Mobile app design
Furthermore, mobile designers take usability, engagement, accessibility preferences, and ultimately, the user experience into account when designing an application.
Even if you’re a professional designer for desktops, you may find it difficult at first to design specifically for mobile, as optimizing your user experience is a lot different.
Mobile application design vs. desktop
If you’re the app designer for both mobile and desktop and in your initial phase of planning your design workflow, it is often best to first design for mobile.
The reasoning behind this is quite simple, if you decide to design for desktop first, you might have difficulty when it comes to removing elements.
On the other hand, if you start with your mobile app design, it will most likely be easier to add features and elements, which have been proven to be a more time-efficient practice.
As we’ve stated, even though a few principles remain intact when it comes to the overall design, there are some noteworthy differences that we’ll briefly discuss.
1. Sizing
It is safe to say that the sizing is a little easier to navigate on desktop rather than mobile. Thus, it is essential to note that designers should carefully select which elements they want to prioritize regarding displaying the features.
2. Functionality
Mobile users can choose between landscape or portrait views for their apps, making it a lot more complicated for the mobile application designer.
3. Engagement and interaction
The interaction of the two devices is different because you don’t have the use of a cursor to navigate on mobile. Thus, if you’re a mobile application designer, you need to make the most of scrolling and swiping app gestures.
Android mobile app design vs. iOS
Android and iOS are probably the biggest rivals regarding the UI of mobile design. However, both Android and iOS have their own recommendations on how to approach UI design.
Apple refers to its guidelines as Human Interface Guidelines, and Android calls its version Material design. These amazing UI design guidelines are well thought out and a great starting point for learning more about both Android and iOS mobile app design options.
However, there are other various app differences that mobile app developers have to keep in mind, like typography, navigation, and search functions, to name a few.
Design principles for mobile app design
Before we continue, it is important to understand what User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design are and the main principles for each. Mobile app design is made up of a combination of UX and UI design principles in order to have a great finished product.
User Interface design is about using visuals, typography, and design elements into something pleasant for real users. In other words, user interface design principles mostly revolve around looks or style.
On the contrary, User Experience design aims to give users an experience where they can easily navigate your app without having to think about it, a.k.a; with minimal effort.
User interface design principles
Now that we’ve clarified what UI design is, let’s take a look at some basic User Interface design principles.
To help clarify these principles, we’ve compiled a list of questions after each principle for you to check if you’re on the right track. If you answer yes to the questions, then you’re headed in the right direction.
1. Structure
The design should organize the user interface in a way that’s recognizable to users. It should group related items and separate unrelated items. For example, grouping social media icons in one place and icons for internet calling somewhere else.
In other words, your user should feel in control from the get co. This entails that the action buttons should be where users expect them to be. During the development process, ask yourself the following questions to see how well your app will perform with this principle in mind:
- Is the navigation of your app intuitive?
- Are users encouraged to take action (without feeling that the UI design is making them take action for mobile)?
- Is there a purpose for each element in your design’s structure?
2. Simplicity
Even though the UI design process is exciting, the mobile app designer should stay focused on making the UI design simple and easy to use. In other words, your satisfaction as a UI designer should be at the bottom of the list of priorities and your users’ satisfaction at the top.
- Is your app design simple, practical, and not too decorative?
- Did you keep your user in mind throughout the whole initial designing process?
- Are the elements in your design truly useful and relevant to your user?
3. Visibility
Everything necessary for a task should be visible and not cluttered by irrelevant information. Implementing the visibility principle will have a huge impact on users finding elements and knowing how to use them.
- Are you visibly indicating how users can complete tasks?
- Are all important elements as visible as they can be?
- Are you leading users through interaction?
4. Feedback
Another great practical recommendation is that the design should inform users of actions, responses, and errors in clear and concise language.
For instance, a progress bar or wheel to show users when something is downloading. Requesting feedback will lessen your chances of leading your audience to confusion.
- Are you announcing the type of feedback that you’d like to receive?
- Are you asking what they don’t like?
- Are you using a fitting tool for designers to collect the information?
5. Tolerance
Design should be flexible and tolerant of mistakes. For example, by having ‘back,’ ‘undo,’ and ‘redo’ options. It should prevent errors where possible and tolerate varied inputs for the same task.
- Does your mobile app allow various inputs?
- Does your mobile app interpret all reasonable input?
- Does the app allow undoing and redoing?
6. Reuse
The design should stay consistent by reusing known visual elements and behaviors. The UI should be intuitive to use and easy to remember.
- Did you use well-known visual elements in your app design?
- Did you maintain UI consistency?
- Is the UI designed to be intuitive?
Although these mobile app UI design principles are a good place to start, it might be a good idea to watch other tutorials and courses on the subject.
Mobile UX: mobile design best practices
Simplify navigation
Every app should have simple navigation as its top priority. Amazing features and interesting content will be useless if users can’t locate them.
Users should be able to navigate the app intuitively and execute all basic functions without help. Avoid using gestures such as swiping for navigation – it’s too much of a hassle – and always show the user where they are in the app via indicators at the top of the page.
Minimize tasks
Look for unnecessary tasks (entry of data, making a decision) in your mobile app design, and see if you can cut out those steps.
You can, for example, reuse previously entered data, or use already accessible data to provide a smart solution in certain circumstances. Don’t ask the user to type more.
Avoid sign-in walls
A sign-in wall is a place where users must register before using an app. It’s a common source of user annoyance and one of the leading causes of app abandonment.
The percentage of customers that quit the registration process is particularly high for apps with low brand recognition or a confusing value proposition.
As a general guideline, only require users to register if it is absolutely necessary (for instance, if your app’s primary features are only accessible once users register).
Even in this situation, it’s best to wait as long as possible before asking users to sign up – let them use the app for a while before gently encouraging them to register. As much as possible, give users a chance to fall in love with your app before putting speed bumps in their way.
Reduce cognitive load
The brainpower required to use the app is referred to as cognitive load. Because the human brain can only handle so much information at once, an app that gives too much information at once may overload the user and cause them to leave the app.
One of the worst enemies of good design is clutter. By clogging up your user interface, you’re giving the user too much information.
The interface becomes more complicated with each additional button, image, or icon. Keep the content to a bare minimum and only show the user what they need to know.
Cut out typing as much as possible
Typing on a tiny phone screen is rarely a pleasant experience, as it’s frequently prone to errors. Filling out a form is one of the most typical typing tasks.
Remove any extra fields from forms to make them as brief as possible. The app should request only the most basic information from the user.
Use intelligent features like autocomplete. Filling out an address section, for example, is often the most difficult component of any registration form.
Users can enter their address with minimum effort when compared with a conventional input field if they use an address finder based on location or postcode.
Keep it consistent
A core principle of UX design is predictability. Users have a greater sense of control when things perform the way they expect.
Unlike on the desktop, where users may verify whether something is interactive or not by hovering over it, on mobile, users can only check interactivity by tapping on an element.
That’s why it’s crucial to consider the message communicated by the app’s buttons and other interactive elements.
Function should come first, then form: the appearance of the element should instruct the customer on how to use it. Users will be easily confused by visual elements that seem like buttons but aren’t clickable.
The “back” button should function correctly. A badly designed “back” button can create a whole host of problems. Prevent situations where hitting the “back” button in the middle of a multi-step process returns users to the home screen or deletes previously filled form information.
A good design allows users to go back and make changes more easily. Users can proceed with confidence when they know they can review the information they’ve provided or the options they’ve chosen.
Make the app seem fast and responsive
A short load time is critical to the user experience. As technology advances, people become more impatient. Today, 47% of users expect pages to load in less than 2 seconds.
Visitors may become annoyed and leave if a page takes a long time to load. Therefore, while developing a mobile app, speed should be of top priority. However, no matter how fast you make your app, some things will take time to complete.
A faulty internet connection or a long-running procedure could cause a slow response. Even if you can’t cut down the wait time, use an animated loading screen to make the wait more enjoyable and assure the user that the app hasn’t stopped working.
Mobile UI: best practices
Keep the design consistent
A fundamental principle of design is consistency. It’s critical to keep an app’s look and feel consistent throughout. The app’s typefaces, buttons, and labels must all be consistent. All interactive features in your program should work in the same way.
If you have both a web service and a mobile app, ensure they have the same features so that users will be able to seamlessly switch between the mobile app and the mobile website. Inconsistency in design, such as a varied navigation scheme or color palette, can lead to confusion.
Provide user interaction feedback
Objects respond to touch in the physical world; people expect digital UI controls to be responsive in the same way. Every user contact requires immediate feedback.
If you don’t provide feedback, the user will worry that your software has frozen. The feedback could be visual (such as highlighting a pressed button) or tactile (such as a vibration).
Use familiarity
Users will encounter familiar screens in a variety of apps. For smartphone apps, screens like “Home,” “Settings,” “Favorites” and “Recent” have become the norm.
Because users are already familiar with them, they don’t require extra explanation. This eliminates the learning curve by allowing users to interact with the program based on prior expertise.
Keep it legible
Readability and legibility are crucial in mobile typography. If users cannot read your content, there’s no point in providing it in the first place. On any screen, anything less than 16 pixels (or 11 points) is difficult to read. Most users prefer a clean, easy-to-read font.
A default typeface like Open Sans or Roboto is a safe bet. Light-colored lettering may look trendy, but it will be difficult to read, especially against a light background. For simple reading, make sure there is lots of contrast between the typeface and the background.
Give visual weight to important elements
Give visual weight to the most important item on the screen. Font weight, size, and color can all be used to give an element additional weight. Larger items are more noticeable and appear to be more important than smaller ones.
Make your design colorblind-friendly
Color blindness affects 4.5% of the world’s population.
On mobile forms, success and error messages are frequently colored green and red, yet these are the hues that are most affected by color blindness. If you have a color-vision problem, this can be a very frustrating experience – so use something other than color as a signal.
