Mobile App UI Design Best Practices

Mobile applications have become mainstream – a preferred way to sell products and services online, deliver content and connect with the audience. But a Fortune research reveals that over 75 percent of smartphone users open an app once and never return.

Today, user expectations have evolved drastically when it comes to UI & UX of mobile applications. Customers are not only looking for a visually appealing app but it should also be functional at the same time.

In order to meet customer demands and stay ahead of the competitive curve, app makers need to ensure the following:

• Quick load time
• Ease of access
• Intuitive app navigation
• Brand presence on various digital channels
• Quick response to customer queries
• Delighting customers during interaction
• Social media integration

While all these aspects are imperative, adapting to the context of use and minimizing the interaction levels is increasingly becoming a norm when leveraging mobile app front end development solutions. So, how can you design a great mobile user interface (UI) experience for your app users? Let’s take a look at the following mobile UI design best practices to get it right the first time.

The rules of interaction design are applicable to every mobile app, even if it has less screen space. A good interaction design is based on the following five pillars to create usable mobile user interface design:

• Goal-driven design – The aim is to create app design for the right users. Conduct user research through interviews and surveys. This will help you create user personas which further aids in creating specific user goals and tailoring your app workflow to meet user demands.
• Usability – Your app needs to be usable. If your users cannot use your app with ease, it is likely that they won’t download it. Usability is the prime most step in making your product desirable.
• Affordance and Signifiers – An affordance is a function while signifiers serve as signs that indicate affordances. For instance, red, underlined text or keyword indicates a user that clicking on it will direct them to another page. Using a signifier correctly will help users understand what a UI element does.
• Learnability – A user would expect to instinctively know how to use the user interface. This is where design pattern comes into the picture. Using familiar design patterns will help users get easily acquainted with your app.
• Feedback and Response Time – Feedback is essential to let users know if a task was completed or not. A feedback can either be a simple beep or a complex model window.

These five fundamentals will help you design any type of interaction, whether it’s for a native or hybrid application.

Disparate screen sizes and users are two major constraints in mobile app design. The first step in creating an interactive design is to know your users. Here are three key tactics to understanding your users and their needs:

• User Personas – Personas are basically fictional characters constructed from the expected behavior of your potential users. They help you determine what will impact users’ decision when using your app.
• User Scenarios – Scenarios give insight into how personas will act upon using your app. It lets you build a UI that suits user needs and goals they want to achieve.
• Experience Map – This lets you map the steps that personas will likely take when using your app. It allows you to explore all possible conditions, comprehend emotions and situations that surround a single interaction.

Performing this exercise upfront can save you the headaches down the usability and user testing road.

When designing actionable components for mobile app interfaces, make sure you pay attention to finger-friendly design. Fingers are thicker compared to pixel-precise mouse pointers. Therefore, it’s important to design touch targets big enough for users to tap with their fingertips. As a thumb rule, design tap targets that have touch area of 7 to 10 mm so it is easier for users to tap. It will also display the edges of the tap target which helps users to identify whether or not they are tapping the right target. Also, make sure the tap targets are not placed really close to each other – they must have enough amount of space between them to avert false input.

To conclude, the app users focus on their goals, not interfaces. As a result, you must strive to build interactive interfaces that suits their needs, while mixing it with your own creative ideas for exceptional outcomes and user experiences. The UI team at Rishabh Software can help you design a friction-free, engaging mobile app interface conforming with the standard mobile design best practices. Share your mobile app design requirements with us now.