UI/UX Design Archives - Page 3 of 5

How Can AI Be Used to Improve User Experience in Mobile Apps?

Posted on 30/10/202012/06/2021 by Tushar

Imagining Artificial Intelligence in situations and use cases where there are a massive number of data in picture makes perfect sense. But what happens when the situation is entirely based on human discretion? Will an artificial intelligence user experience design would also be able to do what AI did to several other industry verticals?

Designing, almost in all its different forms is driven by keeping the human part of process at a much higher ground than the analytical and data driven side. While there are some domains like CAD design or Product Design that leaves some space open for machine learning to enter, when the design form in question is mobile app design, the gap seems to become negligible.

However, Artificial Intelligence, like a number of other industries have found a place in the Mobile App Design vertical as well, giving birth to the concept of artificial intelligence user interface design. A concept that is ought to bring a new level to the relationship between artificial intelligence and customer experience.

While, the answer to whether machine would replace designers is next to impossible, there are ways that the designer community has started taking AI user experience together in their journey to designing memorable mobile apps in multiple ways, like –

Getting time-taking manual works like image resizing automated
Making designs localized by taking help of AI based translation
Bring system consistency between users and products
Give insights into which elements are users interacting with, which needs attention

This participation that the deisgning industry is witnessing coming in from the AI driven UI domain is something that is showing to have a huge impact on the industry’s present, while paving the way to a world where AI and the future of design is much better linked.

Now that we have seen the impact that AI carries on Mobile app Design and how it is soon becoming one of the proven tips to enhance mobile app design, the next step is to look at the principles that guide their unison in the domain of designing AI experiences

The Guiding Principles that Combine Mobile App Design with Machine Learning

Develop a Shared Language

Elements like user experience review, product vision, and business goals are something that needs to be understood and shared by the complete team. You would only be able to create a meaningful and truly intelligent user experience if the mobile app design and machine learning development methods complement each other through shared concepts and common language. The machine learning experts and user experience designers should come together to develop a common blueprint which includes data pipelines and user interfaces, with the aim to set a blueprint that grounds the team’s product planning with the users’ reality.

Focus on Use Case

The important thing when developing a consumer facing app, as the top software designers would tell you, is not the technology that backs it but the business goal and the user experience that you plan on achieving. And so, it is extremely important that you crystallize the use case. With a separate focus on the use case, you can then put your intricate attention on the user flow, which then allows the team to identify the main points where machine learning can be added to enhance the experience.

A clear understanding of the use case also enable teams of the mobile app design company to determine the right KPI for the development of user experience program, which in turn is aligned with machine learning metrics.

Mix Quantitative and Qualitative Data

In order to understand the true impact of combining the machine learning solution and user experience design, it is important that both qualitative and quantitative data is considered. You should make use of qualitative research methods like questionnaires, interviews, etc to measure how the users are experiencing your app.

The reason why we are emphasizing on using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data is because when designing a new app, it is possible that you meet unexpected factors that affect machine learning developmant and user experience. Factors like: Effectiveness of feedback loop, ability of data point capturing intention and user behaviour, which are must to know parts of Artificial Intelligence app design can best be answered only after a deep consideration of both the data types.

Bring Your Combined Data to Real Life Setting

How do you make sure that machine learning is actually used to develop comprehensible and fluent user experience? By setting up an end to end solution that shows how machine learning and user experience fit together in real world. An MVP that includes the working data pipeline along with the machine learning models makes it easy to iterate the AI assisted design together and helps in getting a direct feedback from the users via beta or user testing.

When both UX designers and Machine Learning experts of your partnered AI app development company share the understanding of product design issues, iteration is productive and fast. While on the other hand, user experience designers become aware of possibilities that surrounds machine learning: when it can be used to improve the user experience and how.

Be Transparent About Collecting Data

Designing for AI and with it, needs a constant effort and for it to be absolutely on point, it is important that you give a special focus to the data you have collected. It is very important to consider the end user side in this cycle of collect data – convert data into information – iterate design. Tell users that their data is being used to feed the AI and give them the option to alter the collected information in a way that the best context comes through. In addition to giving users the option to change what data is collected by the AI, you should also give them the option to change what the AI learns – to ensure that the predictions are what the users desire.

While these principles that we just saw help in giving some clarity into how the combined AI and UX design should function, let us look at how some of the famous designing and editing tools that are backed by the developers community across the globe are using the technology to offer better mobile app user experience.

Tools That Use Artificial Intelligence for Design

Tailor Brands

The Tailor Brands logo maker is a famous product used by businesses to get professional logo in a small budget. The AI designs are built upon with your input coming in form of information that would be entered in logo.

Adobe Photoshop

The Select Subject functionality that Photoshop offers make use of AI for memorizing the shape, and then shifting, changing, and editing them with much ease. The tool works on an internal AI system known as Sensei that enables changing backgroungds by recognizing the different subjects in the image.

Prisma and Deepart

Both the famous image editing tools/AI design software make use of artificial intelligence for identify the different aspects of your video and photo and transforming them in a style of your choosing. They give you the option to work around filters and colours among other things.

Let’s Enhance

One of the most frequently arising issues in the designing industry is low quality images. Let’s enhance, powered by AI improves the quality of images using three filters. Anti-JPEF filter converts image to high quality PNG while Boring filter scales up image to around 4 times without any compromise on the image quality. Magic, the third filter allows you to add detailing inside the image. Making Artificial Intelligence a primary part of the Mobile App Design process is something that comes packaged with several add on factors that have to be considered to ensure that that User Interface and User Experience is intact.

And this in turn is not an easy process.

Packaging your app’s user experience with Artificial Intelligence in a way that the whole process gets translated into Artificial Intelligence design patterns calls for a lot of homework, which in itself is heavily dependent on the information that the users provide with consent.

If you are just starting with making your designs smarter, there are some UI patterns that would help you start on the intelligent journey.

A. Criteria Sliders

A number of apps use machine learning algorithms to predict an outcome or pass recommendations. A criteria slider comes in handy here for it helps userss adjust and then fine tune recommendations on the basis of criteria that is meaningful to them. Here, you will have to ensure that the criteria that the users are manipulating with is mapped correctly to data which the machine is using in algorithms.

B. Like and Dislike Button

A simple like and dislike button help better the user experience that someone shares inside the application. Wwhen you ask users to feed in their experience even through a simple like and dislike button, you give them the option to not just build upon the recommendation system but also give feedback on what they don’t like and why.

C. Confidence Inducing Tips

More often than not, users not just not know how the whole prediction and artificial system works, but also they don’t know how much confidence they can place in the system. When you ask users to feed in their data or answer questions in return of something – better matched clothes choice, next show to follow option, etc. The confidence quotient increases even more when you give users the result and let them approve or disapprove it. Doing this makes your users in charge of the charge – something that automatically instills confidence in the app.

D. Give them an In and Out Option

Not all users would want to feed in data for you to fetch and feed in the artificial intelligent system or even want to take the smart route. So, give them the option to opt in and out of the smart options as and when it suits them. Doing this, they would not just have a more positive outlook towards your app but also, knowing that they have an out option, they will be more willing to add in their data in the future.

Now that you have seen the ways AI powered UX is impacting the app design industry, the guiding principles of designing for AI, tools that are already using AI, and the UI patterns that you should add in your design manifesto to make your users open to the idea of AI, there is only one last thing left to do.

And that last thing is to make AI an active part of your mobile app design process. Let our team of UI/UX designers help you with that.

Wonders of CSS3

Posted on 28/10/202014/05/2021 by Anteelo Master

Wonders of CSS3

How your site feels and looks to its visitors is a huge determinant of the user experience (UX) offered on it. Site developers and designers leave no stones unturned to make their website’s style and design line up with its utility and functionality to give it a comprehensive look and make it practical. The most crucial decision amongst this is the successful utilization of CSS and its features.

Since its previous version, CSS3 has taken a giant leap and emerged as one of the most brilliant technological advances in the web design industry. With CSS3, internet browsers locally produce plenty of styling effects that were once just feasible through inventive HTML hacks and editing software like Photoshop. What’s extraordinary about CSS3 is that it’s exceptionally amazing at lessening the requirement of pictures and code that you previously had to put on your site as a significant aspect of your structure. This implies decreased server requests and loading time for your website. This article talks about some of the most striking CSS3 features, which will help you to augment the feel and aesthetics of your project effortlessly

Features of CSS3

1. Advanced Animations

We can utilize both Transition and Animation when it is required to change a component starting with one state moving/transitioning onto the next. The thing that matters is that animation can be comprised of numerous states, giving command over its animation. These animations are now available and compatible with all browsers. There are two different ways to make CSS animations. The first is simple; it is done through animating the progressions of CSS properties with the transition assertion. With transitions, you can make float or mouse down effects, or you can trigger the animation by changing the style of a component with JavaScript.

The second route for characterizing animations is more complex- it includes the portrayal of specific moments of the animation along with the code. This enables you to have recurring animations that don’t rely upon user activities or JavaScript to get activated.

2. Multiple Backgrounds & Gradient

With multiple backgrounds, creators can accomplish extremely intriguing impacts. They can stack various pictures as backgrounds of a component. Each picture (or layer) can be moved and animated effortlessly. CSS3 features also include the provision of having gradients in the background. Gradients enable website specialists to make smooth advances between hues without turning to pictures. CSS gradients likewise look extraordinary on retina displays, since they are created the moment the page loads. They can be straight or outspread and can be set to repeat.

3. Multiple Column layout

This CSS3 feature incorporates properties to enable web designers to display their content in multiple sections with alternatives like column-width, column-gap, and column-count. Column-based formats were previously hard to pull off in CSS. It normally included utilizing JavaScript or server-side processing that parts the content into various components. This is superfluously convoluted and wastes valuable development time. Luckily, presently there is a route around this by utilizing the CSS columns rule.

4. Opacity

This property can make components more transparent. You could approach setting the opacity of a picture in a picture manager or photo editing software, and afterward, save it as a .png or .gif document with opacity enabled. Or on the other hand, you could simply get this done with a single line of code in CSS. It’s up to you. The opacity ranges from 0 (totally transparent) to 1 (totally opaque).

5. Rounded Corner:

Greatly utilized by the social media giant Twitter, this CSS3 feature is already very renowned on the web. Rounded corner components can tidy up a site, however, making a rounded corner requires a web designer to compose a great deal of code. Modifying the stature, width, and location of these components is an endless task in light of the fact that any adjustment in content can break them. CSS 3 tends to simplify this issue by presenting the rounded corner property, which gives you the equivalent rounded corner impact, and you don’t need to compose all the code. Truly, rounded corners simply look more appealing and easy to use than square boxes. The best part currently is, you can apply this effect to HTML components with CSS3. That is the reason why you’ll discover rounded corners all over the web.

6. Selectors

Selectors enable the web designer to choose on increasingly precise degrees of the website page. They are basic pseudo-classes that perform halfway-matches to assist in coordinating with crediting and trait esteems. New selectors focus on a pseudo-class to style the components focused on the URL. Selectors likewise incorporate a checked pseudo-class to style checked components, for example, checkboxes and radio buttons.

CONCLUSION

Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3) is a version of the CSS standard utilized in the styling and designing of Web pages. CSS3 features fuse the CSS2 standard with certain progressions and upgrades. CSS3 is a fantastic asset for Web creators. From the time CSS3 has been presented, there has been a superior control over the exhibition of content on a site. Regardless of where we choose to utilize our programming capacities, it will be seen that web advances are really basic and important to take advantage of on each stage. Give CSS3 a try and utilize it in case you’re making a site. Mess around with it. You’ll find it very intriguing to work with its cutting edge features while also sparing yourself a great deal of time that you would have otherwise spent to make precisely the same thing in a photo editing software.

With a new feature of CSS3’s modularized specification, it has further eased out the process for browser developers as it permits them to support incremental modules without doing any heavy modifications or refactoring of the browsers’ codebases. This concept of modularization makes it much simpler and faster to implement individual CSS3 modules.

How to Integrate AI and Machine Learning into Your Existing App

Posted on 28/10/202012/06/2021 by Tushar

When we talk about the present, we don’t realize that we are actually talking about yesterday’s future. And one such futuristic technology to talk about is how to implement ML and how to add AI to your app. Your next seven minutes will be spent on learning what is the role of Machine learning and Artificial intelligence in the mobile app development industry and what you can do to take advantage of it.

The time of generic services and simpler technologies is long gone and today we’re living in a highly machine-driven world. Machines which are capable of learning our behaviors and making our daily lives easier than we ever imagined possible, all the way, making it necessary for us to understand the process of integrating Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence into apps.

Technological realm today is fast-paced enough to quickly switch between Brands and Apps and technologies if one happens to not justify their needs in the first five minutes of using it. This is also a reflection upon the competition this fast pace has led to. Mobile app development companies simply cannot afford to be left behind in the race of forever evolving technologies.

Today, if we see, there is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning incorporated in almost every mobile application we choose to use. Which makes it all the more important to know How to integrate machine learning and artificial intelligence in mobile apps.

For instance, our food delivery app will show us the restaurants which deliver the kind of food we like to order, our on-demand taxi applications show us the real-time location of our rides, time management applications tell us what is the most suitable time to complete a task and how to prioritize our work.

In fact, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning that were once considered top complicated technology to work on or even comprehend is something that has become an everyday part of our lives without even use realizing of its presence. A proof of which is the following functionalities offered by the top brand apps.

The wide inclusion of the two related technologies has made the need for worrying over simple, even complicated things cease to exist because our mobile applications and our smartphone devices are doing that for us.

The below provided stats will show us that ML and AI powered mobile apps are a leading category among funded startups and businesses.

Allied Market Research has predicted that the market for ML will reach $5,537 million in 2023 further demonstrating its growing prevalence.
According to the 2019 CIO Survey by Gartner, the number of companies implementing AI technologies in some form has grown by 270% in the past years.
According to Microsoft, 44% of organisations fear they’ll lose out to startups if they’re too slow to implement AI.
Research by Fortune Business Insights predicts that $117.19 billion is the expected value of the global machine learning market by 2027 at a CAGR of 39.2% during the forecast period.
The Wall Street Journal, states that the advancements in AI and machine learning have the potential to increase global GDP by 14% from, now until 2030.

The idea behind any kind of business is to make profits and that can only be done when they gain new users and retain their old users. The difficult task can be made easy through AI as it comes as one of the benefits or advantages of integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence in apps.

Ways To Implement AI and ML

There are three primal ways through which the power of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence can be incorporated in mobile apps to make the application more efficient, sound, and intelligent. The ways which are also the answer to how to add AI and ML to your app.

Reasoning

AI and ML are two proficient technologies that imbibe the power of reasoning for solving problems. Applications like Uber or Google Maps that are used by individuals to travel to different areas, many times change the course or route based on the traffic conditions. This is where AI works – by harnessing its thinking capacities. This facility is what makes AI beat a human at chess and how Uber makes use of automated reasoning for optimizing routes to get the users to reach their destination faster.

Hence, real-time quick decisions are presently being controlled by AI to provide the best customer service.

Recommendation

As you are familiar with OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and others; the streaming features of these platforms acquire a large number of customers with high rates of user trust and retention. Both Netflix and Amazon have implemented AI and ML into their applications that examine the customer’s decision based on age, gender, location, and their preferences. The technology based on the customer’s choices then suggests the most popular alternatives in their watch playlist or that individuals with similar tastes have watched.

Giving the users insight into what they would require next has turned out to be the secret of success of some of the top brands in the world – Amazon, Flipkart, Netflix, amongst others have been using the Artificial Intelligence backed power for a very long time now. This is an amazingly popular technology for streaming services and is currently being executed into numerous other applications.

Behavioral

Learning how the user behaves in the app can help Artificial Intelligence set a new border in the world of security. Every time someone tries to take your data and try to impersonate any online transaction without your knowledge, the AI system can track the uncommon behavior and stop the transaction there and then.

These three primal bases that answer what are the best ways to incorporate machine learning and AI in application development can be used in multiple capacities to enable your app to offer a lot better customer experience.

And now that we have looked at how to integrate AI in android apps along with integration of ML, let us answer the why?

Why should you integrate machine learning and AI into your mobile app?

Why to Integrate Machine Learning and AI Into Your Mobile App?

Personalization

Any AI algorithm attached to your simpleton mobile application can analyze various sources of information from social media activities to credit ratings and provide recommendations to every user device. Machine learning application development can be used to learn:

Who are your customers?
What do they like?
What can they afford?
What words they’re using to talk about different products?

Based on all of this information, you can classify your customer behaviors and use that classification for target marketing. To put simply, ML will allow you to provide your customers and potential customers with more relevant and enticing content and put up an impression that your mobile app technologies with AI are customized especially for them.

To look at a few AI ML examples of big brands who are setting standards on how to implement Machine Learning in apps?

Taco Bell as a TacBot that takes orders, answers questions and recommends menu items based on your preferences.
Uber uses ML to provide an estimated time of arrival and cost to its users.
ImprompDo is a Time management app that employs ML to find a suitable time for you to complete your tasks and to prioritize your to-do list
Migraine Buddy is a great healthcare app which adopts ML to forecast the possibility of a headache and recommends ways to prevent it.
Optimize fitness is a sports app which incorporates an available sensor and genetic data to customize a highly individual workout program.

Advanced search

Through the AI and Machine learning based app development process, you will get an app that lets you optimize search options in your mobile applications. AI and Machine Learning makes the search results more intuitive and contextual for its users. The algorithms learn from the different queries put by customers and prioritize the results based on those queries.

In fact, not only search algorithms, modern mobile applications allow you to gather all the user data including search histories and typical actions. This data can be used along with the behavioral data and search requests to rank your products and services and show the best applicable outcomes.

Upgrades, such as voice search or gestural search can be incorporated for a better performing application.

Predicting user behavior

The biggest advantage of AI based machine learning app development for marketers is that they get an understanding of users’ preferences and behavior patterns by inspection of different kinds of data concerning the age, gender, location, search histories, app usage frequency, etc. This data is the key to improving the effectiveness of your application and marketing efforts.

Amazon’s suggestion mechanism and Netflix’s recommendation works on the same principle that ML aids in creating customized recommendations for each individual.

And not only Amazon and Netflix but mobile apps such as Youbox, JJ food service, and Qloo entertainment adopt ML to predict the user preferences and build the user profile according to that.

More relevant ads

Many industry experts have exerted on this point that the only way to move forward in this never-ending consumer market can be achieved by personalizing every experience for every customer.

According to a report by The Relevancy group, 38% of executives are already using machine learning for mobile apps as a part of their Data Management Platform (DMP) for advertising.

With the help of integrating machine learning in mobile apps, you can avoid debilitating your customers by approaching them with products and services that they have no interest in. Rather you can concentrate all your energy towards generating ads that cater to each user’s unique fancies and whims.

Machine Learning app development companies today can easily consolidate data intelligently that will in return save time and money went into inappropriate advertising and improve the brand reputation of any company.

For instance, Coca-Cola is known for customizing its ads as per the demographic. It does so by having information about what situations prompt customers to talk about the brand and has, hence, defined the best way to serve advertisements.

Improved security level

Besides making a very effective marketing tool, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning for mobile apps can also streamline and secure app authentication. Features such as Image recognition or Audio recognition makes it possible for users to set up their biometric data as a security authentication step in their mobile devices. ML also aids you in establishing access rights for your customers as well.

Apps such as ZoOm Login and BioID have invested in ML and AI application development to allow users to use their fingerprints and Face IDs to set up security locks to various websites and apps. In fact, BioID even offers a periocular eye recognition for partially visible faces.

Now that we have looked at the different areas in which application of AI and ML can be incorporated in the mobile app, it is now time to look at the platforms which will make it possible, which we in our capacity has experienced AI app development company have been relying on, before we head on to the strategy that a business should devise to ensure a smooth implementation.

User engagement

The AI development services and solutions engage organizations to offer balanced customer support and a span of features. Few apps provide small incentives to the customers so that they utilize the application consistently. Also just for entertainment purposes, chatty AI assistants are there to help the users and hold a discussion at any hour.

Data mining

Data mining, also known as data discovery, includes analyzing the vast set of data to gather helpful information and collect it in different areas, including data warehouses and others. ML offers data algorithms that will generally improve automatically through experience based on information. It follows the way of learning new algorithms that make it quite simple to find associations inside the data sets and gather the data effortlessly.

Fraud detection

The cases of fraud are a worry for every industry, particularly banking and finance. To solve this problem, ML utilizes data analysis to limit loan defaults, fraud checks, credit card fraud, and more.

It also assists you with determining an individual’s capability to take care of a loan and the danger related with giving the loan. E-commerce apps frequently exploit ML to discover promotional discounts and offers.

Object and facial recognition

Facial recognition is the most loved and latest feature for the mobile apps. Facial recognition can help improve the security of your application while additionally making it faster to login. It also helps in securing the data from unknown sources.

With the improved security, facial recognition can be utilized by medical professionals to evaluate the health of patients by examining a patient’s face.

Best Platforms to Develop a Mobile App with Machine Learning?

1. Azure

Azure is a Microsoft cloud solution. Azure has a very large support community, and high-quality multilingual documents, and a high number of accessible tutorials. The programming languages of this platform are R and Python. Because of an advanced analytical mechanism, the AI app developers can create mobile applications with accurate forecasting capabilities.

2. IBM Watson

The main characteristic of using IBM Watson, is that it allows the developers to process user requests comprehensively regardless of the format. Any kind of data. Including voice notes, images or printed formats is analyzed quickly with the help of multiple approaches. This search method is not provided by any other platform than IBM Watson. Other platforms involve complex logical chains of ANN for search properties. The multitasking in IBM Watson places an upper hand in the majority of the cases since it determines the factor of minimum risk.

3. Tensorflow

Google’s open-source library, Tensor, allows AI application development companies to create multiple solutions depending upon deep machine learning which is deemed necessary to solve nonlinear problems. Tensorflow applications work by using the communication experience with users in their environment and gradually finding correct answers as per the requests by users. Although, this open library is not the best choice for beginners.

4. Api.ai

It is a platform that is created by the Google development team which is known to use contextual dependencies. This platform can be very successfully used to create AI based virtual assistants for Android and iOS. The two fundamental concepts that Api.ai depends on are – Entities and Roles. Entities are the central objects and Roles are accompanying objects that determine the central object’s activity. Furthermore, the creators of Api.ai have created a highly powerful database that strengthened their algorithms.

5. Wit.ai

Api.ai and Wit.ai have largely similar platforms. Another prominent characteristic of Wit.ai is that it converts speech files into printed texts. Wit.ai also enables a “history” feature which can analyze context-sensitive data and therefore, can generate highly accurate answers to user requests and this is especially the case of chatbots for commercial websites. This is a good platform for the creation of Windows, iOS or Android mobile applications with machine learning.

6. Amazon AI

The famous AI based platform is used to identify human speech, visual objects with the help of deep machine learning processes. The solution is completely adapted for the purpose of cloud deployment and thus allowing you to develop low complexity AI-powered mobile apps.

7. Clarifai

The solution based on AI analyzes information with the help of complicated and capacitive algorithms. The apps made using the platform (which can be integrated in-app using REST API) – can adapt to individual user experience – which makes it the most preferred choice for the developers who wish to invest in Artificial intelligence for app development to enter the world of intelligent assistants.

With this, you now know that the ways your mobile app can become an AI app and the tools that will help with Machine learning and AI app development. The next and the last and the most important part that we are going to discuss now is how to get started.

How to Start Implementation of AI into Apps?

Implementation of Artificial or Machine Learning in an application calls in for a monumental shift in the operation of an application that works sans intelligence.

This shift that is asked for by AI is what demands to look at pointers that are very different from what is needed when investing in the usual mobile app development process.

Here are the things that you will have to keep into consideration when managing an AI project:

Identify the issue to solve through AI

What works in case of applying AI in a mobile app, as we saw in the first illustration of the article is applying the technology in one process instead of multiple. When the technology is applied in a single feature of the application, it is much easier to not just manage but also to exploit to the best extent. So, identify which is that part of your application that would benefit from intelligence – is it recommendation? Would the technology help in giving a better ETA? – And then collect data specifically from that field.

Know your data

Before you look forward to AI app development, it is important to first get an understanding of where the data would come from. At the stage of data fetching and refinement, it would help to identify the platforms where the information would come from in the first place. Next, you will have to look at the refinement of the data – ensuring that the data you are planning to feed in your AI module is clean, non-duplicated, and truly informative.

Understand that APIs are not enough

The next big thing, when it comes to implementing AI in a mobile app is understanding that the more extensively you use it, the more unsound Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) would prove to be. While the APIs that we mentioned above are enough to convert your app into an AI app, they are not enough to support a heavy, full-fledged AI solution. The point is, the more you want a model to be intelligent, the more you will have to work towards data modeling – something that APIs solely cannot solve.

Set metrics that would help gauge AI’s effectiveness

There is hardly a point of having an AI or Machine Learning feature implemented in your mobile app until you also have the mechanism to measure its effectiveness – something which can only be drawn after getting an understanding of what exactly do you want it to solve. So, before you head out to implement AI or even ML in your mobile app, understand what you would like it to achieve.

Employ data scientists

The last most important point to consider is employing data scientists on either your payroll or invest in a mobile app development agency that has data scientists in their team. Data scientists will help you with all your data refining and management needs, basically, everything that is needed on a must-have level to stand and excel your Artificial Intelligence game.

This is the stage where you are now ready to implement the intelligence in your mobile application. Since we talked about data a lot in the last segment and because data is an inherent part of Artificial Intelligence, let us look at the solution of problems that can arise out of data as the parting note.

Feasibility and practical changes to make

Now that you have known the which, why and how about the implementation of AI and Machine Learning apps, you might have an idea regarding a plan in mind like what steps should be taken as a top priority and how your application would work/appear, once the changes are made. Along these lines, it is an ideal opportunity to perform a couple of checks prior to moving ahead, for example, –

Perform a quick possibility test to know if your future execution will profit your business, improve user experience and increase engagement. A fruitful upgrade is the one which could make the existing users and customers happy and attract more individual towards your product. If an update is not expanding your efficiency, then there is no reason for putting in effort and money for it.
Analyze if your current group can deliver what is required. If there is less or no internal team capacity then you need to hire new employees or outsource the work to a reliable and expert artificial intelligence development company.

Data integration and security

While implementing Machine Learning projects for mobile applications, your app will require a better information configuration model. Old data, which is composed in a different way, may influence the effectiveness of your ML deployment.

When it is decided what abilities and features will be added in the application, it is important to focus on data sets. Efficient and well organized data along with careful integration will help in providing your app with high-quality performance in the long run.

Security is another basic issue, which can’t be overlooked. To keep your application strong and secure, you need to think of the correct arrangement to integrate security implications, clinging to standards and the needs of your product.

Use strong supporting technological aids

You need to pick the right technology and digital solutions to back your application. Your data storing space, security tools, backup software, optimizing services, and so on should be strong and secure, to keep your app consistent. Without this, the drastic decrease in performance may occur.

Solutions to the Most Common Challenges in AI Technology?

Like any other technology, there is always a series of challenges attached to AI as well. The basic working principle behind machine learning is the availability of enough resource data as a training sample. And as a benchmark of learning, the size of training sample data should be large enough so as to ensure a fundamental perfection in the AI algorithm.

In order to avoid the risks of misinterpretation of visual cues or any other digital information by the machine or mobile application, the following are the various methods which can be used:

1. Hard sample mining

When a subject consists of several objects similar to the main object, the machine is ought to confuse between those objects if the sample size provided for analysis as the example if not big enough. Differentiating between different objects with the help of multiple examples is how the machine learns to analyze which object is the central object.

2. Data augmentation

When there is an image in question in which the machine or mobile application is required to identify a central image, there should be modifications made to the entire image keeping the subject unchanged, thereby enabling the app to register the main object in a variety of environments.

3. Data addition imitation

In this method, some of the data is nullified keeping only the information about the central object. This is done so that the machine memory only contains the data regarding the main subject image and not about the surrounding objects.

Concluding Thoughts

Now that you know the reasons and how to implement mobile apps, it is time to apply the top-notch performance and quality for AI and ML together to bring out the best in the application. AI and ML together are the future of advancement of mobile app development.

If you are still confused and want to clear your doubts, you can contact us. If you are looking to develop an app that is advancing with the time and technology and want to update your existing app with all the latest technology features, then you should partner with ML and AI development company that is well-adapted with the changing market needs. You can also opt for professional development providers in your area like AI development services USA or other regions. But make sure you choose the best to get quality results.

27 Prototyping Tools for Mobile App Design

Posted on 26/10/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

Everyone who is in one way or the other involved with the mobile app development process, understands the importance of prototyping.

A crucial part of any user interface design, mobile app prototype, is a representation of how an application would flow from one screen to other is something that cannot just come in handy for a team of mobile app prototype builders and designers looking to understand the mobile app idea but also prototypes come in handy when looking to raise funds for your app project.

What Is Mobile App Prototyping?

Prototyping is an essential part of the design process, as it lets you and your group review ideas and share feedback in the beginning of a project. Prototyping is a significant exercise which brings about perception of how the application will work by showing user flows and portraying a functioning layout and design.

A mobile app prototype shows how a product will work. There are numerous techniques for prototyping, yet in mobile application development, a prototype commonly begins with sketches or a paper interface that develops into an intuitive model, resembling the end result. The main motive behind a prototype is to convey a product’s design and route stream to increase the proficiency of development.

What Is a Rapid Prototyping Tool?

Rapid Prototyping Tools (RPT) is an authoring apparatus to help business analysts, designers and developers assemble and build web and mobile prototypes. This model permits customers to simulate the real world business experience. It assists with approving business necessities and essentially improves the visualization of the finished product.

Rapid prototyping’s popularity implies that there are all types of brilliant assets accessible for designers to explore. We’ve arranged some of our number one quick prototyping tools for developers and UI/UX designers to assist you with integrating the procedure into your work process or find some new tools to enable your programming and design practices.

Now that we have very slightly peeked into the benefits that mobile app prototyping offers – something that we would look into much details later, it is time to objectify the piece.

Well, the objective of this article today is to look at the different prototyping tools for UX/UI designers that will rule this year and for some time to come.

But before we start with the list of top mobile prototyping tools, let us first look into the features of prototyping tools that make for a good app UI prototyping tools.

What Are The Characteristics Of A Good Prototyping Tool?

1. Offer custom component library made especially for mobile

The mobile app prototype design tools that you use for your mobile app should make it easy to customize the component library according to the different mobile screens and app mood that your brand is planning to portray.

2. Output demo to mobile for making the preview of effect easy

The prototyping model you choose should make it possible for you to see the effect of every change that you are making on the prototype design straight in your mobile device.

3. Support mobile gesture functionality

The prototype model should give you the functionality to select your device so that you can design the prototype around the in-built gesture elements of the device.

4. Support transition animation in a switch of the mobile view

Animations have grown to be an important part of mobile app design company. So it is only appropriate that all the good software prototyping tools for UX design should have the functionality of adding the transition animation so that the designers, developers, and investors alike know the movement of the application from one screen to the next.

5. Generate flow chart

An important element of your mobile app prototyping tool should be to give you the ability to generate a flow chart, which would then come in handy for all the first level prototype stakeholders to know how the events will flow from one screen to another.

Knowing the features that would act as a checklist for finalizing the best prototyping tool is not enough. It is also necessary to look at it in the context of which tool would give you the benefits that will bring you closer to attaining the advantages that mobile app prototyping offers on a bird-eye level.

What Are The Main Benefits Of Mobile App Prototyping Before You Start Building The Product?

Prototyping a mobile app offers you a number of benefits like –

Sharing of concept and Gathering of feedback Mobile app prototyping, being the process that gives the first level ready flow of how your mobile application would look and function, is an amazing tool for sharing the concept with associates, the probable user base, and the investors. In addition to the ease of sharing the concept with the stakeholders, the prototype gives you the ability to gather feedback on how the app is looking.

Saving money on the mobile application design company and development team. In a time when the mobile app development cost is established on the number of hours that goes behind every resource when you approach a team of designers and developers with an operative prototype that is a rough version of your original mobile app, you get to save on the cost that would go behind them putting in time to develop design your prototype.

Clarity on what is to be built If there is one hands-down best thing about software prototyping, it is the fact that it gives the designers and developers the clarity on what exactly has to be built. This clarity helps them with getting a headstart on what is required to start with the whole app development process.

Types of Mobile App Prototyping Tools

Paper Prototyping

This prototyping model enables you to start with designing your mobile app prototype without the need of you having to learn any special skills or even get an understanding of the different online tools used to learn to prototype.

There are quite a few tools that will come in handy when you start paper prototyping:

Sketch templates for the tablet, mobile, and web platforms from sketchappsources.com
Offline prototype with the help of stencil from uistencils.com
Use popapp.in to connect the sketch of your photos from one another, thus creating an app flow

Software Prototyping

While paper prototyping comes in handy for entrepreneurs to share their idea with the world, software used to create and develop mobile app prototypes are a lot handier and time and cost saving, along with being the essence of our article.

Without further delay, let us get to the 27 prototyping tools for mobile and web apps that are known to make the whole process easy for the entrepreneurs, designers, and mobile app developers.

Now although we have listed all the prototyping tool to design mobile apps that we are a fan of, first let us look at the prototyping tools for mobile app designers:

Our List of 27 Mobile App Prototyping Tools

1. Sketch: The Vector Based Designing Tool Having an Intuitive Interface

The vector specific design tool makes it easy for designers to not think about resolutions or the screen densities when they create mock-ups, logos, and layouts. The tool comes with very powerful image edit abilities that make it somewhat as capable as Photoshop.

One of the best parts of Sketch is the set of symbols that the tool comes with. Using the symbols you can pre-design elements like buttons, widgets and other navigation items. The next best part is the ‘export to code’ functionality. Using that, you can format the design in codes rapidly and with high convenience, thus facilitating the fast development process.

2. Adobe Experience Design: The Go-To Tool for PC Users

The Adobe XD tool is the one that has managed to become one of the most used tools in a very less time. The website when the designer first logs in, ask their experience level. The tool is 100% integrated with all the other Adobe products which makes it easy for designers to copy and then paste the different assets from Photoshop or Illustrator.

The tool comes with all the functionalities that are present in Sketch and have a very intuitive, clean interface. Adobe XD comes with a drag and drop functionality which creates an image mask for objects that are dropped from finder to a specific space in the tool.

3. InVision: Sharing and Review of Mockups

The famous prototyping tool allows the designers to develop very interactive mockups for mobile and web projects. One of the main striking features of the tool is the fact that it offers designers the ease to review, design, test and then share results with the internal team members.

Also, InVision comes with the ability to sync with Photoshop or Sketch documents which allow designers to update the prototype in real-time inside the design suite of their choice. The second amazing feature of InVision is its project collaboration that enables clients to give quality feedback on the digital product.

Lastly, the tool allows designers to add animations and interactions in the static images while giving them the functionality to upload file types like JPEG, GIF, PSD, PNG, AI etc.

4. Framer: To Concentrate on Creativeness

The tool is designed especially for the elite Apple users and allows them to develop elaborate UX Flow and add text and shape to it. It even simplifies the development of layout which is responsive to every screen size while keeping UI elements intact.

One of the best parts of Framer is the advanced path editing which allows you to draw everything which is optimized for the web. In addition to this, the tool offers designers the best icon and style needed for building exceptional prototypes.

5. Balsamiq: For sketching the concepts when on fly mode

One of the biggest selling points of Balsamiq is the prototyping speed which enables UX designers to quickly sketch concepts. It is a graphics tool which comes in handy in almost every different circumstance – Mobile Apps, Websites, Desktop Apps, and User Interface.

Balsamiq is convenient to drag and then position the different elements, all the while giving designers the same experience as they would get when working on whiteboards. Ultimately, with its slick UI and minimalist charm, the tool makes it possible for designers to develop prototype and wireframe for the clients, very quickly.

Now that we have looked at the top 5 mobile app prototyping tools that we will be focusing on this year, let us look at the other 22 tools that we have come to work and love overtime at the back of our 900+ apps.

6. Origami

The standalone interface design tool which is created by Facebook engineers has been used by the brand to design apps like Instagram and Facebook Messenger. It is hands-down a complex tool which Facebook makes up for by giving amazingly great functionality.

It allows you to preview the app prototype through Origami, copy and then paste layers with Sketch and get them to work on Origami. The tool even enables you to record a prototype and then send it to people from the app itself.

The last amazing functionality that Origami offers is that it can be connected to your Android or iOS device and you can preview it live.

7. Axure

It is a complete design tool for designers. It gives you the functionalities needed to design apps from beginning to end. In addition to prototyping, Axure also enables you to design mockups, idea board, persona, wireframe, diagramming, etc.

The interesting thing about Axure is that it is not just for the designers but also for coders. It enables you to code and add the ready components plus libraries, helping you create better designs, absolutely seamlessly.

8. Atomic

One of the top web based prototyping tools, Atomic requires Google Chrome to work to give the designers the control and flexibility that they need to fine-tune their interactions. The tool offers easy access to the developers as well by offering a shared prototyping system which is effortless.

Atomic also offers you a history option that enables rewinding of previously done iterations and creation of new versions.

9. Principle

The platform-independent prototyping tool makes designing elements illustrating pop, ease, and bounce extremely fast. The tool gives users the freedom to transition between one screen to another, while providing the capacity of animation to the designers, enabling them to animate more than one element on the same page.

10. Just in Mind

The all in one tool used for development of interactive prototypes comes with over 500 widgets for web and mobile app prototype designers to choose and work on. The prototyping tool also gives them the facility to test mock-ups from the device of their choice.

11. Wireframe.cc

The minimalistic web app makes it easy to create low-level prototypes that come in handy for quick visualization of the app idea. The best thing about wireframe.cc prototyping tool is that it supports and promotes teamwork, making it easy for the team to comment on hotkeys, prototype, and sharing.

12. Pidoco

The tool brought into existence mainly for convenient team collaboration at the stage of prototype development makes not just teamwork but also template customization convenient and easy for the team. With the tool, you can create very interactive prototypes in very minimal time. Also, the usability that Pidoco comes with, lowers the development and design phase while sparing the extra cost incurred.

13. Mockplus

The tool, which is also one of the top prototyping tools makes it easy to develop and analyze the work of a lo-fi prototype. Even though the functionality of Mockplus is minimalistic, you can create interactive prototypes, no matter what difficulty level they belong to, with the help of the wide UI component library.

14. Proto.io

The tool enables you to develop a very detailed prototype, thus giving you the ability to work on the micro-interactions with mobile app users, with the help of its interface animation feature. It also makes it possible to test developed prototypes with the help of a convenient system used for teamwork and sharing.

15. Flinto

The tool is basically a fully functional app operating in Mac that enables the creation of a hi-fi prototype. The app can easily be integrated with Sketch via a plugin – which in turn gives you a convenient way to develop an animated prototype. The tool also gives you the freedom to create the prototype and then share it with the team.

16. UXPin

This multi-purpose web tool allows the creation of both high and low-fi prototypes. It comes with an easy commenting system that offers easy collaboration within the team. It also gives you the provision of opening up projects from both Sketch and a library of dozens of the UI kits.

17. Marvel

Marvel is hands-down one of the easiest web and mobile app prototyping tools for designers to start with minimal to zero experience in the field of prototype development.

The simple interface that the tool comes with, promises a very low learning curve for the designers. The biggest appeal of the tool is its features that satisfy advanced designers, specifically the powerful integration with Sketch and Photoshop, making it not just one of the best prototyping tools for beginners but also for their experienced counterparts.

18. OmniGraffle

The diagram design prototyping tool gives you the freedom to create a prototype of screen flow, wireframe, strategy maps, and a number of other diagrams. With the help of OmniGraffle, you can easily visualize flow of the app for it helps in planning the whole app development process without much hassle.

19. HotGloo

The sound interface design tool, with its amazing interactive features, enables designers to prototype a number of mobile applications which need a specific user interface. It makes it possible for the designers to operate on specific wireframe from no matter where they are.

Since HotGloo is a web-based tool, you can work on it from anywhere and will not be asked to download any specific software.

20. Zeplin

The collaboration tool for developers and designers is much more than workflow and design – it enables app designers to develop a complete masterpiece. It makes it possible for you to upload the visual designs and wireframe from Sketch and Photoshop and then add it to your Zeplin’s project folder.

With Zeplin, the iterations happen in real time, meaning developers never have to wait for designs to finish for they are introduced to the whole process from a very early stage in the design process.

21. IconJar

Organizing the icons and bringing them in one place cannot get any easier. Iconjar makes it possible for you to upload and then store all the icons in a single place from where you can search, drag and drop them in the project on Photoshop or Sketch.

When you design prototypes, searching for and uploading the icons can be very stressful and extremely time-consuming – something that Iconjar helps getting a solution in by helping you organize millions of icons in a single place and then adds them in the Photoshop, Sketch, or Illustrator with a simple drag and drop.

22. Fluid UI

It is a one-stop shop solution for design, communication, and collaboration requirements. The platform is a must-have tool for the designers looking for powerful collaboration features that can be used to design and then edit in real time and with the team. It lets you create prototypes, present designs and then collect feedback all inside a single platform.

23. MindNode

The simple interface and zero complex features tool comes in very handy in designing the relationship maps. The tool enables you to prioritize the most important work when you are working on some design. It even lets you set deadlines and reminders on the platform itself to ensure that you are working within a timeline.

Using MindNode, you can fold and then unfold nodes when you need access for the project. Also, with the help of their Cloud software, you can easily share the project with other people and handle it through a collaborative effort.

24. Vectr

The tool lets you design the prototype on Vectr’s desktop and web app designed for Windows and Mac. One of the top mobile app prototype software helps you design the prototype on both desktop and the web browser – making it easy for you to work when you are ready while giving you access to all the changes. The prototypes that you make using Vector can be shared to others through URL and get integrated into applications like Slack for a more powerful collaboration.

25. Prott

The nifty prototyping tool gives you the ability to photograph the rough sketches and then import them straight into Prott’s Android and iOS apps. The sketches then can be used to build prototypes. It also makes the presentation extremely easy with the help of its interactive, effective presentation resource. Prott is also known to offer a wide range of collaboration tools for the designers to make sharing the design an easy process.

26. Webflow

Webflow is outfitted towards making good quality web animations, interactions, and responsive website design.

At surface level, Webflow may have all the attention of being simply one more website builder. But webflow additionally offers a code free interface. This is incredible information in case you’re just needing to make sharp, striking websites without having any computer science degree. One of the other striking features that makes it stick out and sparkle is its eCommerce feature. This includes making Webflow captivating for developers to construct smooth, modern shopping sites or web applications.

27. CanvasFlip

The last in our list of best prototyping tools of is CanvasFlip. The tool is known to ensure 4 times faster prototyping when compared to the many other prototyping tools in the market.

It comes with several notable features like timers showing splash screens, setting of footers and headers, layers for displaying messages, etc. Features that both developers and designers benefit from.

Wrapping Up

Now that we have looked at all the different 27 mobile app prototyping tools that our team of designers has been vouching for their collective years of experience, it is time to bring an end to the whole discussion with a parting note.

While we rely on the five prototyping tools mentioned at the beginning of the listicle and our team of designers have enjoyed working with all the 27 prototyping tools, the use cases that every project come with might ask for varied prototyping tool, something that can only be estimated after looking at the project idea.

So, if you wish to know which out of all the 27 prototyping tools would be the best fit for your app idea, get in touch with our mobile app designers and UI design company in USA today.

How Do You Make a Visually Impaired Accessibility App?

Posted on 24/10/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

Till a few years back there were around 285 million visually impaired people in the world a number that is now growing and is expected to reach 115 million by 2050.

On one hand, while the number of visually impaired is on a rise in this colorful world, on the other, technology has made a series of advancements to impart all the possible visual abilities to the impaired so that there is no difference in the digital experience that someone with a perfect vision and those who challenge on the front encounters.

However, if you look at the time that has gone by, while it is impossible to argue that revolutionary work has been done to make the visually impaired independent (such as voice-based user interfaces), the grim side of it all remains – out of all the mobile app user demographics, visually impaired are the ones that are rarely planned for (if at all brought out of the backseat).

But when you too, like those technologists who work at making the digital experience similar for both the user set, look at designing accessibility apps for visually impaired holistically, what you are likely to find a promising scenario. A situation suggesting that designing apps for the visually impaired is not just a humanitarian move but also your ticket to reaching that n – 285 million user base.

For those of you who are still sitting on the edge on whether or not to invest in accessibility apps development or if you are still unsure on the clarity if at all your user base is made up of any share of the visually impaired population, let us concur here that there are in fact ways to make your app accessible without having to ignore the 70% of world’s population.

In this article, we are going to look at the different ways you can inculcate accessibility in your app design to impart a memorable user experience to the millions of people suffering from visual impairments in the world.

But before we head there, let us step into the shoes of the visually impaired and see what they see.

Colour Blindness

The concept of color blindness does not automatically mean a situation where visual impairment sufferers see things in black and white. In most cases, users simply confuse one color with another for they cannot see any difference.

Apart from color blindness, a disease that every 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have in the world, there are a number of visual impairment challenges that you will have to attend to when you work on accessibility app development.

Let us now show you what different visually impaired people see by making you visually impaired for the next 2 minutes through the help of NoCoffee Vision Simulator Chrome Extension.

Now that you have stepped into the shoes of the visually impaired and have seen what they see when they visit a website on desktop, imagine how annoying would be their experience when the screen size reduces several inches and the device changes from a widescreen laptop to a palm-fitting smartphone.

And while you are imagining the irritability also note how low your app’s usability is proving to be with every passing visually impaired interaction.

With you now having stepped in and out of the same shoes as the million of your visually challenged users and witnessing their frustrations and your lackings first hand, it is time to look at the solution – How to Make Your Mobile App Accessible for Visually Impaired?

How to Design Mobile App Experiences for the Visually Impaired?

1. Use ENLARGED TEXT in Abundance

Sometimes, what your users need is a large size text. Now instead of relying on the zoom function which is notoriously famous for increasing the unnecessary time in the app session and spoiling the user experience, what our team of UI UX app designers, who excel in design for visually impaired suggests is giving a manual option to the users to adjust the font size of the text on the mobile application.

2. Use Alt Text for Images in Surplus

A number of structural elements like images can be a difficult area for people with very low vision. Now what happens is that the visually impaired people generally use in-built screen readers present in mobile devices.

In the case of images, these screen readers read out the entered Alt text, hearing which users imagine what the image is portraying.

In that context, it becomes of prime importance that you use a very descriptive text explaining what is happing in the image instead of 4/5 words when you design for visually impaired.

3. Be Wary of Contrasts

Deciding on a color combination can be one of the most difficult choices that you would have to take when designing accessibility apps, especially for the color blind user segments. Now, instead of limiting yourself to a Black and White combination, there are a number of other pairings you can use to show the difference in background and the front element or any two elements.

When deciding on the contrast, you should ensure that the contrast ratio is at least 4:5:1 between the text and background.

Also, there are some clear combinations that you should avoid at all costs to ensure that your app is not a nightmare session for your color blind users.

Green & Red
Light Green & Yellow
Blue & Purple
Green & Brown
Green & Blue
Green & Black
Green & Grey
Blue & Grey

4. Make Textures Your Friend

While the majority of your visually impaired users would have a problem with identifying the different color shades in the mobile application, using textures in place of colors to differentiate one element from another will help solve your purpose while helping your users have a memorable experience within your application.

In fact, it is not just your visually impaired users who would appreciate the usage of textures but also all the other users as usage of different textures can be very appealing, design wise.

5. Refrain From Using Just Colours to Give Out Information

Haven’t we all experienced the time when we fill in a form and accidentally put in the wrong information which makes the box turn red? While the whole situation has been in-built in our digital journey, imagine someone who has difficulty understanding colors facing the situation. Imagine how they would struggle not knowing what they are doing wrong simply because they can’t see a red margin box on the screen.

The solution to this dilemma is pretty simple and even aesthetically alluring – using icons, vibrations, and text to show every right and wrong action taken by the user within the application.

6. Make Minimalism Your Mobile Accessibility Apps Design Principle

Whether you are making Android accessibility app or one for iPhone, if there is one element that can make your mobile app a visually impaired user’s magnet it is Minimalism. The secret that revolves around giving the most minimum to the users design-wise, has a two-fold benefit – A. The visually impaired users have a memorable experience and B. Your visually strong users will also love working around the white space in the application.

7. Make Dark Mode Your Companion

This one element would come in most handy when you have a lot of texts in your mobile app. The low vision users will find it much easier to read the content in the Dark Mode as opposed to the Light mode on your app.

A thing to note here is that if you are making an Android accessibility app, you will have to implement the dark mode design, but if you are developing accessibility app for iOS, you will ensure that your team of developers is working on an app that is compatible with the Smart Invert Colours feature.

What is Accessibility Testing?

The process of testing whether or not your efforts to make your app design right for low-vision users was successful is what defines accessibility testing for visually impaired users.

As you are making accessibility refinements in your mobile app, you can make use of the accessibility scanner app available on the Play Store. But what our experience tells us is that accessibility testing for visually impaired users is more often than not incomplete until you take your application to real users. While the accessibility testing tools for mobile development can come in handy, you can never be too sure.

Also, instead of waiting for your whole accessibility app development process to end, conduct testing at every stage to prevent yourself from going too down in the wrong way.

Navigation, Multiple browser design, and perceivable content are just a few things that you will have to prepare your application for to ensure that ALL the users who visit your app, irrespective of whether they have a 20/20 vision or are colorblind, have a great experience.

Now that you have seen it all, there is just one thing left to do – shed the misassumption that these accessibility refinements in your mobile app will only attend to the low-vision users and understand that they will benefit all – as ALL your users will be able to have an easy on the eye experience in the application.

Well, there you go. You are now ready to launch your accessibility app in the market and reach all the users who were unconsciously left behind.

The Relevance of UI and UX Design in the App Development Process

Posted on 24/10/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

How many times have you opened an application and have found the button and element placement going beyond your device screen? Or do you remember how you felt the last time you clicked on an option and it took you to a screen which was filled with bold colours and a lot of text?

Everytime we face an issue related to the app design, especially in terms of it being starkly opposite to what we expected, the outcome is almost always app uninstallation.

The design industry has crossed many rivers to become innovative and immersive. While there are some brands like Uber with its design guideline or MailChimp who have understood and went with the flow, there are brands that are still not giving app design its fair share of attention.

The intent of this article is to look back at the basics – at the importance of UI/UX design.

Read this blog as a beginner’s guide. One that will help you, an entrepreneur with the understanding of what makes the role of user experience and UX review process as important as the development and testing process itself – After all, the present time is operative in such a way that the importance of UX and UI design in an App development is not just crucial but unquestionable.

Table of Contents:

What is UI Design in a Mobile Application?
What is UX Design in a Mobile Application?
What are the Deliverables of UI/UX App Design Development?
The Key Components to Know When Designing Mobile Applications
Importance of Mobile App UI/UX Design
Mobile App Best UI/UX Practices
The Top UI/UX Trends 2021 and Beyond
FAQs About the Importance of UI/UX Design

To understand the importance of mobile app UI/UX design, let us understand both the terms first.

What is UI Design in a Mobile Application?

The abbreviation UI stands for User Interface. It is the way through which users can interact with any mobile apps. Mobile app user interface design is aimed towards easy, enjoyable and effective interactions between users and the app. UI in IT is any device that allows users to interact with monitors, screens or mobile devices. The primary goal of mobile app UI principles is to provide the best interaction possible.

What is UX Design in a Mobile Application?

UX stands for User Experience. The whole idea of UX is to create a system that provides the best experience to the users. The aim of mobile app UX principles is to turn customers into loyal customers by providing a positive experience to them. UX is responsible for a user’s journey through the mobile app or website which ultimately decides the success of the business.

Mobile app UI UX design is always put together as they are complementary to each other. For an app to be successful it must be the best.

What are the Deliverables of UI/UX App Design Development?

The work of any UI/UX designer has many phases. During the UI and UX designing process, various deliverables are created for the clients. These deliverables are created for reasons like better communication with clients, documentation or presenting the ideas in a proper way. Both UI and UX have their separate deliverables, let’s take a look to get a clearer understanding of the role of mobile app UI/UX design in the mobile app design and app development process.

A. UI deliverables

Mood boards

Mood boards are used for presenting innovative ideas in a way that everyone understands. It helps the clients understand the app idea that the designer will be working on.

Visual designs

Visual designs will help understand the effects of elements in a design. The effects of elements like photography, typography, space, colours, layouts, images, etc. are better understood with visual designs.

Dynamic prototyping

Another one of the UI deliverables is the dynamic prototypes. Prototypes help in improving the overall functioning of the app as well as making improvement as and when needed. With dynamic prototypes, UI can be built as per the clients’ desire.

B. UX deliverables

Competitive analysis report

The competitive analysis report is created to measure the level of competition your app has. All the efforts go into vain if the app is in a highly competitive market or if it is not prepared to beat the competitors. With a competitive analysis report, the strength and weakness of the competitor’s app can be found out.

User personas

Designers have to make sure the client understands what their customers need and expect from the products. Creating a buyer persona not only helps in understanding customer behaviour but also in communicating the same to clients. The UX process involves user research to learn the behavioural pattern.

User journeys, experience maps and user flows

Experience maps showcase users overall behaviour towards a product. The expectations, time spent, reactions, thoughts, needs, etc. are all displayed in the experience maps.

User journeys or user flows are specific steps taken by the user to interact at different stages of the product. These can be the current interactions or potential interaction with a product.

Interactive prototypes

Interactive prototyping is another one of the deliverables of UX. Rudimentary prototyping saves a lot of time and effort and works well enough to get the job done. The prototypes help in demonstrating how the actual product will work once it’s fully developed. It also helps the designer communicate the ideas better.

Now that we have looked into what UI and UX stands for and what is the role of mobile app ui/ux design in the app development process, let us move on to the importance of UI/UX design in delivering a bespoke product.

The Key Components to Know When Designing Mobile Applications

There are some main components which have to be considered when you design mobile apps UI/UX.

A. Information architecture:

The idea behind IA is to offer users an easy navigation, irrespective of which browser they are using. It mainly surrounds offering them a top-level navigation experience.

B. Interaction design:

It is the creation of a conceptual design through which users interact with the app. It includes elements such as colors, aesthetics, icons, fonts, images, etc.

C. Usability:

This part of the mobile app design principles deal with figuring out if users are getting the information they need through the use of the application and if the app gives them a self-serving way to handle issues.

D. Wireframe:

This part of the user interface design for mobile applications is all about the creation of an app’s sample for the purpose of testing features, usability and look of the app before it gets live in the market.

E. Visual design

It is all about defining the app’s brand in the users eyes. It is not only about choosing the best colours, icons, images, fonts, etc but also its appearance that can have an impact on the users at different times of their interaction.

Importance of Mobile App UI/UX Design

To know the significance of ui ux design in an app development is a must. Most developers create an app with great performance but fail to focus on the designing which leads to the downfall of the app. The balance between the functionality and importance of UI UX design of an app is hard to keep but that’s what needs to be done.

To answer the question, ‘What are the Benefits of User Interface and User Experience design?’, let us look at the pointers below:

Attracts users

A saying goes, ‘A good teacher is the one that grabs and holds the attention of the students and then teaches the lessons.’ This saying is very apt in the case of UI/UX design for mobile apps. The designs grab the attention of the users and ensure they spend as much time on the app as possible. However, the users should be able to understand the designs and navigation well enough to stick around for the long term.

Creates a good impression

For a startup or any small business, the importance of a UI/UX design lies in the creation of the first impression. When users visit your app, they should be hooked to it immediately so that they come back for it again and again. A good app has higher usage time and this can be done with the app’s UI UX design.

Get featured in app stores

Whether a mobile app is good or not is determined by how many users like it. The ratings and reviews by satisfied users will bring your mobile app to the top lists. To get your app featured in Play Store or App Store, make sure the users get a good UI UX. getting featured in the top lists of any category will automatically bring more traction to your app.

Get loyal customers

Attractive apps have more users and it’s a fact. Apps like Instagram, Facebook, Candy Crush, etc. have great UI/UX which has drawn millions of users to them. The satisfaction that comes from great user experience is what makes users loyal. Word of mouth is another reason why UX design is important.

Saves time and cost in the long run

When you work with the understanding of the mobile app best UI/UX practices from day one, you have the guarantee that there will be less need for app maintenance and updates. And since those two things will be at bay, the challenges that you might face after app launch will also be very low.

Builds brand

Putting resources into a productive Ul/UX design helps in rising consumer satisfaction subsequently ending up with cheerful customers. Individuals like working with brands that make them happy. They will be willing to take up features that can be upgraded, and thus, put resources into improving your application. This builds the credibility of your business as a customer makes great relationships with your organization and brand. The aftereffect of this is the development in the worth of your business and your brand name.

Increased traffic

A good UI/UX consistently makes their users stay. If your website or mobile application is designed splendidly and client experience is staggering, nothing can prevent them from exploring the pre-decided target and transforming the users into valuable customers. Hence, it’s the duty of you and the UI/UX Developers’ responsibility to guarantee the greatest UI/UX of your site/application.

Now that you have seen the importance of mobile app UI/UX design, let’s move further into the concept. It’s a common assumption that if you have mastered the UI/UX development process then you don’t need tips for improvement. However, there’s no harm in going through some great tips, considering how the effect of UI/UX design can be long lasting.

Mobile App Best UI/UX Practices

Use conventional elements

Using familiar elements in the app will save time for users. They can quickly learn the app without getting confused. Elements like buttons, icons, colors and symbols should be designed in the way it’s designed in most apps. The quicker users learn to operate the app, the higher will be the chances of liking the app.

Maintain uniformity

It is very important for the design to be uniform across all the windows. The uniformity shows the quality of work put in the UI UX designing of the app. Not only with icons or buttons but the colors and patterns should also be the same across all media.

Employ the right UI and UX designer

If you are focusing on the mobile app user interface design and experience then working with the experts is highly recommended. You can also outsource app development for your app from an expert app development agency to make sure the UI UX designs are on point. The UI UX designers should understand all the end-to-end user interaction and incorporate them within the app.

Make it as interactive as possible

An interactive app is better than a non-interactive one and that’s a fact. When you allow users to interact with the app, it creates a connection between them. Interactive apps give freedom to users to navigate themselves through different windows.

Consider platform specific designs

There is a stark difference in the iOS app UI design and Android app UI design. Likewise, considering the way both the platforms are designed at the device level, the iOS app UX design also varies from the Android app UX design.

What is important is for you to understand both Material Design and Human Interface Design in addition to the elements that separate them from each other.

Don’t hamper the speed of the app

The speed of the app is just as important as the design. Startups do make this mistake by thinking the app only needs its appearance to attract users. But the truth is, the functioning of the app is just as important. The mobile app needs to be speed while having a good mobile application interface design.

Keep it simple and don’t complicate things

If a feature can be put in a simple way there is no need to overdo it. The users will appreciate the simplicity just as much as the overall app. Complicating designs leave app users either confused or furious and we don’t want either of those. It is also seen that apps with simple design have more users than complicated ones.

Keep the focus on limited things

Often the UI/UX development process focuses on so many elements at the same time that the entire user experience turns bad. If too much is going on the screen then that won’t let the user focus on the content of the app. Overcrowding content on the screen is another way to quickly lose users.

Have detailed understanding of your audience

After everything’s said and done, the only thing that can save the effect of ui/ux design from being negative is having an understanding of your users. Only by knowing who you are making the product for, you will be able to deliver a memorable experience to your user set and the world. One way to achieve that is through a well strategized product discovery workshop.

The only thing left for you to do is find a trustworthy and reliable app design company to partner with. A proper app design and app development company will help you expand your mobile ui ux design services.

The Top UI/UX Trends 2021 and Beyond

To get started with the best mobile app UI UX designing, let’s look at what the future of UI/UX holds in 2021.

Voice-based UI

Google Home and Alexa have taken over the voice assistant world. These two technologies are being used by people to get anything and everything done. Voice searches are becoming more and more popular and by in the end of 2021, 50% of the searches will be voice-based. Users are preferring buttonless options to do their everyday tasks, and increasing with this demand is the need to understand how to design voice user interface.

Foldable/Split screen

With foldable phones app development being on the rise, the split screen trend is one of the hottest 2021 app design trends. The idea of actively using two screens together, whether on websites or mobile phones, is amazing! The trend has come back after a short break and is looking more alive than ever. Split screen in mobile allows more user interaction all the while giving aesthetically appealing visuals.

Variety & combinations in fonts

Fonts that will fit any writing space will have another place in the latest UI/UX design trends. Earlier, inserting text in writing spaces had limitations in terms of adjustment. It also made designers send multiple files for the font designs used. Variable fonts are a great solution for this, since it only needs one file for any design.

Dark mode

With both Apple and Android focusing their efforts on bringing health focus in the picture through dark mode app design functionality, the 2021 trend is also inclining towards it. In fact, our app designers feel that it is only about time when health betterment will become the outcome of the importance of a good user interface design.

Animation

The use of animation in apps makes them more visually appealing. It connects with customers more than any other design. Designers are using this tool to create a positive impact on the users with the help of meaningful animations. Earlier, things were simple with flat logos, icons, buttons, etc. but now animated buttons, icons, and even logos are happening. In the coming years, animation will be one of the trends for UI UX designing.

This was our take on the importance of User interface/User experience design system services for mobile apps and the foreseeable future of UI/UX as we reckon. The next step for you herein is to get in touch with a bespoke mobile app design agency that can help you deliver lasting memories.

FAQs About the Importance of UI/UX Design

Q. Why do apps need efficient UI/UX Design?

The importance of UI/UX design in mobile apps goes beyond simply making them appear well to the end users and the other stakeholders. These are some of the other reasons that mark their importance:

Attract users
Increase probability of getting featured in the stores
Increase brand’s ROI
Lower the app maintenance time and cost in the long run

Q. Why is UX important for business?

Here are some business benefits of investing in an efficient user experience –

It has a direct effect on your conversion numbers
It helps saves long term app updation costs
Increase the probability of getting word of mouth referrals and ultimately brand evangelists.

Full Stack Frameworks: Pros of 2020

Posted on 07/10/202014/05/2021 by Anteelo Master

Full Stack Frameworks: Pros of 2020

In today’s modern world, everything is instant to our hands with sophisticated technologies. As the adaptability of online space proliferates, web development technologies also get mature leading to developing more complex feature-rich web apps. The advancements in technology have also raised the bar of customers in terms of an elemental online presence. Each company looks forward to working with a service provider who is well-versed with the latest web development trends and is proficient in the work that they do.

Web development frameworks support the development of web apps, websites and web resources, web services as well as web APIs. Simply put, they are nothing but libraries that help you build your web app efficiently and effortlessly.

With the market flooding with new web development frameworks every day, it can be very challenging to choose which one would be the best fit for your project. The whole process can be made very easy if the developers are well-versed with the below-mentioned web development technologies and frameworks:

Top 10 Web Development Frameworks

1. Spring- Java Framework

Spring is one of the most renowned frameworks enterprise-grade app development using Java. The primary intent of having this framework is to ease the process of making J2EE apps. It is a back-end development framework based on Java, which enables developers to create simple, fast, flexible Java Applications. Used by many big names like Wix and Ticket Master, Spring has a rigid architecture that provides the developers with a frame for their future projects.

2. Vue.JS

One of the most adaptive frameworks, Vue, is an advanced framework used to build outstanding user-interfaces. With a central library emphasizing on the view layer, integrating it with other libraries and preexisting projects is a piece of cake. The integration of Vue in your projects is very similar to that of Jquery, and there is no necessity whatsoever of a build step. Created by Evan You, it is a framework that focuses on component composition and declarative rendering. Moreover, Vue is an excellent choice if you want to develop a powerful SPA (Single Page Application) as it is loaded with lots of supporting libraries and modern tools.

3. Yii Framework

Yii is a powerful, practical, and flexible web development framework based on PHP. Yii is an acronym for Yes it is! Which stands quite an appropriate answer to the question, “Is it so amazing?”. It is a universal web-app development framework that can develop any web application. It is an excellent option for high-traffic apps and websites like E-commerce websites, portals, Content Management Systems, or any complicated web app because of its exceptional security features. Since it models the data as objects, there is no need to go on writing monotonous SQL queries and statements. It also provides many cache mechanisms like cFileCache, cDummyCache, cMemCache, thereby allowing an effortless cache app component integration. Yii is loaded with great features and comes with clear-documentation.

4. Symphony Framework

Symphony is a feature-rich, reusable, highly flexible full-stack web development framework. It provides the developers with a complete free-hand with working on a RAD environment by giving a vivid choice of 30 components. It is based on the Model View Controller (MVC) System, which allows session management, decoupled components, and error logging and is easily maintainable. It can be effortlessly clubbed with many renowned client-side frameworks like AngularJS along with other third-party apps. It is a collection of Web App Frameworks and PHP components and boasts the two most stellar benefits, Bundles, and Components.

5. AngularJS

Based on the comprehensive programming language- JavaScript, AngularJS is a multifaceted open-source front-end framework. With the growing fame of SPAs (Single Page Applications) Development, the popularity of AngularJS is also speeding up. Developed and maintained by Google, AngularJS helps you create dynamic web pages utilizing JavaScript and HTML. Additionally, Patterns are created in AngularJS with the help of the Declarative Paradigm to make the core easy to read and very light-weight. The need for additional getter and setter functions is eradicated by the presence of POJO, which allows object manipulation using` standard JavaScript Functionalities.

6. Rails Framework

Ruby on Rails is a very proficient web development program developed by David Heinemeier Hansson in the year 2003. Considered as very developer-friendly, Rails is an opensource, object-oriented, general-purpose back-end development framework. Rails follow the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) and CoC (Convention over Configuration) approach, which facilitates the building of light-weight apps and boosts flexibility. It also ensures flawless interaction with third-party apps by allowing each object to possess unique attributes. The applications are maintained to be bug-free as the developers are provided with a detailed error-log. It also supports the development of SEO friendly URLs.

7. Laravel

One of the most fantastic PHP web frameworks, Laravel, has an exquisite and expressive structure that backs out ordinary errands, for example, authentication, sessions, storing, and steering. The main aim of the Laravel Framework is to make the process of development easy and fun. Laravel emerges as the top choice of many developers as it offers excellent performance, scalability, and features. Its unique architecture enables the developers to build customized infrastructure for their apps. It also has an integrated cloud storage system like Amazon S3 and Rack Space, along with local storage.

8. Tensor Flow

It is a unique, open-source library for mathematical computation utilizing the data-flow graphs. Tensor Flow is exclusively used for Artificial Intelligence apps that involve a massive community with itself. Although it has a broad range of uses, it is preferred to be used in the domains of Deep Learning. With the boom in the AI and ML technologies, TensorFlow has also seen a rise in the number of users as it is the framework of the future. Artificial intelligence is perceived to takeover every field and every niche, which is a positive indication for the use of TensorFlow.

9. CakePHP

CakePHP is a revolutionary PHP framework that simplifies the developers’ job by eliminating the need for developing an app from scratch. Its various scaffolding features, along with the swift code generation, dramatically cut down the development cost. The ability to reuse the code in CakePHP makes the web development process very rapid. Not just that, but most of the essential elements for building an application are in-built in CakePHP, which saves a lot of developers’ precious time. The availability of vivid documentation and pragmatic guides along with colossal community support is a cherry on the top.

10. MeteorJS

MeteorJS is, hands-down, the best choice if you are looking for speedy web development as it is a full-stack web development framework, which solves both your front-end and back-end needs. It is a JavaScript framework that has an in-built collection on libraries and packages that are linked and bound together. It is an isomorphic framework that can be utilized to create a cross-platform code. It is based on MEAN stack and comprises of many components like Cordova, Communication Line Tool, CLI, Browser, and Server.

Summary

With the exponential amplification of the tech world, new web development tools and frameworks are rising every day. The competition is the market is fierce, and you need to select nothing but the best for your project. The above list can help you choose the best web development framework that fits well with the requirements of your business and help you grow manifolds.

Top Silicon Valley Agency’s UI/UX Design Deliverables

Posted on 29/09/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

INTRODUCTION

“If you work in Silicon Valley, you come from the future”

Firstly, what are UI UX design deliverables, and Why are they critical to your success?

It is a document that usually communicates ideas, various research outputs, and sets a direction for other designers and developers. Now, for design professionals, these deliverables are a tangible manifestation of the evolving design direction & communicate how that direction can be achieved. Each deliverable is structured in a way that helps provide solutions for the next phase. But not everyone understands this term often when discussing or presenting ideas during various phases of a design process. Thus, UI UX design deliverables are very much useful to break down complicated ideas or functionalities and thus making them easier to understand for everyone in the room.

What are the types of design deliverables?

In the initial stages of design, the focus should not be on high-quality UI, rather effectively communicating the initial ideas for the design solution. At every stage of the design process, the type of deliverables varies to an extent. With a view of adopting the best way for information transfer, there are three types of deliverables.

Creation deliverables – Used to provide low-fidelity ideas during the early stages of the design process.
Communication deliverables – Adopted to communicate everything that we learn from each design session to keep the team aligned.
Validation deliverables – UX deliverables that were used for research & findings to validate any reason.

Lollypop Design Agency in Silicon Valley is often asked by potential clients and design evangelists about various design deliverables that we and other design giants offer to meet business goals, keeping in mind the user needs and expectations.

No matter what industry we work for, from small startups to established companies, the deliverables for any project following the design process are more or less the same and vary according to the available resources, requirements, timelines, and budget.

Here are some of the major design deliverables that various Silicon Valley design agencies practice for their different projects as a part of their design methodologies.

1. Discovery & Research

Stakeholder interviews takeaways
User research document

2. UX Design stage

UX Audit
Information Architecture
User flows
Wireframes

3. UX Design stage

Visual designs
Animations
Design systems
Visual design specifications

Let us now understand these items one by one and their significance in the whole process.

Stakeholder Interviews takeaways

It is always a priority to understand brand perspectives, varying user behavior to compliment the importance of competitive brand stake in the marketplace & identify differentials. Also, stakeholder interviews play a pivotal role to help guide the flow of the entire project considering the business goals, technical constraints, usability problems, and what customers expect out of a final product or service.

User research document

User research is the most important part of the design process that encourages us to precisely discover how our target customers feel while collaborating with the product that is designed to meet their objectives. User research is done to gain the sharpest possible insights into the needs and pain points of the users while stakeholder interviews give us insights into the business goal of a product.

UX Audit

UX audit uses methods to expand an existing situation and offer heuristics-based recommendations for improvements or user-centric enhancements. Ultimately, a user experience audit helps us understand how to boost conversions by making it easier for users to achieve their goals on your site or software along with pointing out critical, mid-level, and major issues and how to prioritize issue resolution in any product. UX audit is a method to make sure the brand communicates consistently across all customer experience touchpoints.

Many of our Clients find this to be an invaluable investment with strong ROI in future development as this audit process helps to vet and validate the product roadmap, ensuring a highly successful product launch without costly redesign or redevelopment.

Information Architecture

Information architecture and wireframes are all about organizing the content and flow of a website or an application so that users can complete their tasks and achieve their goals quickly. The focus is on creating usable content structures out of complex sets of information.

User flows

User flow can be considered as a series of user actions or simply the various states that the user needs to go through to achieve any expected goal. The main goal of any user flow is to provide designers & developers a detailed description of all the possible flows, including edge cases, errors, and various states. User flows also help businesses have a high-level view of the product and make sure their features, technical jargon, and workflows don’t confuse the user.

Wireframes

Wireframes generally give the first impression on how a website or app might look by incorporating the Information Architecture and arranging elements to best accomplish a particular purpose. Since it is the first phase of the version there is a scope of changing plans and ideas. These high-fidelity designs can be used for usability testing, and serve as an excellent reference for developers to get a good idea of the final product. Wireframes help connect the site’s information architecture to its visual design by showing paths between pages. It also helps prioritize content through the determination of how much space to allocate to a given item and where that item is located.

Visual designs

The visual design may be considered as the “final coat of paint” on the product but it’s not just that: visual design can greatly affect the UX of a product, and therefore must be approached very carefully. Hopefully, a lot of interaction design and usability heuristics were worked out during prior steps of the UX design process so that the designers can focus on the visuals. It’s one last opportunity to take the product to the next level. Visual design is the last step before handoff to developers and the phase where a style guide and final specs are crafted. It’s not just about “making things pretty,” but also an opportunity to strategically define & implement the brand’s identity into color schemes, usable layouts, creating contrast, and visual hierarchy.

Animations

Animations are used purposefully to enhance the overall user experience and guide users along the way. They are used for various purposes like feedback, continuity, directing attention, etc. These animations in the form of GIFs, videos, or Lottie files are used by developers to implement into the final product. When animation is used subtly, it can help users build mental models about how the system works and how they can interact with it. UI animations are subtle, unobtrusive, and brief micro-interactions, they can improve the user experience and can communicate feedback and state changes, prevent disorientation, and strengthen signifiers.

Also, animations offer a level of sophistication to an experience and help diversify the product experience in the marketplace.

Design system

A design system can be considered as a set of design-specification documents that are intended to be one single source of truth that groups all the digital elements for any brand/product. Style guides, rules for typography, colors, responsive behavior, photos, and visual designs as a comprehensive design system are usually the ultimate handoff to the clients and the developers. Some style guides and specifications are put together manually, and others are generated automatically. This design system can be thought of more like “bibles of style” on the shelf that everyone on the team can refer to.

Design Systems will also influence and compliment brand identity within digital marketing efforts by extension which is a value add to clients & marketing/product teams!

Visual design specification

The final step in the design workflow is to create specifications for development teams. Margins, padding, assets, element measurements, color codes are various small details that need to be considered while building any product. These minor details if missed can impact the overall user experience of the product.

How hard will it be to add some new deliverables soon?

Design deliverables as mentioned, communicate how a direction can be achieved to lay that final product. Changes in these deliverables are expected over time according to the shifting user behavior and variance in business needs. Now, adding new deliverables is pretty easy but ensuring its consistency, accuracy, and quality is the most difficult part. Most importantly above and overall, is validating and carefully considering whether that deliverable is truly adding value to the entire project or the workflow to be specific.

Conclusion

UI UX design deliverables again vary according to the needs of the client and project priorities.

The deliverables and the way they are handed off, the methods per se are more than enough as a whole. Some parts of the documentation can be done parallel to the process or some are done before or after the process. Now the tools used for these deliverables can vary to an extent, but that’s a topic for another article.

Thank you for reading this blog & stay tuned for more articles on thought leadership.

Chatbots <3 (your) Business: 7 Reasons Why?

Posted on 28/09/202014/05/2021 by Anteelo Master

Chatbots <3 (your) Business: 7 Reasons Why?

It is a known fact that human is a social animal. A human needs to interact with his fellow humans to express himself. Interaction gives a human a sense of comfort and understanding. This fact is well utilized by Chatbots, which has been a revolution in the market in a short time. The Chatbot technology has taken a giant leap and has emerged as a ground-breaking trend. All the businesses are eager to keep up with the updating trends and utilize the Chatbot technology to interact with their customer base and influence the market. Within the brief time-period, Chatbots have taken over the market. They are seen to be rocking the sectors of Customer Support, Customer behavior Analysis, Customer Service & Management, DevOps Management, Branding, and other Qualitative tasks.

What is a Chatbot?

In the most simple layman language, A Chatbot is an automated computer program that talks back to you. It interacts with the users as a human would and attends the customers round the clock without needing any break or having any geographical limitations. The conversation can be either text-based or voice-based, depending upon the requirement of the business. It is a virtual assistant that aids businesses to get closer to their customers and broaden customer engagement. With the introduction of ultra-modern technologies like speech recognition, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and NLP (Natural Language Processing), Chatbots have advanced so much that they can simulate a human conversation very closely.

Broadly, Chatbots can be divided into two categories:

1.Command Based Chatbots:

These Chatbots are based on the “if-else” algorithm. These Chatbots do not learn from the conversations they have; instead, they can only answer a limited number of predefined questions. It has a set of pre-written questions with specific answers. In these situations, users do not usually type or converse with the bot; instead, they select one of the many options provided to them. They have a fixed database so they can not answer the questions which are not listed in their database and can not function outside their code.

2. Artificial Intelligence Based Chatbots:

These Chatbots learn from the conversations they have with users and better themselves over time. They are contextual Chatbots and utilize high-end technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and appear quite sci-fi at the initial glance. They can understand natural questions and reply with the most appropriate answers. They remember the details about their customers and improvise their communication with them accordingly.

Now, if you are asking yourself, “Do I really need a Chatbot for my business?”, the question itself is problematic. The market is ever-growing, and the competition is getting stronger every day. The inability of a business to keep up with such a trend, which is woo-ing the market with its exceptional capabilities, could be a fall-behind for and your business. NOW is the ideal time to introduce your business with this cutting-edge technology and watch your sales and business fly high. Your business/company might be in a need of Chatbot Development if you relate to any of the below-mentioned points:

If you own an E-Commerce Business:

As per a recent study, it has been established that E-Commerce is one sector that is expected to make the most benefit out of the Chatbot Technology. The Chatbots can turn the monotonous shopping process into an exciting one by encouraging more user engagement. A Chatbot can keep an account of customer history, preferences, location, address, and navigation and, based on that, personalize the whole shopping experience for the customer. The Chatbots can recommend customers new products according to their preferences and also provide them with personalized vouchers and coupon codes, which can boost up customer engagement, resulting in an extremely positive impact on the sales. For example, if you have are a Pizza delivery App, a Chatbot can remember the previous orders made by the customer, additional topping requests along with their address and contact details so that they need not fill in the information again while placing an order. This makes the ordering process seamless and attracts more customers. This also increases the loyalty of the customer towards the brand and ensure that the customer revisits your app/website.

If you have customers/queries coming in round-the-clock:

Chatbots are not bound by and physical or geographical limitations. They can work day in and out without getting tired or needing a break. So if you are a business that deals with customers from different time zones, or if you like to keep your services open each and every day, every time, Chatbots can be a blessing for you. This takes off the burden of this redundant job from the shoulders of a human employee and allows his energy to be utilized for something more crucial.

If you need to give repetitive/similar information:

Most of the businesses need to answer an almost identical set of questions all the time. Customers usually inquire regarding the timings, address, or prices. A significant portion of human effort can be saved by automating this process with the help of Chatbots.

If scaling your business is requisite:

Unlike humans who can handle just 3-4 customers (at max) at a time, there is no such limit for the Chatbots. Chatbots can be assigned as the initial point of contact for the customers. In this manner, they can help to filter or segregate the customers according to their issues and then raise the issue to a human representative if required. This way, the tedious and redundant part of recurrent question-answering is handled by these new-age virtual assistants. They increase your productivity and efficiency, thereby improving your ranking and reputation in the market.

If you are low on time and budget:

No matter how fancy and sci-fi these Chatbots sound, the cost of building one won’t be leaving any holes in your pocket. The cost of developing a Chatbot is often similar to or sometimes even less than developing an application. Additionally, Chatbots aren’t just economical but are worth the price you pay for them as they bring in a commendable amount of business along with them. They are like a one-time investment that can take your business to a new height.

One Chatbot is equal to an army of employees. It saves the time of your team, which might otherwise go into redundant tasks or hiring a team to do the Chatbot’s jobs.

If you are targeting social media:

The integration of Chatbots with various social media websites and apps and their capability to engage the audience on the same has swept off the market. In this age of social media and smart devices, people prefer having apps that are multi-functional. Therefore, it is crucial for businesses not to leave any potential area to grab the customer base. Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc. have become the greatest markets, and Chatbots can help you acquire them by interacting with your customers on the same.

If you need to analyze customer behavior:

The Chatbots can be made to ask for feedback from the customers regarding their experience on your website/app or about product or service. This feedback can be a great help while making the marketing strategy and targeting a more precise clientele. The data acquired by the Chatbots can be used to provide a personalized experience to the customers, which can significantly impact the engagement on your platform.

Conclusion

A Chatbot is the need of the hour for every business, whether big or small. No matter which industry you belong to, Chatbots can definitely scale up your business and put you on the front foot, a step ahead of your contemporaries. The customer is always looking for a smoother experience, and with a Chatbot, you can ensure that your customer gets exactly what they want.

How can you Utilise Motion Design to Make your App more Engaging?

Posted on 21/09/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

Only a few years ago, any and all forms of motion and animation was associated with the definition of a bad site UI. Remember the old age advertisement websites which showed offers in circular balls bouncing off from one corner of the screen to another? The case of motion in web design was a sad case.

But ever since the advent of mobile apps, the scenario has changed so much so that UI motion design has now become a popular design trend.

A modern-day interface is no more about static elements. With UI motion design, brands are now covering the void between software and human primal need of variety and connection.

“The most intuitive and pleasurable element of web and mobile application services are the one that involves Motion Design.”

Incorporated at different mobile app journey stages, motion design for apps can not only make the users swoon over your app movements but also increase the app session time. They have now become a symbol of fun, innovativeness, and a sure shot medium of binding users with the applications.

Why use motion design for apps?

There are a number of ways apps motion design has made the overall mobile interactions a completely interesting one. Here, let’s see how.

Slow App Loadings are Now Enjoyable

Slow loading apps are as common in occurrence as days and nights since they happen all the time. There can be a number of issues behind it such as low network from the users’ front, a technical issue on the backend, or too many requests being made on the server at the same time. But, irrespective of the reason, slow load time is the number one reason that takes the users away from the app.

Well, this can be prevented completely by using animation in the app UI design which was one of the mobile app trends of 2018. By adding motion elements in every case of low load time, designers can keep the users hooked just to see the elements or the animation to glide on the screen. For instance, take Google Chrome’s offline page with a dinosaur game.

An Onboarding Experience for users

One of the most common use cases of Motion Design for apps is seen in the Mobile App onboarding stage of the app journey. Used to explain and make the user acquainted with the app, the animation is being incorporated by brands to make it easy for the users to find their way around for the first few runs.

Emboss App in Users’ Minds with Mental Map

Taking the Onboarding Experience to the next level, mobile UI designs help users create a mental map that fits the app flow in the mind. Ever noticed yourself pulling the top Gmail bar down to refresh your mailbox? We doubt it. The reason is that it has been embossed into us just like blinking of the eyes, so we no more have to think twice, it happens automatically.

Letting users know what’s wrong and what’s right

Motion elements can be one of the most impactful ways of letting the users know that they have encountered an issue or that they have crossed a level successfully. When designing to highlight an error, it is important to point out to users exactly what they are doing wrong.

Wrong password shake is the one animation that achieves it perfectly. Just like you show what users are doing wrong just with your motion, the feedback motion should also show the successful events. A simple mailbox popup with a tick mark animation would show the users that their mail was sent.

In the end, never keep the users wondering what they are doing wrong or if they were able to do something successfully.

Now that you have seen how motion elements make the app journey more fun and memorable, let us now look at the app UI design principles that you should employ to keep your motion elements from crossing over to the side of tackiness and uselessness.

The Walt Disney Articulated Principles that you Should Embody in Your Mobile App

Every app development company that has worked with motion elements know that the line between innovation and overdoing it is very thin and it is the place where they blur, the problem begins. Users become disinterested and apps go from being useful to becoming plain confusing.

To prevent your motion signs and movements from seeing a similar fate, you can follow these interaction design inspiration. These principles were first articulated by Walt Disney but are still capable of delivering a memorable enjoyable experience just like Mickey Mouse.

1. Motion Movement Trajectory

The design principle that has been prevalent in the industry follows the rule that animated shapes should mainly follow a straight trajectory movement. But we all know better. You cannot really offer an outwardly Web and Mobile Application Design Service with one leg in old traditions. To make users fall in love with your motion elements, you will have to add new movement trajectories such as curves, verticals, and even wave like and then show people those things visually.

2. The timing of when the Motion appears

Any motion prompt that comes at users’ screen out of the blue without any action motivating it, should be avoided. If you are incorporating motion in your app UI design, do it at a time which asks for it. There are times when it makes sense to add motion like when users enter the wrong password but an animated tick to show they have entered the right credentials can be ignored.

So, before you overboard with them, know at what stage they are actually needed.

3. Focus on the Focus of Animation

If your app has a lot happening on the screen in terms of content, design elements, image or video wise, have a motion element that comes with a tinted blinking background or blurs in and out so that users know what to do next. All your immovable motion features will lose their value if you fail to show their presence on the app screen.

4. Animation Speed

Assuming that you would be making a mobile app for ordinary humans and not Flash, your motion elements should move at the speed of a feather glide. Give users time to adjust their eyes to the movement instead of making it too fast for them.

A pro tip: Add rhythm to your motion. While adding movement into movement seems like a nonsensical thing to do but know that by doing it, you will be going one step ahead of the whole app resonance game straight from the users’ subconscious level.

5. Become an On-the-face Motion Piece

Used mostly in flashcard quiz based and eCommerce apps, these motion types makes the next move a no-brainer for the users. By moving too evidently, like in case of a discount countdown or the drop of location pin in case of Uber, you will be able to lead the users exactly where you want to be while creating a memorable brand image for yourself.

How is animation and motion used in mobile apps?

Like we said before, there is a thin line between doing it and overdoing it. There are places where you think you can use animation but in reality, you can simply avoid it. There are a few ways you can use motion design which makes the best UI design for apps. Let’s take a look at them:

Gamification

Adding emojis and animation mascots can do wonders for your app. These elements make the app addictive and likeable by all. Various messengers have animated mood stickers which give the app an edge over all the other plain messaging apps.

Progress animation

Waiting for something to load without knowing the progress tests a users patience. This is why apps have progress animations that show how much progress has been made while loading certain functions. Progress animation is one of the most liked features of motion design for apps.

Animated notifications

Notifications are usually quite boring but if proper animation is used then it improves the overall user experience. This will also make sure that users remember every important notification they get.

Loading animation

Loading animation is one of the most common types of animation used for app UI interactions. This type of animation informs the users that the process of loading is active and that the app is running well. This animation is a sub-type of progress animation.

Transition animation

Transition animation gives the app a classy look. It also conveys a positive user experience. By allowing transition, you give more life to the app when going from one page to another.

Marketing animation

Marketing animation is great for your brand. Animations used in logos is a great way of grabbing the attention of the users. This also creates a mental image of the brand on the users’ mind.

Scroll animation

Scrolling animation is another famous type of animation added in apps and is considered one of the best UI design for apps. Not only it makes the app beautiful but also gives it an elegant look. However, proper scroll animation needs proper coding otherwise the app may freeze or slow down.

Drawing attention

Attention drawing animation is usually applied when the attention of users needs to directed to certain areas. Suppose, you are ordering from an online food ordering app and as soon as you add items the price changes with a certain kind of animation. This would draw your attention to the numbers which is where the focus should be.

In the article, we have discussed how motion elements are the key differentiator between a boring app and an innovative one, the right stages for incorporating them and even the design principles that should be followed. We being best mobile app design company, follow a simple mobile app designing process to achieve the best results possible. Even though the steps are easy, the work is detailed. If you have any queries regarding motion designs or need interaction design inspiration, contact us at Anteelo.