How do I make a design clear and not just pretty?

You can use the components and assemble a screen that looks fine, but whether it is genuinely clear, and not just decorated, feels like a coin toss. That gap is the whole distance between arranging things and designing them. Decoration makes a screen look nice. Clarity makes it work. They are not the same skill, and knowing the difference is where good design starts. Clarity comes from asking what the person is here to do, then removing everything that does not serve it. Before you style anything, decide the one main action or piece of information on the screen and make it the most obvious thing there. Good design is not what you add to make it pretty. It is what you take away and rank so the purpose shines through without effort. Try this on your next screen. Before touching color or polish, ask: if someone glanced at this for two seconds, would they know what to do? If not, the problem is not decoration; it is clarity, and no amount of prettiness will fix it. Design for the answer first, then let the beauty serve it. That is how you cross from decorated to clear.