UX Patterns You Should Center On

User experience is the users’ expectations and feelings when using a product. Therefore, while designing a website or apps, the UX designer must understand these prospects to justify how the product works.

For example, we are all familiar with the traffic system. We know the traffic signals, road signs, and conventions we navigate. And this system applies to all countries, with slight changes in specific rules. It allows people to navigate the road unmistakably, so they know what to expect. The same principle applies to UX patterns. It’s a system of conventions through which users can freely navigate the product without getting used to and exploring a new plan every time. This allows UX designers to adhere to the fundamental principle — to create an intuitive, functional, and user-friendly user experience.

UX design patterns — established solutions for common problems. When designing a website or app, the designer needs to find the most convenient and fastest way to interact with the product. User experience design patterns can include logging in and out, breadcrumbs, and checkout. This means that UX patterns are the user interface response to specific user actions.

UX patterns are also about habit. Your site isn’t the first one that users visited. In each site, they emphasize something familiar and similar to the others. It can be the patterns. Designers often want to do something unique that doesn’t have everyone else. So they try to invent and rework already solved problems and invented solutions that have become commonplace. Such profound changes can confuse the user. You can and should introduce your own decision, but without changing the overall system. The principle is simple: the users see the interface, highlight the things they already knew, and assume how to act to get a result.

UI and UX patterns: what’s the difference?

It frequently confuses UX and UI patterns with each other or uses them synonymously. But there exists a difference between them.

UI patterns are about visual design. They are also called UI Kits. They include navigation icons, buttons, typography, colors, and icons. For example, a user sees a burger menu (three horizontal lines) and realizes that clicking on it will reveal a list of page navigation. The idea of UI templates is like the principle of atomic design.

UX patterns are about user interaction with the product. For example, they are refreshing a page in a mobile app. The user knows that it will refresh if he pulls the page down. This action is a pattern.

Look at the mobile design services we provide.

Essential types of UX patterns

Below is a list of the common UX patterns that handle the site or application functionality.

• Data input and output: the way the user enters data and receives feedback. For example, they enter a password, place an order, or other operations requiring users’ data. Or, with a password, the site can warn the users of what they have to do to pass verification quickly. For instance, hints when users hover over the password field.

UX design patterns also apply to buttons. It accustomed users to the standard appearance of the controller. So, giving it a new form can hurt the users’ perception and the conversion.

Read more about conversion-centered design in our blog.

• Breadcrumbs are site navigation. This UX pattern shows the users where they are now and also gives the option to return to the home page. More often used precisely for websites.

• For mobile apps, a replacement for breadcrumbs can be a tab bar. This is a panel with icons, each responsible for a different page.

• Social interaction: such templates can include reviews, “invite a friend,” or “share to social networks” pop-ups, leaderboards, and general chats. These templates’ purpose is to allow the user to interact with the product and share information.
• Hierarchy: UX design handles the product’s convenience, functionality, and interaction with users. So, content structuring is one of the essential UX design patterns. It distributed all submitted information according to its place in the hierarchy. This helps draw the user’s attention and guide him smoothly through the content. This problem is solved by large headers, accent colors, space, and dividing content into blocks.

The principle of UX patterns works laid down a series of user behavior models and their product expectations. If a website or app adheres to these patterns, it’s easier for the users to interact with the product because they understand what to expect from it.

One such feature of the human brain is habituation, part of the UX patterns principle. When used repeatedly, repetitive physical actions become reflexive—for example, swiping to the left or right to move to a new screen, for example, when browsing the Instagram feed or photo gallery. Also, swipe down to refresh the page. The users no longer think about these actions and do them automatically. They have become commonplace.

When users look at an interface, they don’t read and look into every detail. Instead, he scans the page for the information they want to see. If the content on the page doesn’t have any structure and the user’s eye has nothing to latch onto, they are more likely to leave the page than read it. Here, the principle of UX patterns is to make the most critical information simple for your users to understand at a glance by exhibiting a clear hierarchy.

Reducing the amount of workload is another principle inherent in the workings of UX patterns. The action that a person repeats because of the day-to-day becomes habitual for us and thus doesn’t take much effort because we know exactly how to do it. It’s the same with the interface. The less effort a user spends to understand it, the more likely they will continue interacting with it. UX patterns are automatic actions for users that we often don’t consciously do, which means they are effortless and simplify our work.

When you open a website or app, you’ve probably noticed that you look for familiar design elements, such as the navigation at the top of the page or the logo (or company name) in the left upper corner. It’s all examples of UX patterns. They follow the design standards that all users know. Their benefit is that they speed up the design process, as designers don’t have to look for new ways to solve the problem every time. Still, they competently use already ready UX patterns to solve specific issues. But they also reduce the burden on users already familiar with the principle of work, which significantly reduces the time to master a new product. This improves the user experience, and user interaction becomes more comfortable. Of course, no one forbids changing existing UX patterns, but changing them can ruin the users’ expectations of the standard website or app. And it can lead to confusion and annoyance in navigation, and eventually, the users will leave the page because they won’t find what they came for.

Read more about Web Design Standards in our blog.

On this basis, we can highlight the essential advantages of UX patterns:

• Meet the users’ expectations;
• Serve as proven solutions;
• Design becomes cleaner because the use of patterns reduces errors;
• Cut downtime on design engineering.

Using UX patterns will increase users’ engagement and affect their perception and attitude towards the product. It’s because we feel much more comfortable when we see familiar things to ourselves. Patterns will be a great helper for the novice designer and the seasoned professional. Don’t be afraid that patterns are boring, not interesting, and too trite. But, they do their job perfectly: make the interface convenient, simple, and functional. We help you create the website or application design, which completely meets your business tasks. Contact us to discuss the details and look at the services we provide. Then, look at our finished project at Dribbble.