There’s a rule somewhere that every dollar you invest in your mobile app’s usability offers a hundredfold in return. Therefore, if you plan for mobile design and development projects, make sure your UX design is the key to success.
Whether you’re a first-time researcher for mobile app development companies or looking to develop the next version for your Android and iOS. One needs to understand app development better. Here we have a checklist that includes questions for various app development stages that cover planning and business strategy, deployment and maintenance, etc. With this pointer, you can start thinking about the logistics of your mobile project.
1. Minimize cognitive load
People don’t like to use brainpower much while using the app. Therefore, it’s better to minimize the cognitive load by adding a limited amount of processing power. Do not provide too much information and make the task abandoned.
2. Decluttering
Clutter is the worst enemy of good design. With adding cluttering in your interface overloads users with too much information. One more added button, image, or icon makes the screen complicated. Thus, it’s better to get rid of it and reduce clutter with improving comprehension.
3. Offload tasks
To set a smart default, you can ask the user to enter data, and while they type the previously entered data will pop up if they want to reuse it. It can save user effort and time with making your app move smartly.
4. Break task into bite-sized
If your app has multiple tasks for the user, it requires efforts to divide into small tasks. It’s an essential principle for any mobile app designer as no one likes complexity at one go. For example, while checking out from any eCommerce app, we need to follow steps that require users to fill in data. Therefore, to cut short, designers break down the task to move ahead step-by-step towards processing payment.
5. Minimize user inputs
Users don’t like to type on small screens, and it makes them uncomfortable. The most common problem faced by the user is filling out the form. We can’t avoid filling forms, but we can make them as short as possible. Remove the unnecessary fields and minimize the information from the users.
6. Anticipate user needs
Before designing the app, look for things, and steps users are looking for in your app. Moreover, the most crucial element should be highlighted on the screen and should gain more visual weight. It’s possible by using font-weight, color, and size.
7. Avoid Jargon
Give the user a clear idea about what’s your target audience, whom you need to determine. User appropriate words and phrases with not confusing users.
8. Make the design consistent
Consistency eliminates confusion. Therefore, it’s a fundamental principle of design. To maintain consistent flow is essential throughout an app. Regarding mobile apps, visual, functional, and external consistency is added across multiple products.
9. Put the user in control
One needs to keep elements interactive and predictable. Allow users to understand that the button needs to be clicked to perform actions. The back button should work appropriately if users need to go back when multiple steps are processed. There are chances that an error occurs due to the user’s mistake or app failure. And UX plays a vital role in error handling. So, make sure you handle it properly without frustrating users. Never assume that all users are tech-savvy to figure out things. Whenever an error message pops up, it should tell you what went wrong and the next step the user needs to take to fix the error.
10. Design an accessible interface
The design encourages users to use your product app successfully. Once an app should be able to interact with vision loss, hearing loss, and other disabilities. Success and mobile forms are often coloured green as research shows 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women suffer from low vision. Keep a note that colour should not only be used visually. It should convey a message too.
11. Make navigation simple
It’s a high priority for every app to help the user navigate properly. It’s better to use a standard navigation tools drawer and know how to get around the app. Prioritize navigation based on how users interact with your app. Give prominence in UI to paths and destinations with high priority levels. Do not mix navigation patterns. Minimize the user’s memory load by making actions and options visible.
12. Offer users animations to clarify navigational transitions
Working with animations and adding into the app helps users to comprehend a state change in page layout. It allows them to trigger the difference and make it easy for them to initiate the change when required.
13. Be alert while using a UI gesture
The user’s UI gesture is tempting, but it’s better to avoid it. As it can cause the terrible failure of UX. The simple thing to follow here is to use standard gestures that take no extra effort to discover. The gestures do work as shortcuts, but they aren’t a complete replacement. Thus, vital care is needed while using a UI gesture.
14. Focus on the first-time experience
The user gives only one shot to your app. If you fail to impress for the first time, they won’t relaunch your app. Therefore, we need to focus on the first impression. Avoid sign-in before using the app. It’s a common mistake most designers make and this abandons them to use your application. Secondly, design and excellent onboarding experience to show your app value. Your applications must provide an interactive tour with progressive disclosure and show them how apps work.
15. Make your application faster and responsive
For any applications, loading time is essential. Study shows that nearly 47% of users expect 2 seconds or less loading time. If the page takes more time to load visitors might get frustrated and leave your application. It doesn’t matter how fast your app is, but some things take time to process. This makes the app slow, and it causes a bad impact on users. If you can’t change the process, then make the user’s waiting more pleasant.
16. Take care about loading content visible on the screen
Whenever the page loads, make sure you fill the screen with enough content. When the users scroll the page, they should find content and should engage while reading. While the user reads the current content, few readers might not notice that other content is still loading.
17. Do offer other visual distractions
If your apps give the user an exciting look, they’ll surely wait and pay less attention to wait for more. The other visual distractions don’t bore the users while waiting for something to happen. By merely adding a waiting animation can retain the user’s attention while they wait.
18. Do show skeleton screens
Skeleton screen shows the blank version of the page into which information loads gradually. It helps users to show the shadow of the page that is loading. It gives a great impression to the user indicating the app is working fast and is responsive.
19. Optimize content for mobile
For any app, designing content plays an important role and is the primary reason people use an app. The content should talk enough about the app and should be easy to read and digest. Whenever we think of content, it means typography, an optimized version of readability, usability, and overall graphics.
20. Offer High-quality images
The high-resolution screens set a bar for the user to stick to your app. Also, images should appear in the right aspects’ ratio, so they don’t look distorted. Ensure the pictures aren’t too stretched or too long to fit in a space and look unappealing.
21. Optimize Video Content for portrait mode
In this digital world, video content is becoming the standard method for many users. According to YouTube, it says the video content is growing 100% each year. And last year there was 75% growth observed globally. Also, a ScientiaMedia study said 94% of users were using a mobile device in portrait mode.
22. Take Benefits of device capabilities
Mobile devices come with a lot of sensors like cameras, location tracking, and accelerometer. Use them to improve the UX. Simplify the data operations using the camera. Use a digital camera from the application, read credit card details, and use it with ease. One can add the device location to get the relevant user’s location. If you’re looking to minimize the steps required to login add fingerprint touch login or facial identification.
23. Testing and Feedback
If you have done with all the above principles, it’s time to design a better mobile experience by testing it. After developing and designing the app, it’s necessary to test the app and take feedback from a user perspective. Build a feedback mechanism and ask the customer to leave feedback which can help in UI improvement.
Check here Why is Logo Designing for a Mobile Application a Crucial yet Important Task?
Wrap up
Designing is a never-ending process. After adding all the above pointers, there would be something missing out, but you’ll get it after experiencing it. But don’t worry if this is your first attempt the above checklist will help build a perfect app design.
Treat your app as a continuously evolving project. Add data, test the interface, and take feedback to improve the user experience. If you face any problems in mobile app design, then we have an excellent mobile designer who is ready to help you get rid of it. In the end, listen to your users, take necessary actions, and adjust accordingly.