The difference between good app design and a poor one is usually the quality of its user experience. Fast loading times, ease of use, and overall customer satisfaction during an interaction should be integral parts of your design. Great app design is clearly laid out, efficient to use, and aesthetically pleasing. Read on for practical recommendations and advice on how to create apps with app design software that nail the UX.
What Is App Design?
App design combines the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). While UI lends itself to the overall style of the app (including the colors, fonts, and general look and feel), UX focuses on the actual functionality and usability.
A large number of users abandon an app after using it for the first time. Since users are picky about which apps they use and so quick to abandon those they don’t enjoy, it’s essential to invest time and effort in creating a great user experience. The better the design, the better the chance that a user will engage with it and thus keep using it.
What Factors Should You Consider Before Designing an App?
Just like any other product or service, apps need to be designed, organized, and strategized to solve user problems. Before you begin the app design, it’s important to conduct market research to gain a better understanding of your users. What do users need? What problem are you solving for them? What value will you bring them? Your app’s success depends on knowing these answers.
Great design is not only about great aesthetics; it’s also about matching user expectations. You need to ensure the information architecture of your app matches the user’s mental model, navigation patterns are self-evident, all touch targets (such as buttons) are finger-friendly, and the app content looks equally good on mobile devices as it does on the web at various screen sizes and resolutions.
What Elements Should be Included in a Good App Design?
Creating an app with UI and UX in mind so that it is both beautiful and functional is the essence of good app design. This balance is often difficult to achieve, and it’s almost impossible to build a perfect app without continual cycles of iteration. That’s why designers should treat their own set of app design guidelines as a continually evolving project. It’s essential to create an effective build-measure-learn cycle where every design decision is evaluated according to the needs of your users and your business goals.
The principles in these articles can help you design a better experience, but they won’t replace the need for user research and testing. You’ll need to test your solution with real users to understand which parts of your app design are working and which require improvement. For that very reason, you should encourage user feedback at every opportunity.
It’s easy to identify the parts of your app that require polishing when you have a strong feedback loop in your product design process. It’s recommended that you conduct usability testing sessions on a regular basis, analyzing results and prioritizing necessary changes according to the impact they will have on users.
To match user expectations, it’s also vital to understand what is happening in app design today. Be aware of modern design techniques and product design trends. More specifically, pay attention to ones that help product teams create an excellent user experience and make effective design decisions.
Read on for more articles about app design best practices and to learn about the latest developments in UX design knowledge.