Today, smartphones are an essential part of people’s lives. Research shows that an average smartphone user spends more than three hours a day on their mobile.
But where do they spend most of the time? Yes, you made the right guess–mobile apps!
Many apps out there also pose the question of why smartphone users should choose your app. Out of many factors, your app’s design will make people stick to your app for most of their time.
What is Mobile App Design?
Mobile app design broadly covers two aspects of a mobile application–user interface(UI) and user experience(UX).
Mobile app UI design involves designing a convenient and pleasing interface. The focus is on the looks and style of your mobile application.
On the other hand, UX involves the interaction of the mobile app with the user. According to mobile user experience design principles, the focus is to provide ease of use, efficiency in performing tasks, and clarity to the app user.
Why Do You Need a Good Mobile Design?
The fundamental aspect you should keep in mind is that the design of your mobile app can make or break your business. So, do not undermine the need for a good design, which stirs users’ interest.
Many new mobile apps get added frequently to an already existing bulk, so your app can get lost in the crowd. Your app should stand out from the rest to prevent getting lost.
It is the reason for which mobile development design is gaining importance day by day.
It needs no explanation that users tend to keep only those apps that they love or use frequently. They delete the rest apps.
If they do not have a good user experience with your app, they will likely uninstall it and write a bad review. Too many bad reviews can affect your app’s success.
So, you need a good design for your app. The design should be attractive, user-friendly, and give the correct functionality for users to trust, retain and use it.
How to Evaluate Your Mobile App Design?
Once you have an app idea, you should proceed to design your app. If you know how to design an app, you can design it yourself.
If you do not know, you can delegate the task to a company that offers mobile app design services.
But you have to evaluate your mobile app design and strategy before starting the design. The evaluation will comprise of the following:
Scope Determination
The first step of the mobile application development design considerations lies in determining the scope.
Decide your app objectives, your expectations from the app, and your app size (whether large or small).
The scope should encompass the following:
- The nature of the app
- The target audience
- Important functions and features
- Visual aspects
- The technologies to build the app
- Alignment of the app with your business strategy
- Specific preferences
After you finalize the scope of your app, ascertain:
- Goals of the app
- Tasks and resources
- Budget
- Timeframe
Market Research
The next step is to conduct market research to get an idea of the best possible UX design that will make your app more engaging and stand apart in the ocean of similar apps.
Start your market research by analyzing the existing apps in your industry. Say your industry is e-commerce. Look at the colors, build patterns, functionality, and flow of the current e-commerce apps.
You should find out the colors and themes that will help your app develop an emotional connection with your target audience.
There are many data collection methods, like surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups, which you can use during your research.
UX Wireframe Creation
UX Wireframe is an essential part of mobile app design terminology that determines the looks of the app’s UI by creating a basic structure of the UI, transitions, and interaction points.
The wireframe gives the flexibility to a designer to create the design on software or a piece of paper.
During the process, the designer constructs a user flow as it will appear on the app. It is an excellent practice to keep it simple because simplicity attracts most users.
The purpose of the UX Wireframe is to determine the flow of the app with the help of windows, buttons, layout, the logic of each button, and the login screen. It does everything to make the user experience convenient.
Creating the Mobile App
Now comes the main task–creating the mobile app. We recommend the following six steps in this context, which you can regard as the best mobile app design guidelines.
Prototype Development
Develop a prototype to have a look and feel of your app. As you already have a UX Wireframe, you can create a low-fidelity prototype to map out the basic mobile app design features.
Keep away from spending significant money on developing expensive prototypes. Instead, save money during the prototyping phase and spend the money during the actual design and coding stages.
If you want to delegate your app development project to a mobile app design agency, ensure that it minimizes client costs.
UI Design
UI design is about how your app will look. In this phase, you should decide the mobile app layout design in terms of its overall visual appearance. Finalize the color schemes, button styles, images, and animations.
It is advisable to test out different colors, skins, themes, and visual elements, including mobile application screen design.
Interface Animation
After UI design, it is time for designing interface animations, which are among the mobile app interface design principles.
Test different animations in real-time to figure out the best animations, which set the tone for app functionality, like changing patterns of the app screen, gestures, etc.
With interface animations, you can effectively guide the user through the app. Bear in mind that the animations are meant for providing user convenience and not only visual appeal.
Software Architecture
It is a critical stage of a mobile app development process, where you improve its usability and design.
In this phase, the front-end and back-end applications undergo improvements.
A team of designers, programmers, and managers work on improving software architecture.
App Development
It is about coding and developing the app. Deploy good coders to get a good quality product. The most important thing to keep in mind in this context is poor coding will deliver an inferior app, which you should avoid.
Also, code separately for iOS and Android platforms.
Testing
It is the final stage of an app development process. It is necessary to test the app after development to see its performance and determine whether it conforms to your expectations. Testing also shows the bugs that need to be fixed. It will help if you involve mobile app design experts during the testing process.
Hiring the Right Company
The quality and capability of the mobile app design company are crucial factors that will determine the quality of your app. Choose a reputed and experienced company with expert designers and developers. Ensure its designers are experts. Whether it is an iPhone app design or an Android app user interface design, they can do it perfectly.
Conclusion
Your objective of getting a good app will be fulfilled if there is a combination of an attractive visual appeal and excellent functionality in the app. Before you kickstart your app development process, you might not know the nitty-gritty associated with the design. This article serves as a reliable mobile app design guide for people like you to help you proceed with practical steps. Besides, mobile app development is a continuous process. It continues with feedback pouring in.
