As someone who loves to cook, nothing feels more satisfying than whipping up something completely from scratch in the kitchen. Whether it’s just a DIY spaghetti sauce or homemade pasta, crafting something that’s wholly and uniquely yours always leaves a sense of accomplishment.
But as much as I love homemade cooking, I’ll be the first to admit it’s rarely practical. Nobody bakes their own bread every time they want toast, or whips up their own signature salsa whenever they get a craving for chips. We simply get those ready-made ingredients from a store—after all, somebody’s already done the work for us.
That ethos is the essence of UI patterns, or basic interface elements common to most websites. UI patterns are tried-and-true solutions to everyday design problems, like ‘how do I design a user-friendly form field?’ or ‘what does a well-crafted progress bar look like?’. Instead of designing your own components from scratch, you can simply use a UI pattern as a launchpad.
UI patterns help expedite both the design and development processes, and are typically more user-friendly as well. We immediately recognize and understand UI patterns, eliminating the risk of a user stumbling over a designer’s more “creative” solution.