The Best App Design Tips to Create a Killer App

Designing an app can be an overwhelming process, so it’s natural to seek out some app design tips. Developing an app can be extremely beneficial for your business. It can help your branding, improve customer service, and act as a marketing tool. With all the benefits an app can bring you, you want to ensure that you’ve designed the best app possible to represent your company. Keep these app design tips in mind as you start the app development process and you’ll be sure to have an awesome app on your hands!

App Design Tips:

 Remember Your Medium

Designing a website isn’t the same as designing an app. Navigation of an app will be totally different than a website, as will the data capabilities. So when you’re designing your app, remember to separate that design from your web design. Your customers won’t be accessing the app from a computer, so take that into consideration when designing the app. Often, they’ll only be using one hand to navigate through the app, so the design should reflect that. Screen space will be restricted; therefore, content will need to be more compact.

Be User Conscious

Although smartphones can do a lot, they are still restricted in many ways. Work to build an app that doesn’t actively drain a user’s battery life, or they’ll quickly grow annoyed. An app that minimises the strain on a user’s phone is your best bet for a successful launch. In the same vein, think about the amount of data your app will take up. I’m sure we’ve all had the pop-up telling us that our storage is full and we need to start deleting some things ASAP. If your app takes up a lot of data and storage space, it could be the first to go. Ensure that your app performs all the functions it must, but don’t go overboard and risk deletion.

Think About Appearance

As far as app design tips go, this may seem obvious, but it bears saying. If your app is going to include call-to-action buttons, then think about the colouring and placement. Colour hierarchy is important and can help denote what is most important on a page; this principle works the same in a mobile app. As far as appearance goes, you also want to ensure that your app doesn’t look dated. Just like with websites, apps that look too old won’t seem legitimate or trustworthy. You’re investing a lot of time and money into developing an app; you want to create one that looks good for the user.

Stick to OS Guidelines

Different systems have different design guidelines, so make sure you’re sticking to them, lest your app be penalised. Research what types of apps do and do not make onto the major app stores. Read and follow all user interface guidelines for each operating system when developing your app. It would be a shame to go through the trouble of developing an app only to find out that it doesn’t meet certain criteria.

Test and Then Test Again

One of the most important app design tips: the prototype. Create fully interactive prototypes to test your app before launching. This will help your development team better understand the app and work out any issues it may have before it’s available to the public. On the same note, bring in users to find out their opinions. This could be done at several stages in the development process. At the beginning, talk to real-life users to see what features do and do not matter to them. By doing this at the beginning of the process, you can save time and resources by figuring out what’s important from the get-go.

Users can also be brought in to test the app prototype. They can provide feedback and what’s working and what needs to be fixed. Doing this as the app is developed will help ensure that it’s up to snuff before being launched in an app store.

What Makes a Good App

Ultimately, an app needs to be intuitive and user friendly. A good user experience is essential to good app design, so ensure that the app is providing a service to the customer. Consider the unique medium that a mobile app provides and make sure your app reflects that uniqueness. At the end of the day, create a user friendly app that provides a helpful service to your customers and you’ll be sure to see success.