Getting Started With Mobile App Design: A Beginner’s Guide

The demand for mobile app design and development is rapidly increasing. After all, more and more people find mobile apps more convenient to use than web browsers. Thus, it’s not surprising why many businesses are now investing in mobile app development, as well as promoting exclusivity, ease of access, and engagement. So, what are the things you need to know about mobile application design and development?

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A Beginner’s Guide To Mobile App Design

Here are some key points that you need to know if you want to start learning mobile application design:

Prioritizing Performance And Usability

First, what is a mobile app design? This term refers to making a mobile app look good, functional, and user-friendly. Mobile app design considers the user interface (UI), which is the app’s look and feel, and user experience (UX), which is the app’s impact on users or how easy it is for the user to accomplish a task (searching, buying, etc.) using the app.

Get started with design mobile applications by prioritizing performance and usability. Once you achieve these two factors, expect your mobile app to appeal to more users. This is because it’s easy to use, error-free, fast, and user-friendly. Here are some tips to ensure top mobile app performance and usability:

Brainstorm With Your Team: Get some insights starting from your team. While you probably have some ideas in mind, it’s still worthwhile to know other people’s insights, especially from a mobile app designer’s perspective.
Set Your Goals And Requirements: During the brainstorming phase, you can already set your goals and requirements and finalize them later. What will be the main function, features, and benefits of your mobile app?
Work With Mobile App Professionals: Achieve your goals by outsourcing and working with mobile app design professionals. These people have the knowledge, skills, and expertise that can help you achieve optimum performance and usability for your mobile app. For example, if you’re running a business in Hong Kong or wherever you’re located, you may consider outsourcing mobile app development services from countries like Eastern Europe. And if you want to know the reason why you may check online and find a great post to read about this matter. Remember, you can save time if you hire a mobile app designer who can deliver quality results, which can make your app gain a positive reception during its launch.

Deciding On The Mobile Platform

Do you want to design a mobile app for Android phones or iOS? While you can do both, working on one platform first will reduce confusion and ease the workload. Android and iOS are popular operating systems (OS) that apps and mobile device functionalities are based on.

It’s crucial to understand the advantages and disadvantages of your chosen OS before designing your mobile app. Regardless of which one you’ll make a mobile app for, you need to consider the following features of your app:

Goal-driven: Keep your mobile app design goal-driven and straightforward. Determine your priorities to avoid overwhelming both your app design and users. For instance, if you want users to use your app for shopping, then ensure that the shopping cart function is easy to use and your app has a seamless checkout process. If your mobile app is intended for rewards, dedicate a page showing the step-by-step instructions on how a user can redeem rewards or what your rewards point system includes.
Flow: The best mobile apps have a logical flow. Avoid fluff, overcrowding, and clutter by using negative or white space (empty space), a good number of images and other graphics, and directional cues, like calls-to-action (CTAs).

Readability: Because mobile devices tend to have smaller screens than laptops and desktop computers, it’s important to keep them readable. Consider using the proper font size and style (typography) suitable for your topic and business niche.
Intuitive: When mobile users download and install your app on their smartphone, tablet, or any other mobile device, they expect it to behave intuitively like how other apps behave in a similar OS. So, you have to be familiar with OS-specific design rules. Otherwise, users will likely delete your app.

Mobile App Design Tools To Use

UI and UX can make or break your mobile app. That’s why your app should be able to deliver an excellent user experience. This significantly affects user engagement, prospects (conversion rates), and return on investment (ROI).

You can choose from plenty of phone app design tools to sketch a mobile app, otherwise known as ‘wireframes,’ and create a sample version of the final design or ‘prototype.’ Check the following mobile app design tools essential to the mobile app development process:

Sketch: This is a vector-based mobile app design tool that focuses on-screen design. Use Sketch in creating user interfaces for various mobile devices. This tool is easy to use, enabling novice and seasonal designers to focus on designing with less hassle.
Adobe XD: This intuitive program also offers a fast and easy way to design and create prototype mobile apps, allowing you to share user interfaces. With just a click, you can switch from designing to prototyping. By dragging wires between artboards and converting wireframes into interactive prototypes. Adobe XD is perfect for collaborative projects, as it can securely share projects among mobile app developers for faster feedback and production.

Mobile App Prototyping

Prototyping involves turning your sketches or wireframes into a working app. Mockups and prototypes are usually performed after working on the wireframes. Prototypes are essential in presentations to the client or stakeholder so you can get approval for the final mobile app design.

Mockups and prototyping can be effortless if you’re using the same tool with both wireframing and designing an app. For instance, UXPin integrates with Sketch, including ways you can illustrate wireframes with more detailed information needed by the development team, which eliminates the guesswork. Finalizing your mobile app design is the best time to build a library of assets, such as icons, standard buttons, and other elements useful in a mobile app.

Mobile App Development

Congratulations! You’ve made your mobile app design. It’s now time to hand the wireframe over to the development team. While designers are responsible for delivering visual assets such as icons, logos, fonts, and backgrounds, developers make the design work.

Conclusion

You now have an idea of how to design an app works. First, you need to brainstorm with your team and develop the best ideas. This is to ensure you’ll be creating a top-performing and functional design. Work on one platform or OS at a time, and use the right tools for efficiency. Once you have sketches or wireframes, you can proceed to mockups and prototyping or finalizing the mobile app design. Finally, you can hand over your design to the development team to make your mobile app design work.