Do you know? A whopping 80-90% of app users do not give an app a second chance if they had a poor experience for the first time. This means apps must provide a seamless user experience that is personalized, up-to-date, and easy to use. In this blog, we will discuss some do’s and dont’s of designing a mobile app that will help you attract more users and retain them.
There are 2.7 million apps in the Google Play Store and nearly 2 million apps in Apple’s App Store. With the increasing competition in the apps market and changing consumer demands, it becomes important for app developers and businesses to build apps that rank higher on the user experience quotient. As a leading provider of UI UX design services, we are sharing here what you should do and avoid in 2019 while designing your next mobile app:
This should go without saying that your app users should always come first. Their needs are even more important. The icons, the content, and the transition from one screen to another – all should be consistent and seamless. If users have to put an effort to understand your app and how to use it, they will simply abandon it and switch to another app. There are more reasons why users abandon an app or don’t download it again. Check it out in the link.
When designing your app, first think what users want to do with your app. For instance, a restaurant app can help users to place their orders online, make a reservation or get directions to your restaurant. Design the app around these needs.
Make everything easier for users. Eliminate the tasks that can waste users’ time. For example, some big brands have redesigned their eCommerce apps to provide a camera feature to scan credit/debit card information. This helps users to save time as they don’t have to type in the information.
Here are the key takeaways from leading UX design and development providers:
• Use a minimalist design that cuts out all unnecessary elements
• Minimize data input and consider established gestures that people are used to
• Provide a simple onboarding process and easy sign up using social media accounts
Mobile devices have small screen and navigation should be discoverable and accessible due to the limitations of small screens. There are three navigation patterns for mobile apps — hamburger menu, tab bar and gesture-based navigation. Let’s check out what are the best things about these navigation options.
To prioritize features, follow the MoSCoW Method – Must Have, Should Have, Could Have and Won’t Have. Prioritizing features would help you save some development costs, get to market quicker, lower risks, and save up great features for monetization in the future. To determine the ‘Must Have’ features of your app, find answers to these questions:
• What is the ultimate aim of your app?
• What does it trying to solve?
• What is the initial objective of the app?
• What features would attract users to use your app after downloading?
• Find the the basic minimum features your app needs like sign-in, sign-up, check-out, add to cart, etc.
• Find features that are essential for first-time users and your app’s functioning?
You can consult a UI UX design company to determine the best features for your minimal viable product as they have experience in designing mobile apps for various industries and can help you find answers for the above-mentioned questions.
By delivering personalized user experience, you can retain more and more customers. This starts with the onboarding process. Your app must have an understandable and user-friendly design to give the best impression when a user registers on your app.
Customize the onboarding process by considering where the user found your app and why he/she is downloading it. Design a custom trip within the app to make the user feel that his or her opinion matters. Get the users involved in app enhancements by sending well-timed messages. Propose special activities like gift cards. Build an in-app community by letting users network with each other on the app.
Meaningful interactions with your app provide dynamic experiences to users and also add more clarity to the action’s result. Being a renowned provider of UI design and development services, we know that designing micro-interactions have helped many mobile apps to delight and engage users actively. For instance, you can use animations like dissolve, pop, flow, flip left/right, slide up/down/left/right, push up/down/left/right to enable users transition from one screen to another. Here are some other interaction design tips:
• Clarity should be your main priority
• Design subtle interactions, don’t overdo it
• Consider the user intent to design animations
• Avoid long animations as they frustrate users
• Bouncy effects are positive, dont go for violent effects
Users are familiar with the language they use in daily life. If you provide them jargons, they probably won’t understand how to use your app and discard it after the first use. Use the icon names and symbols that people are convenient with and easy to understand. Do not use technical or difficult words that affect your interaction with users.
Sign-up is the first interaction of users with your app. Make it simple. Do not direct users to other browsers. The onboarding screen should be clean, simple, and easy to understand.
UX is different from UI. UI is a part of UX but UX is not limited to UI. A mobile app is not just a graphical representation of icons but also depends on the user experience. This is represented by Peter Morville’s honeycomb shown here.
The app should fulfill the needs of users, should be self-describing, evoke emotions, findable, easily accessible, and enable users to trust your product.
UX design rules basically aim at improving the satisfaction level of customers by offering optimal usability and accessbility to users. UI aims to imrove the user interaction through simple and sophisticated designs. A reliable UI/UX design & development company can help you better understand the difference between UI and UX when designing your app. Make sure to hire only the best designers if you want your app to be successful in the market.
There are many apps that often ask permissions from users about location, push notifications, camera usage, GPS, etc. This can create a negative impact on users as they don’t have any proper perspective about your app to jump to a conclusion. Keep the onboarding simple with minimal permission requests. Send them well-times messages as and when required.
Every operating system has its own set of guidelines when it comes to interface design. Android and iOS are the two leading mobile OS systems. It is essential to follow the guidelines of these native platforms while designing your app. Do not mix the components of Android in designing your iOS app and vice versa.
The best way to build a digital product for today’s tech-savvy users is to collect their feedback and then incorporate the suggestions in the app design and upgrade process. Analyze their feedback and implement them to provide a better experience to the users every time they open your app.
Closing Thoughts
It is easier to design a good mobile app but difficult to build one that users love. Follow the do’s and dont’s mentioned above to come out with a great product that is useful to your target audience. Having said that you should hire UI UX design services to implement the design guidelines and make the final product even more attractive and appealing to the users.
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