Intro

The beautiful dish that is Product Design consists of just two ingredients: Visual Design; and UX Design. Now, you can argue that Content Design/copywriting and UX Research should be added to the list as well, but, for the sake of this post, I’m including them in the UX Design side of things. Also, I just watched a sad ending to an amazing show on Netflix and don’t feel like arguing.

My background studying Graphic Design in college and being a Visual Designer for 3 years might add a little bias to my opinion, but that’s why it’s just an opinion. I do believe that Visual Design is a harder skill to master, and before I get into the benefits of mastering this skill as a designer, I’d like to tell you why.

Good Visual design is good UX. That’s why.

We open and close apps on our phones tens or hundreds of times per day. This means that almost everyone who has a smartphone can understand what a good user experience is (whether they know what that means or not). I feel that this constant usage makes it easier for people to pick up on the UX side of Product Design.

And, while that same argument can be made for the UI (Visual Design) side of Product Design, my experience facilitating hundreds of mentorship calls with designers and boot camp grads is that, more often than not, there is a lack of visual design expertise. Why is this important? I’m glad you asked, keep reading!

The aesthetic-usability effect

Users instinctively trust apps, software, and other interfaces that demonstrate intentional design because they associate visual polish and thoughtful organization with competence and attention to detail throughout areas of the product or service.

This stems from a psychological principle called the "aesthetic-usability effect," where users perceive aesthetically pleasing designs as more intuitive and reliable. This leads users to be more forgiving of minor usability issues and more likely to engage deeply with the interface and return if that’s the point.

The one exception to this rule is Amazon because of the sheer amount of customers that they serve. They seem to get away with some of the worst UX (if we’re going by the book) and remain to be wildly successful.

Accessibility and emotion

When done right, visual design considers contrast ratios, text sizing, and color combinations that work for users with different visual abilities. This attention to visual accessibility creates interfaces that are truly usable for a broader audience.

If you’re in UX, you’re probably already familiar with the benefits of creating accessible designs, especially when you’re designing for products with millions of customers.

Whether it’s ensuring that the text in that beautiful custom button is at least 16 pt, or the color of your background makes it possible for anyone to read what’s on top of it, a lot of work goes into making designs accessible, and we aren’t always given the amount of time we need, but it’s the right thing to do.

Gestalt Principle: Proximity

Gestalt Principles are principles/laws of human perception that describe how humans group similar elements, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images when we perceive objects. Designers use the principles to organize content on websites and other interfaces so it is aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand. You can read more about them here.

The proximity principle states that elements placed close together are perceived as being more related than elements that are spaced farther apart. When it comes to designing interfaces, this relates to things like buttons, pagination, and other actions that our users might take.

This principle is particularly powerful in layouts where grouping related items through proximity helps users naturally understand content relationships or navigate more intuitively. A good example of this is designing a table of information.

Less user errors

Obviously, visual design alone won’t solve all user errors, but it helps. Creating clear visual hierarchies, intentional patterns (navigation, linking, etc), and intuitive groupings of information reduces cognitive load.

Users can process information faster and navigate interfaces more efficiently because the design helps direct attention to what it is they need to do. These actions, paired with clear user feedback, will make it easier for users to understand why an error happened and how to avoid it in the future.

Thank you

I like writing and sharing my experiences, so thank you for taking the time to read through this. As always, you can find me on LinkedIn. Feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or feedback as I look to write about relevant topics.

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