When confronted with lists of requirements, business needs and extra features that inevitably crop up, it’s hard to avoid visual clutter. Seems like it’s not that big a crime to just slap another button, form field or content area on an interface but there’s a strong case to be made to avoid visual clutter and not succumb to being a UX puppet who simply plops more components on the screen to appease everyone. It is possible to balance user needs with business priorities while keeping the UI clean, uncluttered and easy to use.
A clean, well-designed, uncluttered UI is not just visually appealing; it’s also a more inclusive design and therefore benefits everyone, not just people with visual impairment.
- Establish a visual hierarchy for most important functions down to lower priority items.
- Use typography, colors to space to differentiate areas and reinforce the visual hierarchy.
- Allow the user to drill down to see more information if needed.