After tackling responsive web design, now it is the time to bring something new to your customers, a mobile app. A mobile app is ideally suited for small and large businesses alike to keep their customers and prospects informed about offers, promotions, and so much more. It offers a platform to them where they can be in touch with your business.
With that said, building a successful mobile app, that gets many downloads, is mainly based on designing an innovative yet easy-to-use interface. UI/UX design firms specialize in design focused on the type of experience it offers to your customers. And while the success of mobile app depends on a combination of factors, UI design is usually what makes or breaks an application. A great UI design helps you retain potential customers while a hard to use user interface design can make your customers jump to your competitor’s app.
Irrespective of the amount of time and money you spend on developing your app, turning a blind eye to the UI design can reduce the credibility of your app. In fact, a bad user interface design is one of the main causes of bad user experiences. So how should you design your app? Here we outline four UI design tips to keep in mind.
1. Keep it simple
The hallmark of a superb user interface is simplicity. Keeping things simple refers to ease of use, especially for first time users, allowing them to utilize your application without the need for guides or instructions. Multiple tasks can be done with a simple user interface and with few steps. As they navigate through your app, users should not encounter any complications and should feel at ease with the app. By this, we do not mean simply sticking a button or two here and there for the heck of it.
2. Keep the mobile UI graphical
An eye-catching mobile app is always preferred to an application with a text heavy design. Whether you want to keep users engaged or notify them to return to your app on a regular basis, a visually strong UI design will help produce the desired results. Visual elements help instruct users about the way they can interact with the app.
3. Involve real users when evaluating the mobile app
As a designer, it is of utmost importance to use real users for evaluating UI design ideas. Doing so will help you rectify the glitches in early stage of development. It will also minimize chances of confusion in designing features and buttons on the app. Therefore, the need for re-working the entire app is eliminated — saving cost and the time involved.
4. Stick to OS guidelines
It is advisable to stick to certain guidelines or principles that are accepted practices. This will aid you in designing a user interface that appeals to your target audience. Trying out innovations with the touch gestures, interactions and navigation system should be aligned with the current standards. Implement UI design with important features and do away with unwanted ones. And since app stores like Apple’s App Store scrutinize new apps stringently, research the kind of applications that are accepting and then use that to help guild you to a user-friendly interface for the app.
Final Thoughts
These UI design tips, when kept in mind while designing the UI for your mobile app, will help offer great user experiences.
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Design is more important than ever with the limited space that mobile applications give designers to work with. On top of that, attention spans have shortened, placing a premium on your app being easy to use right off the bat, but you want to make sure that your design doesn’t turn off experienced users as well. This fine line means that good design is of utmost importance for mobile applications.
User experience design can pay off big dividends for any mobile app development program and should be part of your plan from the beginning, but strong mobile app design begins even before discussing usability.
Start by looking at the your users’ goals for using your application. Not the goals that your business wants to accomplish by having an application but the goals your users will have for using your application. Only when you understand the goals your users will have for using your application and then and design your app’s workflow to meet their needs. Remember that users can have a number of goals in mind when using your application. Only by understanding various user’s goals can you design an interface to meet their needs.
It seems obvious that you would want to make your app as usable as possible, but all too often companies fail to focus on the user experience and the usability of their application. Usability describes the ease with which consumers can user your mobile application in order to achieve a goal. Interfaces which make mobile applications easy to understand and use tend to be the interfaces regularly used by consumers. If your audience can’t easily user your app they certainly won’t return to it and will most likely remove it from their device.
Remember that as humans we are creatures of habit. An effective mobile application design will use this to its advantage. Understanding this is particularly important for user experience designer who will utilize familiar cues to indicate procedures that your users are familiar with. This familiarity reduces the amount users will need to think to use your app, increasing the usability of its interface as it will be intuitive for your users to interact with.
Don’t forget to provide feedback to your users to let them know if tasks are completed or not. This simple tip greatly improves the experience of your application making it more friendly and responsive. Even the simplest forms of feedback allow your users to feel like their actions are causing something to happen on their screens. Without feedback they are left to wonder if their action took affect, which can frustrate them and turn them away from your application.
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User experience design is an approach to design where something is designed to improve the experience for the user while using a product. The goal is to improve the interaction between the user and the product being used.
You have undoubtedly downloaded many mobile apps and some grabbed your attention right off the bat. A mobile app with great user experience design creates an intuitive and pleasurable experience in the interaction between the user and the mobile app. Mobile app development that keeps this mind will enhance customer satisfaction which in turn increases customer loyalty.
User experience designers invariably have a deep understanding of users. Perceiving their needs and capabilities and designing for those. Rather than focusing on visual design elements, user experience designers focus on providing meaningful user experience.
UX design is a form of troubleshooting, where designers explore ideas and constraints to improve interaction.
You cannot ignore how your customers interact with your mobile apps and web site.
User experience specialists blend their knowledge of UX Design with an understanding of your target audience and business to produce functional user experiences for your visitors.
What does creating improved user experiences on your application or web site do for your business?
Improved user experiences can increase productivity for your employees, cutting down on time wasted simple tasks reducing your costs. Additionally, a well designed app or web site can not only increase sales but it can also lower your costs for customer acquisition. Beyond that, UX design can help you increase brand loyalty and market share.
Remember that user experience design is not about how you happen to think users interact. It’s careful process based on real data and knowledge.
UX is what creates conversions on popular web sites and applications. Think of user experience as how your customers feel about their experience interacting with your business. User experience is a must if you want to have satisfied customers or visitors to your site.
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