Those who are working on designing a mobile app for their app project, they ought to know the best practices and trends that will help their app be admired by countless app users.

Mobiles apps are known to increase customer engagement and brand loyalty. However, the efficacy of an app largely depends on a positive user experience. Forty-six percent of people will stop using an app if it performs poorly.

User experience hinges on mobile app design, in the obvious sense.

Design can make or break an app. Aesthetics are important, but so is a seamless user experience coupling with usability. Design can even help companies guide their app’s users or customers towards the action they want them to take.

It is vital companies get mobile app design being done correctly. This article will hence serve as a brief guide to help equip professionals with the needed knowledge in this regard.

The Process of Mobile App Design Explained Briefly

Making an app is one of the biggest projects a business undertakes. It involves a lot of time, work and money as well as other relevant resources. For everyone, it is imperative that they understand and know the steps a good mobile app designer should undertake.

Step 1 – Design discovery

In this step, the company and their app design team will discuss what they hope to achieve with their app and what the project will entail.

The designer goes on to perform a competitive analysis first. They examine the apps competitors have and check their good sides & their pitfalls too. Afterwards they establish how to make the mobile app better than the others in both the market and in the company’s niche.

Furthermore, they establish user personas so that they can design such an app keeping the user in mind. Through product discovery, market research and user research; the designer is able to view and analyze aspects like user pain points and user motivations.

Step 2 – User Experience Design

In this step, the designer/designers/design team determine how people will interact with the app and how they can be able to meet their needs. One of the most important objectives in this context is making the app easy to navigate and easy to use.

This involves creation of the following:

  • A feature map which is a top-level breakdown of the app’s key features.
  • User flows are charts and workflows that demonstrate the user’s journey.
  • Wireframes are a basic layout of each screen and the app’s overall structure.

Step 3 – Designing the user interface

Using the brand guidelines, the designer is able to generate some style concepts for designing the user interface (UI). They will help give the company and the relevant people and idea of what the final visual design would look like.

Afterwards, they create a style guide for the app that contains all the main elements e.g. fonts, colors, buttons, and so on.

Then they combine the wireframes and style guide in creation of a highly-accurate mockup. This is close to the final design. Also, the app development company’s management can provide feedback to the design and development team (including client feedback) to get the necessary alterations made.

Step 4 – Making prototypes

In the end, the designer creates a highly-accurate prototype that is clickable, workable and checkable. This gives everyone at the app development company the chance to see both the visual and user experience (UX) in real-time and hence providing another round of the needed feedback for amendments.

During the phase of making prototypes, companies and their teams also have the opportunity to test the mobile application for themselves. They can also put it through further user research and testing. If there is any alteration they can make to the design, they can do so but if and only if it is necessary.

Designing for Mobile Devices in Comparison to the Web or Desktop

There are some key differences between designing a mobile app in comparison to a website or a desktop based application software. These facts need to be kept in mind as they impact the usability of any app. If any of them go wrong, users will be angered and will drop the app in the trash can.

Here are the key differentiating factors between a desktop application, a website and a mobile app:

  • Differences in screen sizes.
  • Various orientations of screens.
  • Difference of navigation and input.
  • Environment of usage.