What makes a sexy UI?

Question

I'm in the progress of remaking one our products user interface to be more modern and apealing aswell as user friendly. It's a web based application that is used by all types of people. My question for you is what do you think are the key factors of a sexy interface? An interface that is appealing and leave the user with a WOW feeling?

Answer 1

• Usability
• Simplicity
• Responsiveness
• Instant Feedback

Answer 2

You can use a mixture of the following elements concepts:

• Transparency
• Fading
• Follow Color Theory
• Beveling
• Don't be afraid to make fonts actually readable, not 6px.
• Make your design dynamic with regards user inputs.

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxxxy

Answer 4

If you're going to update your web app's interface, don't forget the most important thing: accessibility. Some people are color blind, don't use a theme that makes it difficult for them to figure out which button they should click. Using things like flash is also a no-no - blind people have to use screen readers to find their way around your interface. If you make a fancy flash based website without providing an alternate access mechanism for blind people, you'll lose any blind customers you already have when you deploy your new whiz-bang interface.

Don't forget graceful degradation either. A lot of people are still using old browsers, have javascript disabled for various reasons, etc. Your website should be usable by people without javascript or without the latest web browser. It certainly isn't mandatory, but you should try to follow the guidelines in the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act): http://www.ada.gov/websites2.htm

I know none of this is advice for making your site's UI "sexy", but these things are important to keep in mind as you re-design your website if you want to reach the largest group of people possible. Then again, you might be working on an intranet website where you don't have to worry about accessibility or people with weird web browsers. In that case, go nuts with the javascript and flash if you want to, but don't complain when you're asked to re-do it because the developers can't get to it from their non-IE browser on their linux boxes, or when the blind user over in accounting can't get his job done anymore.