Are you working on an app development idea? In order to make sure that you don’t get lost in the crowd, here is all you need to know before getting into the process of your mobile apps development.
More than about 2000 apps are being added to the app stores every single day. This simply means that there is an intense competition in the world of mobile apps business, but this doesn’t mean that all of these apps get succeeded. The truth is that an average app has pretty bad retention metrics.
A design of any mobile app is responsible, to a large extent, for its success. Then why do most of the apps fail to have intuitive designs. It could be because of the unawareness of the app owner or simply lack of hiring a professional mobile app developer or designer.
In this blog post, we will be looking at 10 tips that you can share with your app designer in order to make your application successful.
#1 Taking Care Of Basics
The maturity level of an app designer can be analyzed on the basis of his/her interpretation of the basics.
Do they really understand your business and your targeted audience well or they just want to show off their out-of-the-box creativity?
Yes, when it comes to mobile apps development, the most important thing that every app designer must pay attention to, is taking care of the basic things like accessibility to login, signup and other importantareas of your business.
In other words, make sure that while designing the prototypes of your application, your app designer has tried to sum your mobile app up into one primary feature, which is the backbone of your whole concept.
#2 Keeping it simple
Unlike a website, where we have a whole wide screen to view & play around, a mobile app must be designed in its simplest form, because of its limited viewable area.
Decluttering the unnecessary features & design elements and focusing on the important & primary elements will do a big favor to your targeted users.
#3 Taking Care Of Operating System
Before you launch your mobile app, just consider one crucial fact that every operating system has a different user interface and hence have a different set of designguidelines explaining their uniqueaesthetics.
For example, there is a back button in case of Android phones that can be used to return to previous screens of the app. However iPhones don’t have this button, so your app designer must ensure that your iOS app has a back button.
#4 Thinking From The Users' Perspective
Think about from your targeted users’ point of view.
Ask yourself some of the questions like below & share them with your app designer:
What will they use the app for?
How they will be using your app?
How much time do they have to use the app?
One of the best examples that I can give for any app in this context, is Kindle. For the night readers, they have an option to change the view mode and for the day readers, its different. So, thinking about the users is the #1 job that you or your app designer must do.
#5 Considering the user experience while selecting the font
Think about from your targeted users’ point of view.
Ask yourself some of the questions like below & share them with your app designer:
What will they use the app for?
How they will be using your app?
How much time do they have to use the app?
One of the best examples that I can give for any app in this context, is Kindle. For the night readers, they have an option to change the view mode and for the day readers, its different. So, thinking about the users is the #1 job that you or your app designer must do.
Based on the several studies done on different kind of app users and their sentiments toward their favorite apps, it was found that most of these app lovers liked their apps because of its easy-to-read & larger font size.
Before approving the designs of your mobile app, you must put some time and do some research on your targeted audience and find out what could be their preferred font style. Share with your app designer and make it happen.
#6 Colors According To The Brand
Using vibrant colors could look attractive but if they are inconsistent with your branding, they won’t add anything to your app’s success.
Every color conveys a different message. And choosing an appropriate color for your apps is almost like delivering the correct message to your users.
Some of the determining questions that you must ask before choosing right color combinations are:
Is your app for fun?
Does your app helps people in increasing their productivity?
Do you want the users to feel relaxed while using your app?
Do you want to portray trust for your users through your app?
Ask these questions and get the right answers for them. Once you have them, share with your app designer.
#7 Focusing On Smooth Navigation
Navigation is one of the most important elements of an application. Designing & placing the navigation requires skills. Therefore, your app designer must work closely with the app developers to ensure a smoother navigation from one screen to another.
As I mentioned already, the more simple an app is, the higher will be its usage by your targeted audience. In other words, simple mobile app navigation is loved by most mobile users.
How your app designer can achieve a smooth navigation?
By providing next and previous options on the important screens of your app, especially in case of iOS apps.
By providing proper labels like “Menu“, “Next“, “Previous” & “View All” so that there is no guesswork required by the users to do.
#8 Design For Human Fingers
One of the most important rules for app designers while creating UI is to ensure that the screens of your app are human finger-friendly.
Did you know that the average width of an adult thumb is 1 inch (2.5 cm), which is approximately 72 pixels. If your app designer has used small touch targets, its going to cause touch errors for most of the adult users.
#9 Don’t Rule Out The ‘Rule of Thumb’
According to the various studies done on mobile app users, it has been revealed that more than 75% of the device owners use their thumb to operate their devices. Be it for using an application or the native functions of a mobile, a thumb plays quite important role.
Therefore, it is mandatory for an app designer to ensure that all of the important elements of an app must be accessible to the users’ thumb.
#10 Considering Left-Handed People As Well
One of the common mistakes that most of the app designers and developers make is that they do not consider left-handed people while designing UI screens. As a result, it becomes difficult for left-handed people to use the application.
What you can do.
Before getting started on the development of your app, do ensure that you must test all the prototypes from a left-handed person’s perspective as well.
Conclusion:
While its true that achieving success in mobile app business may not be very easy but by following best design standards, you can have your half battle won.
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