There is a very simple but very true fact. No matter how exciting and valuable your product is, the user will not get acquainted with it if your product is not presented in a comfortable and accessible form. If it is not enclosed in an understandable interface, users will not use it.
The user interface’s main task is to guide users and move them from one place in your product or website to another. If users at the first stage of using your product get confused and do not understand what to do, they will leave and never come back.
In short, the user interface must be so easy to use and “readable” that it conveys the right information, allowing users to recognize and receive it quickly.
This article focuses on design aspects such as UI readability. We will tell you why it is so vital, what product owners are losing in case of not using it, what tips will help you make your product more attractive and lots of other helpful things.
What is UI readability and why should we increase it?
Readability presents content and navigation elements as a layout that can be easily scanned and therefore readable. When interacting with a product or website for the first time, users quickly scan the content to analyze and find what they need. Any piece of content can become a clue in this process: words, sentences, images or animations.
By the way, this kind of behavior is nothing new. Over the decades, people have often done the same thing with a new magazine or newspaper, skimming through them before reading the articles carefully. Moreover, reading from a computer screen or phone is much more tedious than reading from paper, so users are more selective.
So basically, readability is the ease of text comprehension. In the traditional interpretation, readability is the content accessibility, the ease of understanding it. Readability is determined by choosing simpler words and sentences, clarity of thought, the understandable structure of text blocks.
Why is it so important? If the user does not focus on the interface in the first minutes of using the product, the risk is high that the user will leave. No matter the type of application or website you have, readability is a significant factor in a user-friendly experience.
To test for the presence of UI readability in your product, try looking at it from the perspective of a new user and answering two questions:
- Does the information you see in the first few moments of interaction match the expected audience?
- Can you figure out what information the product provides during the first seconds of interaction?
If you’re not sure that both answers are positive, it might be time to think about how to improve UI readability. It is worth investing time in developing this direction because products with good readability become much more effective in the following aspects:
- users complete their tasks and achieve their goals faster;
- users make fewer mistakes when searching for the content they need;
- users understand the structure and navigation of a product or website more quickly;
- the bounce rate decreases.
Hints & tips to make the user interface readable in FinTech solutions
Developing FinTech products, you should understand that the interface should be plain and simple. FinTech is an industry that includes a variety of companies operating in financial services (payments, insurance, etc.) with the involvement of financial technology. FinTech companies can specialize in B2B or B2C sales.
According to our expertise, we have prepared a few tips that will help you make the user interface for Fintech products more readable and straightforward.
There are several factors that affect UI readability. Let’s consider those that are directly related to the design process.
Visual hierarchy
This is a sequence of information processing in order of importance. In design, it is the interface’s ability to focus the user’s attention on essential details and group them. Visual hierarchy makes acquaintance with the website or application. A person analyzes the content and immediately understands where to press or to which section it is necessary to scroll. The principle of grouping, depending on the importance of the components, solves the main problem of interface design — inconsistency.
The task of the visual hierarchy is to give the user a clear idea of which tasks the interface solves. The concept of a visual hierarchy comes far beyond web design. Our brain has a complex system, but the visual structure facilitates the perception of information. The user sees content and builds a logical chain on the subconscious level.
According to the visual hierarchy, it is necessary to organize the user interface components so that the brain can distinguish objects by their physical parameters, such as color, size, type, contrast, etc. The designer’s task is to set such parameters of an object (for example, a title) that will allow it to be identified as a title at a glance.
Typography
It is the hardest part of creating a user interface design. Typically, typography refers to the appearance of text content. The font size, width, color and structure of the text are all critical to the readability of the content. Typography in design is the art of maintaining a balance between the text’s visual aesthetics and the ability to scan it.
For example, the font choice directly affects how quickly and easily users perceive one or another text. Moreover, fonts are capable of adding emotion to any written text with their visual style.
Like any other design element, typography needs to be structured. Typographic hierarchy aims to create contrast between the most significant and secondary aspects of the text. Contrast is created by adjusting typography elements.
White space
This is the area of the page layout that is left blank. Such space is not only the area that is located around the objects in the layout but also the one that is between them and inside them. White space is a kind of a breath of fresh air for everything on the page. Otherwise, the elements would have to be very crowded.
It allows connecting text and non-text elements in the user interface and dividing content into blocks.
Text
The text content in the interface must stay consistent and be clear, terse and useful.
Another great thing you can do with text content that users of your product will appreciate is to give it a vibrant, human-like vibe.
We, at Northell, had experience working with a FinTech project, where the platform included a lot of digital data, analytics and statistics. This platform helps people collect their investment portfolio and understand how to move further in this area.
Our main task was to make the design so that users entering the platform could easily find the information they needed and not get confused. We have worked hard with typography and the correct placement of blocks on their complex blog. Since the amount of data on the platform is huge, readability was one of the key points for ensuring that users can easily use the platform.
To make the user interface of the FinTech product more readable, follow these basic rules:
Personalize the design
One good way to personalize the user interface design and make it closer to user preferences is to let them change the background color and adjust the font size. Such functionality will help users to choose the interface that is convenient for them. No one, except the users themselves, knows better what is more suitable for them.
Use brevity and consistency
Select specific terms and names of operations and then use only them in the interface. For example, if you chose the word “Confirm” to denote a particular action, use it every time when action needs to be done, and do not replace it with any synonyms on other screens where you need to do the same action.
Synonyms are best used in books and articles, where they make the language more beautiful and brighter. They can easily ruin the user experience by forcing users to look for connections between synonymous terms instead of just using the product to solve their problems.
One block of text — one idea
If you want your interface to be user-friendly and readable, don’t make the text fragments too long. Short text blocks allow you to convey your message to the user quickly. And if the user is not interested in the information, he will be able to skip it faster.
Highlight the essential information
Focus on important information or ideas with visuals. Bold, italic, and color-coded words or phrases are traditional text accents. With these tools, you can grab the attention of users and quickly convey valuable information to them. Also, don’t forget to highlight the clickable parts of the interface.
Let’s conclude
Of course, all the points mentioned above can be supplemented with even more ways to improve the UI readability. We have named the basic ones that should be followed when developing or improving your product. The main thing you should keep in mind is to be closer to your audience and try not to overcomplicate what can be kept simple and straightforward.
Want to increase UI readability in your project? Northell team is ready to assist you.
