Products with great UI designs

Google and Microsoft to name a few. Glossy icons are replaced by simpler one-color versions or text-based buttons, rich gradients with simple solid color combinations.
minimalism is a great way to design a web application which focuses on user generated content – if done right, users will rarely complain about it. However, keep in mind that many clients will find this approach too simplistic for their taste, so you might want to check their preferences before starting your project.

When your account is first set up, the classic 'empty account' problem before your first campaign gets off the ground is balanced out by helpful, visually pleasing user guides. There's plenty of white space, and clear calls to action walk new users through every step of the process - in some cases even incorporating a subtly-animated pointer to indicate where to click.
When your account is first set up, the classic 'empty account' problem before your first campaign gets off the ground is balanced out by helpful, visually pleasing user guides. There's plenty of white space, and clear calls to action walk new users through every step of the process - in some cases even incorporating a subtly-animated pointer to indicate where to click.

when designing mobile applications, skeuomorphic designs are highly popular and well accepted among the community. In part, due to touch-screen nature of these devices which gives an impression of touching real-world objects. For web apps and projects, skeuomorphic designs are usually not the best path to take, although some elements can be used to enhance parts of the interface.

Designed exclusively for touch, Paper's UI design has no buttons or settings to worry about - just a series of specialised tools. The versatile fountain pen-style Draw tool comes free, while Sketch (soft pencil), Outline (bold marker), Write (ink pen), Color (watercolour brush) and Mixer (colour blender) come as in-app purchases.

The UI design is surprisingly clean and uncluttered, considering the range of options available: over 190 currencies, with dynamically updating exchange rates, and over 80 units of measurement in 10 different categories. It's as straightforward as selecting what you need on the left-hand menu, and entering the necessary values.

Available for both Mac and iOS, Things is a popular task management app with an award-winning design that's intuitive and easy to pick up, based around the familiar to-do list concept. As its creators Cultured Code point out, the idea is to make your life easier, after all.

The slick, clean user interface design comes pre-divided into lists to help you categorise your tasks: urgent things go in 'Today', slightly less urgent can wait until 'Next', while 'Schedule' plans further ahead. Each entry captures important information in one go - title, notes and due date, as well as tags if required to help categorise everything. Best of all, the Quick Entry window is accessible from anywhere using a simple keyboard shortcut - and it's all synced automatically across desktop, iPhone and iPad.

A wonderfully original idea that puts an engaging twist on email subscription data, Campaign Monitor: Worldview overlays information about individuals who are opening, clicking and sharing your communications on a Google Map in real-time for both geographical and personal insights.

The landing page introduces the concept in an immediate visual way, with example pins dropping onto a world map - and the application interface itself is refreshingly clean, revolving around the map and a few basic menus for controlling settings. A great example of UI design with simple iconography and colour coding identifying different categories of user engagement at a glance

Special Report: Sustainable Development and the Control of Energy (The Growing Battle Over Smart Meters) by:

Another Google Maps-based UI design, this time created by the Silicon Valley giant itself. More Than A Map is a neat microsite that's geared up to showcase everything that's possible with the Google Maps API.

It's split into six core categories - Base Maps, Satellite, Street View, Places, Routing and Data Visualization - each of which has a series of interactive demo using examples from all around the planet. Eye-catching flat colour icons, large imagery, clean animation and minimal type make navigation a breeze, and video case studies from Australia, Thailand, Kenya, Germany and Brazil add depth and colour.

Yet another example of flat design making a potentially very complicated UI design look very clean and intuitive, Figure is a synthesiser and drum machine for iOS from Swedish developer Propellerhead, which is also behind desktop music production software Reason.

You can tap the touch-screen pads, hold your finger down and scroll the rhythm wheels for a range of different sounds, or swipe across the screen to play different notes in the scale. There are also wheels to control the range of notes you have to work with, the number of notes in melodies and bass lines, and various tabs to tweak the sound in a variety of ways.