During mobile app development, much focus needs to be on how the product actually looks. This means using mobile app development companies with designers capable of building creative and professional User Experience (UX) designs.
Don’t just assume that a coding masterpiece will guarantee your app is successful. If your mobile app design fails, it results in fewer downloads, bad ratings (causing even fewer downloads), and a lower value per acquired user.
The worst scenario exists when you’re marketing to your current audience. You may have tailored leads, expected to convert, but a poor design means a bad UX. This won’t get you anywhere, and it may even tarnish your brand’s image.
What an Eye-Catching Mobile App Needs
Any Android or iOS app development job is incomplete without an eye-catching design. Think of it as a “theme,” consisting of the visualization of various elements. From color scheme to typography, once the design schematics are figured out, it will be easy to add pages to your app.
An app designer has many responsibilities, but building the brand’s identity within the app might be the most important one. Your app might take a similar theme as your website, or it could be completely different. If you want it to grow, the best bet is a stand-alone branding design that’s not just a mobile version of your site’s UI.
Take it a step further by incorporating Interaction Design, creating visualizations and effects that result in a user action. This could mean anything — maybe you made a sale, earned a Facebook share, etc.
If done right, you can offer real value to the users. With the addition of app notifications and updates, you can further optimize the app to convert. It can be tricky, and even notifications require custom design efforts.
Some unique things you can do with the right design efforts include:
- Obtain shopping wish lists, such as by tracking Likes in the app
- Run notifications via the calendar app to make it stand out
- Require a confirmation before the app gets deleted
- Push notifications whenever an enhancement is made to the UX
Basically, you can send out notifications and app update requests when a big enough change is done. It will be like A/B testing your website; you can see the difference in the two versions, and how they perform for you.
Designing for Android vs. Apple
iOS app development typically involves Swift programming (similar to Objective-C), while Android app development takes AngularJS, JavaScript, jQuery and even PHP. There are many other languages as well, so the best app developers tend to have a vast programming background.
There are also different platform standards, whether you’re designing an Android or Apple application. You can learn more about platform-specific application design standards by reading the Android app guidelines and the iOS app guidelines.
For Android, it’s increasingly important to grasp Material Design, which has many great features — including Cards, Lists and even “touch feedback” animations. With cards, for example, you have fast delivery of small content. To detract from the one-page website feel, you can use drop shadows and outside gutters. This won’t go so well for an iPhone app design. In this case, you’re better off using depth of transparency and overlay to accomplish the same look. “A Tale of Two Platforms: Designing for Both Android and iOS” explains this subject well.
Many big brands will benefit from releasing a mobile app. Smaller companies aren’t in as good a position, since the apps needs to be heavily marketed. However, if your company has a following, it can be easy to turn your creation into a hit in the app stores. All your company has to do is prove itself worthy to your core audience. This means you’ll have to plan out the best app design strategy and have the top app developers bring it to life.
