6 Reasons to Apply Illustrations in User Interfaces

We will talk about how you can use illustrations in your UI designs and why they are essential.

Magnus Lundström
5 min readAug 31, 2022
You can find free open-source illustrations and icons at UnDraw
You can find free open-source illustrations and icons at UnDraw

User interface designers use illustrations in the designs they create to improve the designs and give the users a great user experience. Professional designers know how to leverage drawings to increase the usability of their designs, and we want to help you understand how to. Illustrations can be used in many ways to add to your designs, and if you haven’t been using them already, then this article is one you should read.

What Is An Illustration?

Illustrations are the visual interpretations of different concepts, and they are used to make these concepts more straightforward. They can be used in text to help the reader understand the text more efficiently, and they can be used in designs to help increase usability, so the product’s user experience is better.

Why You Should Use Illustrations In Your User Interface Designs

Communicate Information To People Faster

Using illustrations to communicate your point is much faster than having people read text. If you use the correct illustration, people will instantly know what you are trying to say. The illustrations you choose can be static or animated; that is up to you. You need to make sure that they are relevant and add to the content. They should always have a purpose.

People process images faster than they do words, so an experienced designer knows to take advantage of this and use illustrations. Using visuals will also help make your user interface more universal so more people can use your product, even if they don’t completely understand the language being used.

An illustration by Lukasz Adam, Illustrator, Designer & Developer
An illustration by Lukasz Adam, Illustrator, Designer & Developer

Make Your User Interface Look More Attractive

You need to make sure the user interface that your product has is attractive to the product’s target market. You can do this by using the correct illustrations to support the product’s content.

The different ways that you can use illustrations to do this include creating a mascot that people will associate with your brand and help increase your brand’s recognition. Many popular brands use mascots because they know how effective they are in increasing brand recognition and helping your brand stand out from the competition.

Adding illustrations to support your product’s content will help it be less bland and add more personality to your product. It would help if you made sure that this personality aligns with your brand’s personality and the image you want your brand to have. This consistency needs to be maintained, or it will confuse people, and you want to avoid this.

Illustrations by Vijay Verma, a design wizard
Illustrations by Vijay Verma, a design wizard

Provide A Memorable Experience

You want people to remember using your product and the experience they had while they were using it. Adding illustrations is how you can do this. Providing a memorable experience will keep people coming back and using your product.

To create a memorable experience, the product needs to be unique, so the differences between it and the competition are straightforward. If you need help making this type of experience, find a UI design agency that can help you achieve what you want.

Creatively Tell a Story

To engage people when using your product, you need to keep their attention. You can do this by using illustrations to add to any text and content you are showing to people. You need to show your brand’s voice and personality, and visuals will help you do that.

This is an effective method of telling a story. It is used by famous brands in their products and marketing because they know it works. If you want to start using illustrations in your designs but don’t know which ones to choose, you can get help from design firms in San Francisco.

Mix-&-match illustrations of people by Pablo Staley, designer
Mix-&-match illustrations of people by Pablo Staley, designer

Increase Brand Awareness And Brand Recognition

All UI designers want to do this by creating engaging user interface designs. It would help if you made sure the illustrations that are being used are relevant and made the content and UI design easier to understand.

When adding illustrations, keep them consistent with the rest of the brand’s look. This is important, and it is what will help with brand recognition. If you don’t have a style guide, you need to build one. It will help you keep designs consistent, whether for your product or marketing.

Pictures Are Not Enough

Pictures may not be enough to communicate the style you want to show to your target audience. Illustrations can be made to look a certain way, whatever way you need them to look. You can hire an artist to work on them for your brand. Tell the artist any guidelines they need to follow, so the illustrations are consistent with the rest of your brand.

Finding the right pictures can be complicated and expensive. Not everyone can pay for the illustrations, which is when illustrations can be used. If your brand has a distinctive style and personality, then illustrations are what you should use to show that. You can hire a UX design agency in San Francisco to help you choose the proper illustrations for your brand if you are having trouble with that.

Stubborn is a library for Sketch, Figma

Conclusion on UI Illustrations

Adding illustrations to user interface designs can help improve designs and increase the product’s usability. If you want to give people a better user experience, then you need to start adding illustrations to your designs. If you are unsure where they should be added and what they should look like, then find design firms to help you.

Thanks for reading!

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