UI design is an art form, and an important part of any art form is finding the right inspiration. With the right muse, a UI designer can enhance their design solutions or even find new, more effective ones.
That said, finding UI inspiration isn’t always an easy task. So, in today’s guide, we’ll explore UI design inspiration in more depth to help you create better user interfaces.
How It Works: UI Inspiration
First things first – let’s discuss how it works. UI inspiration is just like any form of inspiration that mentally stimulates and motivates you to create something.
How user interface inspiration is unique concerns the research and emulation of existing UIs. For UI developers/designers, this means looking at the successful concepts, elements, principles, and structures of already proven products.
To help you gather inspirational resources effectively, follow the instructions below.
- Research successful designs by studying your competitors’ UIs and the designs on platforms like Dribbble.
- Pick out the visual elements you think work well. These elements can relate to any aspect of visual design, including color schemes, font styles, and visual hierarchy.
- Compile your findings into multiple mood boards, each focusing on one specific element.
- Put your own spin on the elements that inspire you. A great way to do this is by mixing and matching various elements and incorporating your brand-specific elements.
- Conduct testing methods like A/B testing to receive feedback from your users and stakeholders.
- Refine and iterate your design elements until they are as equally functional as they are aesthetic.
The above steps will help you maximize the usefulness of the design/UI inspiration you find.
The main thing is that you avoid plagiarism at all costs, especially for legal reasons. While leveraging reusable open-source UI components won’t get you into legal trouble, directly copying another product’s design will.
Ultimately, you should use inspiration cautiously and always strive for uniqueness.
How To Get Inspiration for Concept UI Design
Designing your UI’s concept is your chance to demonstrate your creativity and innovative abilities. But the liberty that comes with creativity can be just as much a curse as it is a gift.
What’s more, turning to the internet may not always be the best place to cure this curse. The digital landscape we know comprises an overload of inspiration that can cause designers not to know where to start.
But with our suggestions below, you’ll know how to get inspiration for concept UI design time after time.
Art
As they say, “Art imitates life,” but when it comes to finding the right inspiration, we say, “Art imitates art.”
In other words, you should look into popular art styles like surrealism and minimalism to inspire you. Aside from helping you find engaging color palettes and compelling compositions, art can help you refine more than visual design.
The great thing about art is how it can communicate emotive narratives to the viewer. You can emulate the emotive qualities of art to encourage your users to connect emotionally to your products.
Nature
In nature, you’ll find a variety of complex patterns and textures that can inspire your UI elements.
Best of all, nature contains a great range of beautiful colors. With an understanding of color psychology, you can easily leverage these colors to elicit the right emotional responses from users.
Additionally, drawing inspiration from nature can make your brand appear eco-conscious, which is a valuable quality for businesses.
Media
Movies, music videos, and video game UI design can also be valuable sources of inspiration.
Great game UI design elevates the traditional user interface with helpful tooltips, functionality, and immersion. Revisit your favorite games and ask yourself how their UIs contribute to your playing experience.
For cinema and music videos, examine how the director manipulates the principles of proximity, emphasis, and contrast.
Books
Interestingly, literature – specifically science fiction and fantasy – can also inspire your user interface design.
Consider reading books that contain holographic interfaces, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality (AR). Read how the story’s characters interact with and feel about such technologies.
Doing so can inspire you to add depth and intrigue to your UIs, resulting in a more immersive user experience.
Tip: Search for ‘Futuristic Technology’ books on Goodreads.
You
It may surprise you to know that you can be your own source of inspiration. Consider your preferences regarding user interfaces and ask yourself why you like them.
You can even utilize your interests beyond the scope of UI design. After all, when you’re using something you’re passionate about in your designs, users will recognize and resonate with your enthusiasm.
That said, be careful not to let your preferences and biases overshadow your designs. Always keep your user research fresh in mind as you incorporate your interests into your products.
How To Search for Web UI Inspiration
Although it contains a lot of potentially overwhelming information, the internet can be a great place to find inspiration. To help you find it, we’ve revealed how to search for web UI inspiration.
Design Platforms
For starters, you should look into sites that showcase UI design trends and the work of other designers. Some of the best inspirational sites include:
- Dribbble
- Behance
- Awwwards
- Sitesinpire
Design Blogs
You should also consider reading blogs that detail the latest trends and techniques of the design world. We recommend that you check out the following blogs:
- UX Myths
- UX Planet
- Smashing Magazine
- UX Movement
- Nielson Norman Group
Design Communities
Another way you can leverage the web to find inspiration is by joining UI design communities. Try the following groups:
- The Interaction Design Foundation Community
- Web Designer Forum
- User Experience Stack Exchange
- SitePoint Community
- Graphic Design Forum
UI/UX Design Inspiration: Need-To Know Trends
To inspire you further, we’ve explored the best sources of UI/UX design inspiration – modern UI trends.
Dark Mode
Dark mode design involves an interface’s textual content using light colors and its background using dark colors.
Using dark modes can make your designs appear more stylish and elegant, but dark mode doesn’t just enhance aesthetics. You can also use dark mode designs to reduce the user’s eye strain, especially at night.
Gamification
As we mentioned earlier, game UI design is a great source of inspiration. Its immersive qualities can drive user engagement, especially in terms of reward systems.
By simply adding things like trophy icons, confetti-like animations, or even subtle overlays, you can make mundane in-product tasks fun.
For onboarding UI design, you can convert your user’s checklists into quest items using paper-like textures and sound effects. Elements like those will incentivize your users to explore your interface just as they would with a game’s world.
Enhanced Microinteractions
In the world of modern UI design, microinteractions like tooltips and progress bars contribute significantly to the user’s experience.
They are more than just a means of providing a user with visual feedback; they are opportunities for creativity.
For example, let’s say your users were to click an “add to cart” button. You could design a small animation of a shopping cart getting fuller with every button click.
Something like that is a fun way of making your microinteractions much more memorable and impactful.
Nostalgia
In 2024, people are more nostalgic than ever, and this is something you can capitalize on.
Best of all, with a few nostalgia-inducing tweaks, you can make virtually any visual element more engaging. For instance, you can use retro floral textures, vintage typography, or pixel art-esque icons.
You could even emulate the visual style of 8-bit video games or Y2K graphic design – the possibilities are endless!
FAQ
What does UI app design inspiration mean?
UI app design inspiration means finding aesthetic, functional, and interactive elements that improve a mobile app’s user interface.
Why is inspiration important to designers?
Finding inspiration is crucial for designers because it encourages them to think outside the box. This, in turn, improves their problem-solving skills and ability to create unique designs.
What is the best inspiration for UI designers?
Many UI designers consider Dribbble, Behance, and Pinterest the best sites for design inspiration.
UI Inspiration: Use Page Flows To Access Inspirational Designs
Since inspiration is the topic of today’s guide, it’s only fitting that we discuss navigational inspiration, too. Meet Page Flows.
Page Flows collects thousands upon thousands of inspirational resources, such as user flow recordings and screenshots.
Our aim is to help designers learn how to master exceptional user flows regardless of their project’s nature. That’s why we source our flows from a range of brands and industries, including gaming, gifts, and graphics.
We also collect emails from email marketing campaigns so you know how you should communicate with your target users effectively.
Just as UI inspiration helps designers improve their visual designs, Page Flows helps designers master in-product user navigation.
Go to Page Flows to learn what it looks like when designers guide users through their products successfully!
