A step by step guide to creating a fantastic mobile app design!

A Step by Step Guide to Creating a Fantastic Mobile App Design!

During our journey with our closest “mate� mobile, we find different ways to spend good time with it. We download different applications from the Playstore. Some, we use a lot; some keep lying unused for years and some we uninstall. Let us talk about the ones that you do not use. What turns you off about those apps? Bad colors? Unnecessarily flashing adverts? Or bad user interface? Well, it can be any one of these reasons or an amalgamation of all the 3.

If you are a mobile app designer who has recently started working for a mobile app design company, you might have a lot of questions about designing a perfect mobile app. Also, you must know that mobile applications are quite different as compared to web applications. A UI design of mobile must work at the speed of thought. It must be easy enough for new users and not get boring for old users. So how do you make an app that a user treasures?

To help you navigate through the nitty gritty of ​mobile app development​, we have come up with

A step-by-step guide to create a creating a fantastic mobile app design

Step 1: Planning & Development Methodology This is the first important step for creating a superior quality mobile app ​UI design​. For the new-fangled developers, the journey of creating the first mockup to finally delivering the app seems forever. This is because they do not have a systematized methodology in place for UI and UX of the mobile app. To start with, it is important to know the purpose of the application and the issues that you need to address through it. After discussing with the business owners for whom you are creating the app, make a list of all the purposes you need to resolve using the app. This will give you the road map of the aspects you need to work upon.

Step 2: Conduct the Analysis Before you start designing the app, you can conduct research about similar apps in the market and find out about the strength and weaknesses of these apps. Know about the features that the other apps lack and compare them with the features you are planning to add in the current app. After you conduct analysis, you will get the right idea about creating an interactive interface as well as graphics and textures of the app. However, you must fix a schedule for conducting analysis and for how long will you be doing it as it can get prolonged and lengthy. Remember, you should be objective throughout the analysis and take opinions from others if the need be.

Step 3: Get Some Clarity To design a successful mobile interface, you should have clarity about a lot of aspects. The first amongst these is knowing your target audience.

If you know your target audience well, you would be able to make a successful app. Thereafter, you need to choose the ​mobile platforms and the devices you want the app to work on. From the device perspective, you should keep the battery life, hardware performance and required peripherals in mind. And while deciding upon the mobile platform, you should consider the device support, performance, coverage, and other aspects.

Step 4: Create a Wireframe After you get an understanding of your audience and use cases of your app, you can start with the wireframing of the app. Wireframing is nothing but the skeleton of your app. It does not need to have detailed design elements but just the structure for your app. An old school designer would probably jot down some ideas and draw their imaginations in a book. But you can also find some drag and drop prototyping tools that help you to create a wireframe in no time. An interactive wireframe enables you to change its structure and manage its functionality. With the help of a wireframe, you can get clarity about different development stages of your ​app design​.

Step 5: Create a Prototype A prototype is nothing but the basic model of your app. There are several use cases of creating a prototype. You might use it to give a demo to your clients, sell it for free to your potential buyers or just use it to understand the basic functionality of it. The best part about any app prototype is that it helps the developers and makers to visualize the tangible benefits of the app. However, while developing the prototype, you must keep in mind that you keep it secure from unauthorized usage. After creating the prototype, have a marketing plan in place to promote it. You can also share the idea of your app with investors and lead them to striking future deals with you.

Step 6: Let us Design!

And now it’s time to design. While designing your app, you must mull over all the similar apps and the suggestions, comments and concerns of users that utilize those apps. Which are the aspects you need to work on? What drawbacks will you keep your app away from? How do you want your app to look and feel like? Ask yourself these questions and develop the vision for your ​mobile app design​. You can also choose to further develop on the prototyping applications. Let us understand how to work around the basic elements of your application. Here is what you must keep in mind: ● Keep the navigation simple Complicated application navigations lead to cart abandonments. So, you must give your users what they are looking for. Remember, no matter how attractive your app looks, it must be easy to use and intuitive. So, do not be extra creative with app navigations. You can be creative with the search options but do not make it tough for the users to use your app. ● Work on the App typography Difficult to read fonts are a huge turn-off. Also, when people of different ages are going to use your app, the text on it must be legible.

It is difficult to keep precise spaces between words and lines in your mobile app if you have limited space. So, keep the content small, sentences crisp and make the most out of the space you have. You can

also ask the opinion of your clients and others if the font looks right for the app. ● Decide the color scheme And now comes to choosing the right colors for your design. Your app should not look like a bouquet of different flowers. A perfect color scheme should not have more than two or three colors. Make sure that the colors are not too much in contrast and the typography is visible with the background color. Go with the “less is more” approach while deciding upon the colors.

Step 7: Time to Test After you have placed the right design and content in place, you need to ensure that the app serves the purpose it is meant to serve. And hence, you need to test your app on different devices. As and when you use the app, write about the details, issues you face with it and the navigation elements that you can improve upon. Only then, you will be able to render maximum productivity for your users. Take care of little details like, is the keypad reachable? If yes, does it hide any important information while the user is typing? Check the user experience throughout different devices if you want to provide your users with a successful app.

Concluding…

You would not want your app to be fragile and vulnerable to viruses. By following the above given steps, you will be able to undertake a strategic approach to building a superior quality mobile user interface.

It is not easy to get million downloads and thousand reviews. And hence, the developers must be smart and focus on the core area of the app by keeping the company’s objectives in mind.