Embrace change or become a Design-O-Saur -- Design tips for your mobile app

  Mark  Wilston    August 28, 2012    2445

 

 

Creating a functional mobile app is simple with some tools and programming skills, but only functional mobile app is not enough at this point when around 1300K other apps (only counting the apps of app store and Google Play) are already available out there. So to make your app stand out in a crowd, it must be featured not only functional.

Here in this post, we’ll provide some design tips through which you can get to know the secret of successful mobile applications.
                                    
Design Responsively
Handhold devices are available in the market with various screen sizes, and making an app look  great across hundreds of devices with different combinations of screen size, pixel density is what makes it acceptable. So choosing a particular size is really a difficult task, but couple of factors are there on the basis of which you can finalize the one:
  • Targeted audience
  • Purpose of application
If you are not sure about the size of the screen your audience might prefer, better design something universal, as strategies are available there for coping with the diversity of the platform such as using fluid layouts that can stretch and compress as per the resolution of the screen.


Design For People
The prime factor which must be kept under consideration while creating an mobile app is neither the idea nor the platform, it's the audience for whom you are designing the application. Consider the variety of audience that is going to use that application as defining the targeted audience is half the battle won.

Create your app after imagining the daily routine of your audience – is this app really gonna help them in their day-to-day life? How audience can relate their daily life with your product? Once you start thinking like this, you may come to know the important features missed by your product as defining the audience on terms of their lifestyle is more relevant than defining them on terms of technology.


Design Structurally
The goal is to make the navigation simple and easy for the users. Large number of options can make your users frustrated. So to prevent users from frustration, design an app with user-friendly interface. Keep options in general categories so that user can experience a easy, simple and better navigation menu.


Design Dynamic Content
Dynamic content is the visuals you would show to users when they’re stuck due to lost Internet connection and slow downloading speed. Dealing with such kind of challenges with animations is a great way, as they can keep users distracted when they are supposed to wait and can keep them away from frustration.

Design With Minimum Work
Too much functionality in your mobile app can make its structure very deep, so it's better to display only the content and controls that are necessary for the user at that time as more functional display can confusing for the users. Better to include only core functionality in your mobile application so that essential functions can be used more easily.

Summing Up

Designing a mobile application includes so many big and small factors. Above mentioned design tips are those that are must to keep in mind while designing a mobile application. Screen orientation and font used also need proper designer attention as they are must for an application to perform properly in both landscape & portrait mode and switch between them.

This post is contributed by PixelCrayons, a renowned name in web and mobile application development. You may hire professional iPhone developers and Android developers here.

 Article keywords:
mobile app, design tips

 


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