We’re going to be looking at certain aspects of the UI in no-code platforms that allow you to build custom apps. Now, what I do is build custom project and operational applications. So with this, there are certain things that you’re looking out for. In a no-code platform, there’s not a lot of flexibility with what you want to do, but there is some, and it’s a reasonable amount. When it comes to success messages or modals, branding, fonts, text size, and copy, you want to show some sort of consistency in how everything is presented. You may be surprised, but people are quite peculiar about fonts. With fonts, are we doing initial caps? Are we doing caps for only proper nouns? Are we doing no caps? Are we doing all caps? What is the format that we’re going to use for headers, titles, and subtitles?
If it’s a business that is just looking to build an internal app, we already have the brand structure from the original business website. We’re just going to try to replicate as much as is necessary with the fonts, the branding, and everything. But if we are looking at other issues with usage and adoption, we’re going to look at the original business website, the branding, and everything, and see if it’s even sufficient. If we have a problem with people providing the right information, we do not want very confusing fonts. If the brand has a very cursive font, we’re not going to bring that type of text into these internal tools because we know the purpose of these internal tools.
We know the problems that we’re trying to solve and the goals of these tools. So we want to present or create something that is going to solve those problems. We’re not going to bring in something very complicated or experiment too much with colors. We want to stay centered on what we’re trying to achieve. Is it that we want them to fill out forms properly? Then we’re going to have shorter forms with bold text, required fields, placeholders, hints, and examples. We want them to have as much information as possible, along with widgets or quick support options.
With fonts, remember we’re looking at the fonts for the headers, headlines, titles, hero, text, and everything. We also want a consistent look. We’re looking at the font size. What’s the best font size for this? And we just try to keep it consistent. We’re looking at white space. How are we going to make it so easy to use, optimizing for both desktop and mobile? Because if it’s an internal tool, a lot of the time your people will be accessing it through a desktop app. If you have a remote team that is always on the move, we want to have something that is more mobile-friendly so they can easily access it on their work phones. Building for a marketing team is going to be different from building specifically for an events team, a finance team, or building a CRM. They all serve different purposes. So look at the goals. What do we want to achieve? What do we want done? What do we want to reduce? Are we reducing mistakes? What do we want to do? All of that is going to inform or direct our decision-making process. It’s going to direct what is created.
Now, if you’re building for internal teams, you’re not going to be harping on the branding a lot. You won’t focus so much on colors and all of those things because that’s moving away from the main point or focus of why these internal tools are being built. They could be built to reduce friction, to make things easier for team members who have difficulty using more traditional project management tools, or it could be that we want a more mobile-friendly experience for our team members. So we do not want to distract from that reason by being so obsessed with the colors, the fonts, and the style. But there should be a reasonable and consistent approach throughout. It shouldn’t be something that is so overwhelming with the fonts. It should at least be something that is consistent with the text and copy, especially the success messages. If it’s necessary or possible to send success emails, then that should be done too. We want to make it as easy as possible. Remember that if we’re building these internal apps, there is a goal. That reason is going to guide all the steps that we take throughout the build. Now, you don’t want to overcomplicate the process. But I’ve found that if you’re trying to build something simple, there are some things you need to take away, and there are some things you need to add.