lesson 5.6 - creating initial designs: design goals
Learn how to design user interfaces that boost confidence, save time, and keep users engaged without needing a PhD in rocket science.
Have you ever downloaded a new app and immediately known how to use it without reading a manual? That is not magic; that is brilliant design! Today, we are moving beyond just drawing boxes on a wireframe and looking at the psychology behind great interfaces. We will explore how smart design choices can boost user confidence, hold their attention, and help them complete tasks in record time. Let's learn how to design like the pros!
Learning Outcomes
The Building Blocks (Factual Knowledge)
The Connections and Theories (Conceptual Knowledge)
The Skills and Methods (Procedural Knowledge)
Recall the five key design goals for producing an effective user interface.
Describe how specific interface features can reduce the need for specialised user knowledge.
The Connections and Theories (Conceptual Knowledge)
Analyse how the strategic use of design principles directly increases user confidence and familiarity with a new product.
Evaluate the impact of poor layout choices on a user's time to complete tasks and their overall attention span.
The Skills and Methods (Procedural Knowledge)
Apply user-centred design goals to critically assess and improve a proposed interface wireframe.
Create an interface design that demonstrably reduces learning time and increases user attention for a specific target audience.
Digital Skill Focus: You will apply analytical design skills to evaluate and optimise user interface layouts to meet specific functional and psychological user goals.
Designing for the User's Mind
When we create an initial design for a digital product, we must think about more than just where the buttons go. We need to consider the psychological impact our design choices have on the people using it. An effective user interface achieves five primary design goals to ensure a seamless and positive experience.
1
Increased User Confidence and Familiarity
If an app looks completely alien, users get nervous they might break something. By using familiar layouts, standard icons (like a magnifying glass for search), and predictable navigation, we build increased user confidence. When an interface feels familiar, users are much more willing to explore and interact with it.
2
Reduced Learning Time of New Interface
Nobody wants to read a thick manual just to order a pizza online! A great design relies on intuitive features and clear labels. By making the interface self-explanatory, we achieve a reduced learning time of new interfaces and features. Users should be able to guess how things work on their very first try. You can read more about designing for intuition here.
3
Reduced Time to Complete Tasks
Efficiency is key. We want to ensure a reduced time to complete tasks. This is achieved by grouping related items together, placing important buttons in prominent positions, and using features like auto-fill or predictive text. If it takes ten clicks to do something that should take two, the design has failed.
4
Increased User Attention
The digital world is full of distractions. To achieve increased user attention, a designer must remove visual clutter. Using plenty of white space, limiting the colour palette, and making sure the screen isn't overloaded with text helps keep the user focused entirely on their current goal without getting overwhelmed.
5
Reduced Need for Specialised Knowledge
A successful interface does not assume the user is a tech genius. We must design for a reduced need for specialised knowledge. This means avoiding technical jargon, using plain language, and providing simple pop-up help messages or tooltips. If the interface is designed well, a novice should be able to use it just as easily as an expert.
Task The Interface Intervention
You have been hired as a UX Consultant by a local library. Their current digital self-checkout kiosk is a disaster! Users are confused, it takes five minutes to borrow a book, the screen is cluttered with complex database jargon, and people are giving up and walking away. It is your job to fix it!
1
Get Organised!
Grab a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and open a new word-processed document.
2
Research the Problem
Before you design a solution, it helps to see what poor design looks like in the real world. Run a quick search to look at some examples: Bad user interface examples
3
Sketch the Solution
Draw a neat, low-fidelity wireframe of a single screen for the new library checkout kiosk. You must design it so that anyone, regardless of their tech skills, can walk up and use it instantly. Remember to use white space, clear buttons, and simple navigation.
4
Justify Your Design
On your word-processed document, write a short report explaining your design choices. You MUST use all five of the following headings and explain how your design achieves them:
1
Increased user confidence and familiarity
2
Reduced learning time of new interfaces
3
Reduced time to complete tasks
4
Increased user attention
5
Reduced need for specialised knowledge
Hint: These are the headings in the notes above...
If you are struggling to understand how to reduce learning time, ask our AI assistant for a quick tip...
Act as an expert UX designer. Explain how using consistent layouts reduces learning time for a new user. Maximum 50 words. Audience is 15-year-old computing students. Tone is encouraging. NO intro, NO outro, NO deviation from the topic, NO follow-up questions
Outcome: A sketched wireframe of the new library kiosk and a written report justifying how the design meets the five core psychological and functional user goals.
Application to the Component Sample PSA
Component 1: Majestic Cinema
When you complete Task 2 of your Component 1 assessment, you will create initial designs for four screens of the Majestic Cinema digital information point. Your design choices must actively demonstrate the five psychological and functional goals we have covered. For example, to ensure a reduced time to complete tasks, your ticket booking screen should use simple dropdown menus or calendar pickers for selecting the date and time, preventing the user from having to type manually. To ensure a reduced need for specialised knowledge for the diverse local community audience, you must avoid technical jargon and use simple, familiar language, ensuring increased user confidence.
Component 2: Pedal Power Cycles
In your Component 2 assessment, you will design and build a data dashboard for the owner of Pedal Power Cycles. The owner needs to make quick business decisions based on complex sales data. Therefore, your dashboard design must guarantee increased user attention. You will achieve this by removing unnecessary visual clutter, using consistent colour coding for 'In-Store' versus 'Online' sales, and strategically placing the most important data summaries (like total income) in prominent, familiar positions to ensure a reduced learning time when the owner first views the dashboard.
Out of Lesson Learning
⭐ The Majestic Ticket Speedrun
Look at the ticket booking requirements for the Majestic Cinema (Full Name, Email, Film Title, Date, Time, Number of Adults, Number of Children). Write down two specific interface design features you would use on this screen to ensure a "reduced time to complete tasks", explaining exactly how each feature physically speeds up the user's booking process.
Look at the ticket booking requirements for the Majestic Cinema (Full Name, Email, Film Title, Date, Time, Number of Adults, Number of Children). Write down two specific interface design features you would use on this screen to ensure a "reduced time to complete tasks", explaining exactly how each feature physically speeds up the user's booking process.
⭐⭐ Dashboard Focus
Imagine you are designing the Pedal Power Cycles dashboard to show the percentage of sales that were made in-store. Write a short paragraph explaining how you would design this specific section of the screen to ensure "increased user attention", focusing on your choice of colours, font sizes, and the deliberate removal of background clutter.
Imagine you are designing the Pedal Power Cycles dashboard to show the percentage of sales that were made in-store. Write a short paragraph explaining how you would design this specific section of the screen to ensure "increased user attention", focusing on your choice of colours, font sizes, and the deliberate removal of background clutter.
⭐⭐⭐ The Confidence Compromise
The Majestic Cinema has a highly diverse audience, from tech-savvy teenagers to elderly customers who may rarely use digital kiosks. Write a short, evaluative paragraph explaining how you can design the 'Facilities & Accessibility' screen to ensure a "reduced need for specialised knowledge" for the older audience, without making the interface feel overly simplified or unfamiliar to the younger audience.
The Majestic Cinema has a highly diverse audience, from tech-savvy teenagers to elderly customers who may rarely use digital kiosks. Write a short, evaluative paragraph explaining how you can design the 'Facilities & Accessibility' screen to ensure a "reduced need for specialised knowledge" for the older audience, without making the interface feel overly simplified or unfamiliar to the younger audience.
Last modified: May 1st, 2026
