keep coming back then you need to focus your attention on your web design. Apart from this your web design speaks about your business and conveys a perception about the company in the visitors mind. 


Now that you know the importance of a well designed web, let’s take a closer look into what principles or guidelines you need to follow in order to do this. The following are some of the important guidelines and principles we believe that can help you make that perfect, fool proof web design:

There is a specific reason for which a user visits your website. Your website should be able to cater towards all the needs the user expects your website to fulfill. A well designed website gives a sense of what the website is all about to the user in its first impression. That means that the web design should be structured in a way that a user visiting your website for the first time gets a sense of what your website is all about. 

After your user knows what your website is all about you need to provide them with the right tools to help them navigate through your webpages and get to the desired information swiftly and without any hiccups. Navigation is a crucial part of your web design if you want to retain visitors and make them customers. If the navigation of your website is not as seamless then the user will find what they’re looking for elsewhere. 

Now that the user has successfully navigated to their desired information it is our job as designers to provide them with a clear visual hierarchy that will allow them to focus on the most important information. You can use various ways to do so, one such way is to use different sizes, colors, and typography to create a sense of visual hierarchy. 

At last the user is right where they need to be, the journey was seamless and finding the content was easy peasy but the only thing that can ruin their experience now is to provide irrelevant content. A well designed website has  a good design as well as good content. Relevant content is good content and by focusing on the wordings and language you can improve this even further. 

Following the above mentioned principles and guidelines are bound to help you make that perfect web design. Following are some of the design features which we believe can help you make your ordinary design extra-ordinary:

Nothing speaks more highly of a website than providing accessibility, so that all and every visitor can use the website. Using inclusive design you can effectively entertain your users and improve the overall user experience of your website doing so. 

Color gradients help light-up a dull website. Apart from that, gradients also help in conveying meaning to users and point out the most important things in a website. Gradients can also be used to present a sense of visual hierarchy. 

Minimalism is one of the latest design trends and is gaining immense favour in the dev world for it’s features. Minimalism can solve a lot of design problems including navigation. Due to less content on the screen, users are able to easily find what they’re looking for. Apart from that minimalism also presents a sense of modernity and elegance and can give your website a professionally aesthetic look. 

By following the above mentioned guidelines and principles you’ll be able to make a well designed website with ease and if you want to take it a step further and create something out of the box then you can adopt the above mentioned points that will give your website the boost it needs. 

Importance of web design and how to make the ordinary, extraordinary

Web Designing Done Well - The Ordinary Made Extraordinary

Frankensteining is a rather new concept in the UI design world. It has gained immense popularity and some designers even suggest that this might be a plausible solution to some design problems. When we say Frankensteining we mean exactly what you’re thinking, bringing life to your design by merging several parts of different designs into one design. Basically what you do is you take the good elements from different concepts and combine them into a super concept which ultimately ends up in creating a unique stitch like design. 

Another aspect to focus on is bringing life to your design, by frankensteining you can turn even the most inanimate UIs into fun and interesting experiences for your users. We know that in the design world it is sometimes hard to decide which element to choose in order to present a specific function. With the number of possible solutions available on the web and the number of UI component libraries it is easy to get lost and decide which direction you want your design to take. Sometimes it is easy to just make sense of something when you know where you want to go but when you’re completely lost and don’t know what direction you want your design to take it is a good idea to consider frankensteining your design.

Frankensteining can be very helpful in some situations however it is important to note that at times it might not fit into your design specifications. Sometimes it can result in a poor design with no real identity. Because you are using different component elements, it is easy to make a design that looks like it has no direction. It is essential to cater towards the whole look of your design in general, because at times it is easy to mistake a unique design with an over-creative one which doesn’t give the user a sense of what the website or the application is all about. 

Sometimes when our aim is to create a unique out of the box UI what’s likely to happen is that we create a design that looks pretty unique but it is hard for the user to navigate through our website or application. It is important to note that at times the client understands what you’re going for and what route you want them to take but there is a high probability that sometimes they don’t. We’ve had clients who’ve asked us to pick elements from each route and asked us to combine them together. At times we’ve even had to pick buttons, colors, typography etc from different designs just because our client wanted his design that way and the underlying reason for this is that they want their design to be a bit more creative and unique. Even though the customer’s demands are so, it is still our job to make the final design work out because it is not necessary that the customer gets the desired product which they had in mind at the time they explained it to you and that is why most frankensteined designs turn out to be failures but those that do come out on the top are one of the most unique and creative designs that we’ve seen. 

The most important thing to note here is that with frankensteining you need to be careful and watch for any inconsistencies in the visual language of your design. As a designer it is our job to identify which patterns would fit well and which of the UX patterns we need to tweak for every element of the design to work well with the overall design. Another thing to point out is that client concerns need to be addressed in the sense that if they're asking for something that you know won’t provide their users with a good user experience, or maybe it won’t be accessible then these concerns should be laid out to them instead of just doing what the client tells you. Because as a specialist it is our job to tell them what will work and what won’t. Frankensteining can provide creative and unique user experiences however, it needs to be done with care and the patterns as well as the visual language should be coherent and consistent throughout the design. A good way of doing so is by using animations but then again not everything in the design world is a one stop solution, and sometimes we need to come up with new and creative ideas for making the design work. But an important thing to mention here is that frankensteining is much easier for less complex products and for more complex products one should handle it with care or avoid it altogether if the client hasn't specified it’s use. 

At times it is hard to design a product according to the design requirements of your client because the image they have of the end product in their mind might be different from the end product itself when frankensteining a design. That is why it is not only necessary to understand what the client wants but also to understand what they expect the final design to look like and the only way to do that is to first get on board with the client and explain to them the details of the design. Even if you use animations to bring life to your design and create context for the user to understand the navigation of the website, you might end up not satisfying both their needs, so it is important to be careful when designing a frankensteined UI and keep in mind the above mentioned points when doing so and you’ll be good to go. 

How to effectively Frankenstein your design and the cautions to cater for when doing so. 

There are about 1.7 billion active websites on the web, our goal as a designer is to not only provide our customers with a functionally sound website but rather we need to provide them with an aesthetically pleasing one, and with that the customer requires you to make a website that will make their business stand out on the web. In order to provide such a website which is altogether functional, aesthetic and unique, you need to follow the latest design trends. The reason we need to do so is because design trends set the standard of what is currently the new hype in the market, they let us know what users want, what gets their attention and what peaks their interests. A research on user impressions suggests that the top driver for a user to have a positive impression about your website is the design. 

The overall design of the website is the first thing a user sees, and research shows that it is the first 10 seconds in which the user decides whether or not to stay on that website and if you present an outdated website from the stone age or something then no matter how relevant your content is to their needs, they won’t even give it a chance. First impressions stick and it is necessary to capture your user and make them a customer in the first 10 seconds of their visit and the only way to do so is to provide them with a website that gives them the feeling of familiarity, something their used to but still unique, and the only way to do so is to follow the latest design trends. 

Now that we’ve explained the reason why you should follow the latest design trends, let’s cut to the chase and look at some of the latest design trends this year. Some of these design trends mentioned here are continuations of last year’s design trends and the rest have recently just emerged and have the tendencies to become the next big thing in the coming years.

Minimalism was the design trend in 2020 and a year later it still stands proudly among the latest design trends and looks like it won’t be going anywhere for a long time. In a minimalistic design what you do is basically abandon the traditional approach of placing focus on important content at the middle of the page and replace that with a full screen experience. What this does is provide you with more screen space to create visual and emotional appeal and clearly express the goal of your webpage. However it is important to note that minimalistic design is not meant for everyone, it is usually favoured by premium or luxury brands that want to convey elegance and integrity of their company through their website. 

There's nothing worse than a static page that doesn’t convey meaning and give life to your content. Animations also enhance the UX of your customer by guiding the flow of your website, it brings life to your design and makes it easy for users to understand the core concepts and functionality of your website, which ordinary static websites cannot do at times. 

Dark mode was the design trend last year, but once you’ve turned to the dark side it’s hard to go back. Dark mode is a cool trend that has taken over the internet with two of the greatest tech giants, Apple and Google having implemented it throughout all their systems. The reason for its popularity is hardly debatable, to put it simply it looks awesome, elegant, stylish and modern and who wouldn’t love it. But apart from the aesthetics, dark mode has a lot of cool functionality as well, like it saves more screen energy, can provide users more screen time and at times provides better readability. To learn more about dark mode and what to do and what not do, check out our blog on Dark Mode. 

This is the era of simple and minimal designs, and people like to keep things straightforward and to the point. However, designing a simple UX may look easy but trust us it requires more work than you think, and with that said it is important to note that with simple and minimalist design it is hard to uplift the design and present the core concept of the website. One of the common trends that we’ve seen most designers adopt in this matter is to use pastel colors. By doing so they highlight the lightness and unobtrusiveness of the design and set the right tone and atmosphere for their website. 

Last year in 2020, neomorphism was the latest design trend. It combined two common approaches to creating UIs, skeuomorphism and flat design. Even though this trend was popular among many UI designers, these common approaches differ significantly from each other and often considered the exact opposites which is why most UX experts stopped implementing it in their design. 

This leads us to the last design trend on our list, called glassmorphism and it seems somehow related to neomorphism. This trend comes with the blur effect or so-called blurred background. When people look at such an element, it makes them feel like they’re looking through a glass, which gives users a feeling of something from the future and gives the design a modern touch. 

At TUK we firmly believe that the main goal of UI design is to help users achieve their goals and meet their needs. For this very reason, we keep an eye on the latest UI design trends when building our products and we’ve learned that in order to succeed in creating a unique and engaging UI, you need to try to choose and combine several tendencies of these design trends.

Importance of following the latest design trends, and some of the latest design trends in 2021

We’ve all been there, when you open up your mobile phone at night and the brightness is full, it hurts like hell. Feels like looking directly at the sun in broad daylight. The dark mode we see nowadays was first introduced by designer Sylvain Boyer in early 2018, when he introduced it as the core interface for smartphones with OLED screens to save power consumption. Since its conception, dark mode has gained immense popularity among developer communities and is probably the most desired feature in modern use interfaces. With tech giants such as Apple and Google having adopted system-wide dark mode, it is not a mere trend but something that will be around in the long run.

Dark mode doesn’t only save your eyes from strain but it also saves your device’s energy consumption. Nowadays mobile phones and laptops which come with OLED screens, when put in dark mode they can save upto 60% battery as compared to when they are put in light mode, with a flat white background. But that’s not it, dark mode has as much aesthetic importance as it does with health and battery life, if not more. Let’s be honest, dark mode does look pretty amazing. It offers new and different ways of presenting graphic content such as graphs, pictures, photos and dashboards. It feels almost mysterious and innovative. 

Dark mode makes colors pop and provides good contrast , other than that, studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between the user retention and dark mode, in the sense that applying dark mode puts less strain on the eyes at night and allows users to consume more content for longer periods of time. 

Due to the benefits of dark mode it does get a lot of positive popularity, which means that it is easy for one to be criticized for creating something that doesn’t actually require a dark mode. It should not be used in every application or website, for example when you are viewing a website in a well lit room or in broad daylight it is difficult to read text positioned on dark backgrounds. Some products such as Google maps has a feature that automatically switches between dark and light mode based on the lighting in a room, or based on sunset to sunrise. 

Given that dark mode is still a new concept and even though a lot of companies including Apple and Google have adopted dark mode in almost all their user interfaces, it is still under development and it is very easy to mess things up if one doesn’t cater towards the nitty gritty details.

When faced with a variety of options it sometimes seems difficult to decide what to adopt and what not to, and to make things easier for you when designing for dark mode here are some of the things we’ve observed that you should avoid when designing for dark mode and what to do in these situations.

Remember when we said dark mode reduces the strain on the eyes? Yeah well if you use pure white text on a pure black background then that high contrast will be very painful to look at, hence not reducing strain on the eyes. In this situation it is safe to use dark grey rather than true black (#000000) as the primary background because light text on dark grey has less contrast than light text on pure black. The design should not be pure black and white but in shades of grey as well. 

Vivid colors may look amazing on a white background but on a dark background they visually vibrate against the dark surface which makes them harder to read. You should use lighter shades of primary colors in the 50-200 range because they provide better readability on dark surfaces. It is important to ensure an appropriate contrast ratio between the content and the background (ideally 15.8:1) in order to avoid causing eye strain. 

Shadows are a great way of presenting visual hierarchy in your design but only in light mode. When used in dark mode, even if the background isn't pure black, the shadow will look odd. Rather what you should use are elevation colors to present visual hierarchy on dark backgrounds and because of the brightness of elevation it builds a sense of depth, hence achieving the requirement of visual hierarchy in your design. 

The worst thing you can do while designing a product is to take away control from your users, irrespective of whether you’re designing for dark mode or not. So for that matter it is important to provide a switch that allows users to switch between light and dark mode to ensure a good user experience. The user should always feel in control and should be able to opt for which mode they want to choose. 

As a side note it would be extremely beneficial for you to give a look at the principles adopted by two of the 5 tech giants, Apple and Google. All major platforms from these companies include guidelines for dark mode, which, if you follow them, these principles will ensure that your design fits well in the ecosystem. You can find Apple and Google guidelines from the links below:

One should thread carefully before walking on the “dark side”, because even though dark mode may seem elegant and stylish it has its fair share of consequences if not used correctly. By following these points mentioned above you can feel safe that your dark mode design will suit well with your customers needs. 

Important things to avoid when designing for dark mode and what to do in those circumstances

A Practical Approach to Dark Mode: What to Do & What Not to Do

We know how frustrating it can be when you stumble almost every time before finding a solution to a complex design problem. To be honest, we’ve had our fair share of problems and the feeling that came with all those problems of being not good enough accumulated into the instinctive experience that we as a team have today. As novice designers, simplicity and complexity were opposites for us, which they are but when designing solutions we learned that you actually have to balance these alternates. 

Our perception towards a lot of things has changed over the years and now when we look back we can recall all the wrong steps we’ve taken before taking the right ones, it sure seems as if the wrong ones outweigh the right ones to an exponential degree. 

However, we feel as though those wrong steps were the ones which allowed us to learn the most, because knowing what not to do was more of a blessing then knowing what to do. Knowing what to do limited our imagination and creativity whereas, knowing what not to do gave us a set of rules and principles which served as a guide for the things we should avoid while designing. The rest was our playground and we could be as creative and imaginative as possible. 

We used to believe that complex problems require complex solutions, little did we know back then that designing a complex interface solution was like putting out fire with fire. However, according to Tesler’s Law, also known as The Law of Conservation of Complexity, states that 

“for any system there is a certain amount of complexity which cannot be reduced”

Complex problems usually do require complex solutions however, they should not seem complex to the user because a complex UI, in general, is more than enough reason for many people to abandon a website or mobile app. People don’t like things that aren’t easily understandable. It doesn’t matter how amazing your website is or how functionally relevant it is, if the usability of your website drives your users crazy then you can expect large amounts of costly user churn in return. 

As designers it is our job to limit the cognitive strain of our users and ensure that users don’t catch a glimpse of the complexity of our product. When designing the frontend of our product it is important to present a simple and intuitive interface to our users, which does not only look simple but acts simple too. 

Don’t get us wrong here, by no means do we imply that a simple website is an under designed one, by simple we only mean that it is easy to use and understand for our users. For example, take a car, how would you feel if driving a car were as complex as flying an airplane. If you had to individually control all the electrical systems in your car before you could start driving, it wouldn’t take long for you to sell that car and buy a new one. Same goes for a website, if our users find our website to be overtly complex, they would get confused and frustrated and would eventually stop using our website. So in order to retain our users to keep on using our product it is necessary to present them with a beautiful looking product that doesn’t seem complex, is simple to use and understand, and has all the features necessary to get the job done.

In order to build a product that lets users achieve their goals, we need to look at things from their perspective, we need to put ourselves in their shoes. What may seem as a simple solution for us may very well be complicated for our users to understand. If we lose sight of our users’ goals and desires we may end up presenting a UI that prioritizes our goals and priorities which would ultimately allow the complexities of the backend to shine through to the frontend. Before we do anything, it is necessary for us to understand what our users want to accomplish as well as how they expect it to happen. Sometimes users expect for certain actions to be standard. Here, both functionally and placement of components matter. E.g take the login component, it is usually placed at the top right corner of most websites. If this component were to be placed anywhere else it would cause confusion for the user and they would find it hard to navigate to the login page. 

Secondly if we were to place a button which didn’t have the right formatting of a hover or focus state or had a different shaded outline then the same problem would pertain, as our users wouldn’t even consider it as a button. So it is essential that we don’t lose sight of our users’ goals and expectations, because if we’re not designing a UI that’s in line with our users’ goals and their preferences, then we’re likely to reveal some of the complexity happening behind the scenes.

Harvard psychologist George Miller suggests that people can only hold 5 to 9 things in their short term memory with any recollection. It is only logical to say that the simpler something is, the easier it is to learn hence easier to use.

As said earlier our priority as designers is to present a product that is simple for our users to use and learn. They should easily be able to use our interface effectively and efficiently, which is only possible when we limit the number of things they have to learn. Now it is not completely necessary for us to make a simple website altogether, we can add a little bit of complexity for our more advanced users, however it is important to build this on a secondary interface. 

Take Microsoft Word for example, many users around the globe use it for creating documents, Word is a powerful software which can be used to create more than simple documents, however most users generally don’t use Word to its full capabilities and they don’t even use the variety of options available. Rather what they do is simply use the options they know and understand. When we look at the interface of Word we see that the basic options are available on the first page when we open Word, the more complex options are tucked in different menu options. 

The reason why the Microsoft team has done this is because they understand that not all users will be using Word for it’s full capabilities and the reason why they’ve hid the more complex options in separate menus is to avoid scaring off the not so advanced users. This concept is called progressive disclosure where you tuck away the advanced features in a secondary interface. So, it is important to ensure that our product not only looks and appears simple to use but acts that way too. 

We prefer things that are simple to use and remember, what may appear to be simple to us may not necessarily be simple for our users’ so next time you're stuck having to solve a complex design problem, be sure to first put yourself in your users’ shoes before you start coming up with design solutions.

Importance of balancing complexity and simplicity for ensuring optimum user experience for your users

Balancing Complexity and Simplicity in the Digital Space

The objective of a well crafted interface is to enable designers to provide their customers with a pleasurable experience through a systematic design process. One of the most important UI design elements are buttons, checkboxes and switches. These controls allow users to take action in just one step. They usually communicate actions that users can take. From turning a feature on/off such as dark mode to selecting between options such as choice of language, these controls allow users to easily take actions.

Importance of Radio Buttons, Checkboxes, and Toggle Switches in UI Design:

Buttons and switches are usually found throughout an interface, an important distinction to note is the difference between buttons, toggles and checkboxes. Buttons are specific calls to actions while checkboxes are used to provide users with a range of options to complete their task. Switches on the other hand turn features on and off. 

Buttons and switches have actually been inspired from the real environment. From turning on a light switch to turning on your WiFi, buttons and switches are all around us. In order to ensure that customers are able to accomplish their tasks effectively and with ease, it is important to have well designed and strategically placed buttons, switches and checkboxes. However, because of their versatility it is easy to get caught in the confusion of when to use which widget. So for that matter it is important for you to know the function of each widget, and when to use it. 

Radio buttons have only two states, and when selected, the circle is filled with a solid dot. Radio buttons may have multiple choices but behave as a single control and limit the user’s choice to just one option from the choices provided. Radio buttons are usually used in surveys where the user needs to scan a list of options and make a single selection from those options. 

Radio buttons can also be used to configure a specific setting.

Because radio buttons are used to allow users to select one option from a set, makes them the ideal candidate for making a selection from mutually exclusive options such as in checkout options when users are prompted to select a payment method.

Traditionally, checkboxes are presented as a small square box on the screen. They have two states: checked and unchecked. When checked, the square will be filled with a check mark.

They are used to present the user with a range of options, from which the user may select any number of options to complete their task. Unlike radio buttons, checkboxes do not limit the user’s choice to just one option from the range provided, rather each option operates individually, so the user can check or uncheck each option independently. Checkboxes are usually used in forms and surveys which may be used to either indicate an answer to a question, apply a batch of settings or allow the user to make a multi-selection from a list. 

Checkboxes may also be found in signup experiences, e.g. when you sign up for a Spotify account and it asks you about your favorite artists, however this is not a simple checkbox, this is a combination of a checkbox and a card. This only shows the versatility of these widgets which can be used in any given way to achieve a desired function. 

Additionally, a single checkbox may be used for making single selections, such as in true or false statements and when accepting or refusing an offer like, subscribing to TUK newsletter.

Switches are a part of our everyday life which are used to turn things on/off. To put it simply, a toggle switch is a digital on/off switch. Like single check boxes, toggle switches allow users to make on/off selections and like radio buttons, toggle switch options are mutually exclusive. However unlike checkboxes and radio buttons which have multiple options, toggle switches have only one option for a specific function. 

Sometimes deciding whether to use a toggle switch for a specific function of your user interface or a radio button or checkboxes can be difficult. Consider this that unlike checkboxes and radio buttons, who’s selection takes effect after a user clicks a submit button, toggle switch selection takes effect immediately. So if you’re looking for an immediate call to action then toggle switches are the way to go. 

Knowing which element to provide is very important because even though they may seem like simple user interface components, they can make a huge impact on user experience. Checkboxes and radio buttons are usually used in forms to make them more user-friendly and choosing the right place to add them is pivotal to the overall user experience of your users and it is also important to keep in mind that toggle switches should only be used when the user needs to decide between two opposing states. Keeping the above points in mind can help you decide when to use which widget when designing an interface. 

Importance of Radio Buttons, Checkboxes, and Toggle Switches in UI Design, and when to use them.

Radio Buttons, Checkboxes, and Toggle Switches: When to use which in UI Design

Some of the most important aspects of a website or product are its usability, functionality, and how it makes you feel. People who are responsible for that are known as UX specialists or UX designers. 

Their job is to create products that are functional, easy to use, and visually pleasing to the eye all while ensuring structural consistency of our content. Creating a good experience is a combination of art and science. It’s a balancing act between creativity, usability, and functionality. 

User experience (UX) is the design of a system that ensures a seamless experience for your customers. It focuses on each and every element, from a high-level flow of the product to individual interactions. 

The goal is to design user interfaces that provide an all-around pleasant experience to users. Even simple tasks like, sign up, sign in, and log out when designed perfectly can boost overall conversion. 

Empathy is an important skill that UX specialists must-have. To create products that are easy to use and help users achieve their desired tasks with ease, it is important to know who the users are, their likes, their dislikes, and the pain points that they are facing. 

In general human beings look for the commonality in things because we find it easy to understand or go about something if we know how it works. Whenever we open a new website or download a new mobile app, we are looking for patterns and we often think we already know where to click even though it is the first time we’ve visited that website or opened that app. That is due to our prior experience of other websites which helps us to understand where exactly to click to reach our desired destination. This is the matching of the system and mental mode of the user.

For example, most websites have a log in button on the top right corner of the page and whenever we plan on logging in, we jump straight to that corner. And log in, however just imagine if we were login to our google account and instead of the login button is on the top right corner, the button was located at the bottom left, it would take us a while before we find it, this is a minor inconvenience that will most likely increase the bounce rate. 

The point of all this was to give you an idea of the importance of matching mental modes with the designed system/product and that is where UX or UI patterns come in.

UX design patterns are reusable solutions to recurring design problems that help designers overcome these common usability issues. Of course, they are not a one size fits all solution that is highly unlikely in UX. Patterns act as a starting point towards a solution.

Using common design patterns reduces the cognitive strain on users. When customers access your websites or use your product and are already familiar with how specific objects on an interface will act, it saves them from thinking about what to do next and ultimately saves them time. This is important if we'd like to keep them as users

Knowing how and when to use a certain design pattern is imperative. The best way to know when and where to apply a design pattern is to adopt a problem-centric approach. Research plays an important role when designing a product, but sometimes assumptions have to be made due to time and/or budget constraints, the key here is to thoroughly research different design patterns that could be applied to the problem at hand and then go for the solution that best fits the problem. Competitor analysis along with user testing (again, if its not possible there are alternatives such as getting team members from a different department to test, its not as effective but a test from 5-7 people would suffice) helps in this regard as well. 

Some of the great places where you can learn about patterns are UX Library, UI-Patterns, UI Design Patterns by UXPin, and PatternFly. We will be talking in detail about these design pattern libraries in our next blog post, so stay tuned.

Importance of UX design patterns and how they can improve the design and usability of websites.

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