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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.

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.

Insights on Designing Experiences in Digital Healthcare

Posted on 02/09/202009/06/2021 by Tushar

With world in your palms, user experience is becoming a necessity in every domain. Everyone is looking for a memorable and seamless experience that is intuitive, intelligent and definitely a solution provider.

This is why today UX is gaining extreme importance and is playing a major role in simplifying the complexities. It is undoubtedly the foundation to success and all the passionate designers have proven this time and again. Many companies, be it product or service oriented are acknowledging the role of designing in the pavement of success like Fintech, Travel & Tourism, E-commerce, Enterprise Applications. But, there are few industries who needs to brace up like Healthcare, Oil & Gas, Insurance etc.

Today, I will share some insights from our experience in Healthcare and also touch upon the world of possibilities waiting to be discovered.

“How awesome it would be to have an intelligent system that calculates patients BMI, pointers of medical history, important notes of patients and then suggests drugs accordingly and doctors could pick up from that.”

Our first step in Healthcare UX

We started in the field with ‘Context media’, a US based client that aimed at designing an interactive tab app that helped patients gain more knowledge about the chronic diseases. Though, it was not a big project but helped us touch the unanswered vacuum of the industry. Soon, we got our milestone project ‘Surgeon logbook’, a project of ‘Narayana Health’. Dr. Varun Shetty approached us to design an extremely simple app that would aid surgeons in maintaining their log book digitally. We spent hours with the doctors understanding their requirement (conscious and subconscious) and them. We were appalled User Experience in Healthcare to discover how healthcare industry was so heavily paper dependent in 21st century! With our mobile first approach and research, we were happy to unearth that the world of surgeon’s was looking forward to an App like this.

3 Years in Healthcare industry and after spending few thousand hours with doctors, nurses, surgeons and patients, we have been entrusted with immense knowledge and thrust to design many more healthcare products. We are on a mission to revamp health care with outstanding UX and ensure that it is way more accessible than shopping.

Let’s see the current scenario of EMR in Healthcare and later I have shared some tips for designing Healthcare products.

EMR – Electronic Medical Records

Today Healthcare is not just about cure it is more about prevention. We have power to access the knowledge with just a tap. But, it’s sad to observe that current Electronic medical records (EMR) in market is just another piece of software that can be used by doctors and patients only post formal training.

Seriously? Training for an EMR! We didn’t need any training for Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, did we? It’s not just about providing a technical solution but it is about providing a right solution that is empathetic towards users and intelligent enough to eradicate problems. Major software companies have spent months and years building EMRs, just to realize that hospitals, doctors and patients aren’t using it the way they were supposed to.

This is where User Experience Design and Emotional intelligent designs play a major role; every other day we read of medical errors that leads to loss of life, but with practicing a good UX practice, we can definitely avoid and overcome these errors.

Imagine an EMR with a seamless experience for doctor while he is prescribing drugs. The app that is as simple as an e-commerce checkout page and takes you through easy but essential steps. What if we design an experience where doctors can see side effects of drugs tailored to individual’s medical history before clicking Prescribe button. How awesome it would be to have an intelligent system that calculates patients BMI, pointers of medical history, important notes of patients and then suggests drugs accordingly and doctors could pick up from that. It’s about time to add a layer of intelligence to the app by creating an algorithm that offers helpful suggestion to users. A great example would be Tapgenes app Designed by us that takes data from embedded health tracker from iOS and suggests how can we better manage health of ours and our loved ones. This is way too exciting, I would rather stop, else I might end up building one.

Anyways, here are some tips to ponder on before designing UX for healthcare.

Start with Design Thinking aka Solution Based Thinking Session

This session with the stakeholders is the first and most crucial step. Involve the entire team, right from product owners, dev team and marketing team. Here are some links for a design thinking workshops.

Design Thinking. Thoughts by Tim Brown

What happens with a design thinking approach to healthcare? by Tim Brown

Keep it device friendly

Desktop version of EMR is history; let’s think of mobile or tabs. In one of our research, we found that doctors were more comfortable using EMR on iPad. IoT can be smartly used to supplement patient treatment through remote monitoring and communication, and to keep track of patients as they move through a healthcare facility or connect your EMR with smart wearables.

Create a UX Process

Every project has its own challenges, be it budget, timelines or development constraints. It is very important to understand them, sit back and draw your process that is adaptive to the project. We followed following steps for one of the healthcare projects:

Empathy: Understand users (doctors and Patients) wants and needs.
Discover: Research, create user scenarios, interview stakeholders, users and others playing a major role, create personas, competitor analysis.
Define: Create user journey, process flows. wireframes, clickable prototypes.
Test: Wireframes can be turned into clickable prototype, test it before you fine tune the pixels, heuristic evaluation.

Know your Users and Know them better than them

A good product is the result of good IA. Card sorting helps you group and organize necessary information by getting users involved. For example: What information doctor needs before prescribing medicine and in which flow can be easily determined by having an internal discussion and also by involving doctors involved.

Our team at Lollypop loves this activity, as Card sorting is simple, cheap, fast and user-focused. Card sorting also helps in bonding with clients and knowing the users better.

Understand HIPAA Compliance – Health Insurance, portability and Accountability.

Make sure you are aware of all the laws before you start designing fancy things. Few healthcare products fall under regulations that can impact the User Experience. Not being aware of these laws could delay the products release and could also lead to other issues. Understand the laws in handling and protecting personal healthcare information. Most of these laws are around who can access what information.

Once your personas are ready, map it to the roles and create user flows. Health insurances and their coverage are different in every country, it’s important to understand insurances role and regulations while building a product. As a designer be responsible and consider privacy of patient’s information.

Follow “Intelligent Devices, Dumb People” Rule

Yes, you read it right. We should not overweigh anyone to go out of their genre and become extremely tech savvy. Keep it simple, doctors are interested in treating patients and definitely not learning your software.

Conclusion

When you understand “What users need and not what they want” you are treading on a right path. We can order pizza, call for a taxi, maintain our finances, plan our holidays with few clicks, because, these products have appreciated the criticality of designing user centric interfaces and investing in UX to make the experience emotional intelligent. Now it’s time for healthcare to pace up and build an amazing product for hospitals and patients.

We will call it a winner when:

Patient would be able to maintain their health records and updates as seamlessly as FB posts.
Share medical records like sharing pictures in Instagram.
Doctors have all the information in few clicks.
Doctors can prescribe with easy reminders.
Doctors can concentrate on patients and not technology.
When doctors and Patients smile together.

UI and UX – Critical Components of E-Commerce Success

Posted on 23/08/202009/06/2021 by Tushar

The strong shift towards e-commerce in India is ever more evident with India stepping into ‘1 billion mobile user club’. According to a new Bloomberg report, country now has around 1.03 billion mobile phone subscribers. SBI research report says the e-retail market was around USD 6 billion in 2015. And India expects 125 million online buyers with USD 19 billion (only through mobile) business by 2019.

One of the research held in India shows, ‘The largest digital properties in India (Facebook, Google) and e-commerce businesses have acknowledged that they receive 50% traffic from the web and 50% traffic via mobile (mobile web and app)’. However, mobile traffic is growing at a much faster rate. But, we most definitely cannot ignore the fact that only 7.8% of mobile users have smartphones. But the non-smartphones users heavily use the Internet!

125 million online buyers in India by 2019
Mobile Commerce sales to hit $19 billion by 2019
Just 8% of e-commerce addressable market lives in Top 8 cities, rest to be reached by mobiles.

The rapid change in e-commerce has strongly focused the entire design industry. Looking back, from print we shifted to web design and today we have stepped into the whole new era of designing for systems. It’s not just limited to that! We see highest level of personalization and customization taking place serving almost individual customer needs. The question here is ‘Who’ tracks the online behaviour and needs of your target consumer, ‘Who’ digs into the competitors product, ‘Who’ study the market trends and ‘Who’ gives you a solution that exceeds expectations?

The success mantra to stay ahead in the game for all online businesses lies in innovation and tactfulness of online platforms – the answer and key is with UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) experts. These are the people who ensure that your company makes a lasting impression on your potential consumers and convert them into loyal ones!

User should experience a complete bliss when they are navigating through your platform. An easy to use portal with all the necessary information and detail makes a big difference. These designers have an ability to get inside the heads of users and present you with answers to typical ‘What and How’s’ of your digital product! They are part researchers, observers, thinkers, developers and marketers. Remember, when you went to some website and in seconds, were fed up because you could not find the information you were looking for or you had to look up the entire page just to find one simple login; thus, is an example of a bad experience. Such that you would not want to go again. And then there are Websites like ‘Facebook and LinkedIn’ that generate high volume traffic mainly due to the enhanced user experience. Therefore, if you are interested in generating high volume traffic on your portal, you should ensure that it is user friendly and easy to navigate. And, more so serves needs of every individual customers in a way that they feel that they feel part of it.

Like, Beauty is incomplete without brains. Similarly, UX is imperfect without a great UI! A great User Interface is the part of the web interface (portal or mobile) that faces the user when he looks at the portal. The use of effective and simple user interface design will be of immense help in achieving the objectives of going online. Right from colors, fonts, graphics, animations, wordings, placement, almost everything is so beautifully inter-related and in a flow that users are bound to fall in love with your product and portal. A good user interface not only increases the usability but also leads to the smooth completion of any task at hand thereby making everything enjoyable and flexible as per the requirements of users. The visual appeal of a UI on portal or mobile has a significant impact on users as its information Architecture doesn’t enable engagement on its own.

To conclude, UX is as simple as making an online, digital world as human friendly as possible. And, UI makes it as pleasing as possible. The world of e-commerce, demands an expert guidance in offering a platform that would ensure that profits see an upward trend.

The Primacy of Illustration in the Digital Era

Posted on 24/07/202009/06/2021 by Tushar

Design is a roadmap or a strategic approach for someone to achieve a unique expectation – Wiki

I agree Design is strategic, purposeful and always aims to solve problems. A good Design creates a strong impact on users. Brilliant work catches your attention, keeps you engaged and stays in your memory. Just think of something that has caught your attention and forced you to read; do you recall some comic strips, cartoons, animation, sketches, illustrations in trolls?

Yes, the power of Visual Story Telling always has an edge and plays a crucial role in unfolding a story. There are many forms used like pictures, videos, animations, sketches. And that’s when a visual story telling medium comes to picture. Of course there are photographs that can convey your message. But are they versatile like Illustrations?

Users connect with illustrated narratives faster and more easily. So, who is your favourite super hero? From print the trend has gone viral and now digital platform is witnessing all forms of it some static and others in motion. Designers now are creating websites that use full-screen illustrations to custom made icons to personify brands, identities and provide that USP. Even highly technical and data driven websites can be made extremely lively and interactive yet commune the brand message as strongly as ever before and custom illustrations is the most fun and engaging way to do so.

The major misconception most people have is using illustrations as synonymous to beautification or to support but in reality it is Design in itself; a tool that can magically combine beautification and clean concepts.

It is no surprise that it’s taking over the web and mobile applications. Mood, style and theme of the websites can be set and unlike photographs, they can mesh reality and imagination and present you with an extra-ordinary design. With illustrations you become the king of your own wonderland with powers to create anything and everything to best convey your message, be it a dog floating in the space, a talking owl or a superman delivery boy; absolutely anything that hits your imagination. Little creativity, color and compelling illustrations are sure to change a website’s identity.

Illustrations have lot of technicalities attached to it also. While the illustration may have depths of complexity, the overall message should be simple. Like any other design, even illustrations undergo layers and layers of stages, from the rough sketches to vector outlines, to colors to depth and composition.

Color is a powerful tool in illustration because it can change mood – the mood of the user. Imagine a website has power to improve our state of mind and thereby it strengthens our relationship with a brand. And, if the colors are taken from the brand’s logo, the illustrations becomes a part of the brand’s identity. And, introducing more complimentary colors or gradients will add to its vibrancy. Texture brings more depth to the illustration, a simple halftone texture or a grainy grunge texture creates a nice effect to the flat illustration.

Today we spot illustrations mostly on a banner of the website or around the section that seeks to explain the usage of product/ services. The trend in mobile mainly focuses on splash and on-boarding screens. People also use lot of subtle animations to enliven the whole website/ applications. The animations are usually done using animated GIFs. A customized icon with svg animation is now a trend in UI interaction. The delicate use of animation in illustration just gives the site that extra dash of awesomeness for that memorable experience. There are different Illustration and icon styles used in websites and mobile applications, more leaned towards flat design. Few common styles include line drawings, filled color, hand drawn, low poly, Geometric, isometric and 3D.

A Guide to Using Flutter to Construct a Startup Mobile App

Posted on 22/07/202008/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

The open-source Flutter SDK is a Google UI toolkit that creates attractive, natively compiled mobile app, from a single codebase.

With apps being downloaded and used by millions of people in a rapid way, the mobile app development is skyrocketing.

There are many companies that are making use of this trend and contributing to the increase of app downloads. Here are some facts:

Did you know that android users can choose from 2.7 million apps, making Google Play the biggest app store?

The Apple App Store is the second-largest app store with almost 1.82 million available apps for iOS.

You should know that the accurate number of applications change because both the app stores regularly remove low quality content from their app stores and accept apps from the developers on a daily basis. However, the number of apps has been steadily increasing over the years.

In 2020, global mobile app revenues were over 581 billion U.S. dollars. In 2023, mobile apps are projected to generate more than 935 billion U.S. dollars in revenues via paid downloads and in-app advertising.

After reading the above facts and data, it is clear that the app development market is rapidly growing, and mostly the startups are taking the lead in developing apps and increasing their reach. If you have an idea and are confused about which platform to use, the best suggestion would be mobile app development with Flutter.

What Makes Flutter a Better Choice for Developing a Startup App?

As they say, numbers never lie. Let us look at some data revolving around Flutter app development services:

According to a 2020 developer survey, Flutter is the second most popular cross-platform mobile framework used by software developers across the globe. According to the survey, 39% of software developers chose Flutter development services for apps. This usage is expected to grow in 2021 as well.
Google broke down the share of Flutter developers and maximum work for a startup. Here is all you need to know: 35% work for a startup, 26% are enterprise developers, 19% are self-employed, and 7% work for design agencies.
Google reported a 80% spike of Flutter built apps in Play Store after version 1.20 was released. The number of apps built with Flutter in the Play Store has increased from 50,000 to 90,000 since April 2020.
As per Google Trends, Flutter is the leading programming language since February 2021 followed by React Native to develop customized cross-platform mobile apps.

Creating a startup mobile app with Flutter is in vogue and why would it not be? Flutter provides mind blowing benefits! Let’s discuss some benefits, shall we?

Benefits Of Building A Mobile App With Flutter

1. Fast development process

Flutter cross-platform application development is a huge buzz creator due to its “Hot Reloading” or “Hot Restart” features. With the help of this feature developers are able to write codes and finish the project development in real-time. As a result, coders increase their productivity and save a lot of valuable time.

2. Utilization of widgets

Flutter integrated apps provide a wide range of widgets including navigation, scrolling, fonts, and icons that are customizable regardless of the screen size. These widgets are easy to customize and make the app development process fast and simple.

3. Single code base for multiple platforms

The reason why Flutter is trending is because of its ‘write-once’ approach. Writing multiple codes for different platforms is no longer significant. Flutter mobile app developers only have to code once and not separately for both operating systems, that is Android and iOS, that is why Flutter is considered by most of the developers. As a result, Flutter makes the app development process as cost effective as possible.

4. User-friendly interface

Flutter can customize almost anything visible on your startup app. Be it shapes, colors, shadows, clipping or transforming elements, Flutter allows developers to execute everything seamlessly. Hence, it is needless to say that Flutter makes the app development process flexible and simple without adding extra workload.

5. Potential to move beyond smartphones

If you want to create a startup app, why do you want to limit it to just smartphones? Flutter cross platform app framework works as a full-fledged development tool. With Flutter you app can function on any platform- Windows, Android, Linux, IOS etc.

6. Serverless apps

Flutter allows the creation of serverless apps. Developers can use Google’s firebase support as back end and create serverless startup apps. Flutter provides a quick development cycle to help developers achieve their targeted time frames.

Numerous companies are choosing Flutter to develop exceptional apps in record time. Due to all the benefits, features, and functions listed above, creating an app using

If startup app development companies choose Flutter, then it’s the correct choice made. Flutter eliminates the struggle of time constraint and limited budget faced by startups trying to release apps across multiple platforms. Also, it is a blend of all the best Google ideas and technologies, a mixture which results in the creation of a powerful mobile framework.

Step By Step Guide To Flutter App Development

Step-1: The idea

This one is a cliché but don’t all great applications begin with an out of the box idea? Once you have an idea, you need to conduct a market research and find out your target audience. If you wish to create an app then don’t just begin blindly; instead, dig deep and research the facts, concepts and competitors. It is always important to find out how you are better than your competitors.

Step-2: Flutter for MVP

A minimum viable product or MVP acknowledges business owners to validate their idea, gather feedback, and identify customer’s needs. MVP is useful in avoiding market failure and investing on a product that is not backed up by proper market surveys and research.

Being an open source, Flutter complements MVP development. With Flutter increasing the pace of the development process, the process has become more simplified and efficient. Also, Flutter’s compatibility with Firebase, doesn’t require you to separate backends for building simple MVP. Creating MVP with flutter provides an added benefit of delivery of an intricately designed solution.

Step-3: User interface and user experience

Flutter not only provides us with native performance and hot reload for fast development but also access to beautiful, native components. The Flutter toolkit has opened a gateway to allow for a multitude of UI/UX and, by using its own source code, eliminating platform limitations.

Flutter is becoming an all-platform framework. What about when you want to use your startup app or a smaller or a bigger device? Be it a smartwatch, TV, laptop or smartphone. So, you can build native mobile apps using flutter to provide a wider range of devices that the app can function on.

Flutter’s adaptive components help you overcome such challenges. Adaptive layouts means how your app proficiently displays the UI on the device where it is being viewed on.

There is no need to build separate code for a multitude of devices, as Flutter already supports that using a single code-base. There are packages you can rely on which are equipped with native iOS & Android widgets to help your app give a platform-specific look.

Step-4: Development, integration and deployment

Startup mobile app development is a highly interactive process. The process includes- planning, development, coding, testing and reviewing. This is the step where you must look out for a Flutter mobile app company that can develop an android app using Flutter.

Mobile app development comprises three integral parts that are – backend, API and mobile app front end.

Backend: The Backend has the information that the end user cannot see. It includes databases and server-side objects that are important for supporting mobile app functions.
API: Application Programming Interface is a communication method between the app and the backend.
Front end: The front end of an application is what the user uses. Mostly an app has an interactive UX that uses APIs and backends in order to manage the data.

Once everything is in place, the next step is deploying your web server (API) into a production environment that is scalable. The second is deploying the app on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

The Bottom Line

The current app development market is extremely competitive! In order to make a new app stand out within a limited budget, the product should be extraordinary enough to drive the attention of the crowd.

If you are launching your startup app, Flutter is the platform to choose as it allows you to develop user-friendly apps across multiple platforms in a cost-effective way. Unlike other platforms, Flutter app developers create apps with a smooth UI for their users.

Flutter is bound to transform the cross-platform app development industry with its capabilities to emboss customization and expedite the app development process. Dive deep into the world of Flutter app development company and join the transformation.

Why is CX important for websites, and how can it be improved?

Posted on 17/05/202016/06/2021 by Tushar

According to a recent survey from SuperOffice, customer experience (CX) is the biggest priority of businesses over the next five years, more important than finding better products or selling them at the right price. Why? Because customers are flocking to brands that provide them with better CX and 86% of consumers said they would pay more for it. Whether you just sell online or have both a website and a bricks and mortar store, improving CX could transform your business. Here are some of the things that customers are looking for from brands today.

Personalisation

What makes Amazon the world’s most successful online retailer? The key ingredient in its success is personalisation. Its collection of user data ensures it knows its customers exceptionally well and this means that whenever they sign into the website, use its app or open an email, every product or offer provided for them is tailored around their wants and needs. It knows their shopping and browsing histories, the things on their wish lists, when they shop, what they shop for and how much they are likely to spend.

This level of insight means that Amazon’s product recommendations are much more likely to be a match for what the customer wants. This not only results in higher sales for Amazon; it also makes it highly attractive to customers who want to find the right products quickly and simply. This is why Amazon has become, for millions of shoppers, the default search engine for products.

The success of Amazon has led personalisation to become commonplace on the internet. Businesses everywhere are collecting user data to provide similar customer experiences (CX). For small businesses to remain attractive to modern shoppers, they too will need to start collecting user data to make personalised recommendations to customers. Today, it is easier than ever to implement. There are numerous specialist companies offering recommendation engines as a service and if that is out of your budget, try the AI-enabled, PRZ Recommendation Engine plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce.

Simple shopping

While product recommendation engines are beneficial, they can’t predict everything that a shopper wants to buy and they are not much use at all for new visitors for whom you have no historical data. Customers in these situations seek websites that offer simpler ways to shop. They want to be able to find products quickly, have all the essential product data given clearly (description, images, price, specifications, etc.) without ‘information overload’ and they want to be able to pay and leave without a fuss.

This starts with simple site navigation and the ability to search for products. Product search has evolved and customers expect to be able to easily narrow down searches by applying numerous filters: price, customer ratings, size, shape, colour, brand, etc. This can easily be implemented using plugins, indeed many store building platforms come with the functionality built-in.

Providing the right information can be a balancing act. Customers will want to know everything essential about a product, including other purchasers’ ratings, but without being overloaded. They may want to compare products side by side before making a decision, save the product in a wish list if they can’t make up their minds and be shown similar products that they might not yet have come across.

Once a decision is made, they’ll want to buy and go as quickly as possible. This means providing a streamlined checkout process, including guest checkouts for non-members and one-click checkouts for those who have saved payment details with you.

Omnichannel shopping

Though the growth in online shopping has led most bricks and mortar stores to build an online store, many retailers keep those two elements of their business distinct. Technology, however, has blurred the lines between online and on-premises shopping and this has provided yet another experience that customers want – omnichannel shopping.

The modern customer likes the flexibility of click and collect. They want to be able to purchase online and pick the product up from the store. Indeed, this business model stopped many bricks and mortar stores going bust during the pandemic as it enabled them to offer drive-through shopping. While shops were compulsorily closed, customers could order items from their phones in the car park and staff would take them to the car.

For single store businesses that have all their inventory under one roof, putting this system into place is easy to do on your website as it just means linking your store software to your inventory data, a feature available in plugins like WooCommerce. It is more complicated for businesses with multiple stores and separate warehouses as they will need to unify inventory data from across all their stores and warehouses. However, once in place, a customer can remotely buy from a physical store using the website or app.

Omnichannel communications

Modern technology has hugely expanded the number of ways that customers and companies communicate. The difficulty for brands is that consumers have their own preferences for how they like to stay in touch. Indeed, they have different preferences for different purposes. If communication is important, they may want the company to send a printed letter or email, if it’s a special offer they may prefer an SMS or WhatsApp message. When consumers want to get in touch, they usually want a quick response and may use phone, chatbot or, increasingly, a voice assistant or smart speaker.

Providing a great customer experience (CX) means communicating via the channels that consumers prefer. The advantage for businesses is that it enables them to send the right messages at the right time with a greater chance that they will be seen and acted upon.

The challenge here is, again, one of data. Not only does the company need to know which channel each customer prefers but it also needs to unify data to provide a complete overview of the customer journey. This way, whoever is communicating with the customer (human or AI) will have access to all the information needed to send out the right correspondence or deal with enquiries seamlessly when customers move from one channel to another.

This is the level of sophistication that many businesses have managed to achieve and which customers now expect from retailers. If they send a message on social media and phone up later, they’ll expect whoever is answering the call to have access to the social media message. Just as importantly, if they have used a smartphone app to add a product to their shopping cart, they’ll expect to see it still there if they visit your website on a laptop or try to order it using a voice assistant. Everything has to link up.

Conclusion

As you can see, customer experience (CX) is essential to staying relevant in an ever more competitive market and this is forcing brands to adopt new business models and the advanced technologies needed to implement them. For websites, the collection of data needed for personalisation, omnichannel shopping and omnichannel communications often require much more disk space and processing power than shared hosting packages provide. Upgrading to VPS or the cloud provides far more capacity to deploy the new technologies that CX relies on and is your first step to transforming your site.

Here are Tips to Enhance Mobile App Design by Improving Its UI

Posted on 20/03/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Often, we hear the terms ‘UI’ and ‘UX’ being used in context of websites and mobile applications. Haven’t we all heard or made statements such as ‘I just couldn’t understand the UI of the application so I didn’t install it’ or ‘the UX of the website is so great I keep going back to it.’ What are UI and UX actually and how do they impact a mobile application’s performance? And more importantly, how can mobile application design be enhanced using UI and UX?

This blog will talk about the vital UI and UX aspects of a mobile application and also provide handy tips that are proven to improve an application’s UI and UX.

User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)

User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are commonly used interchangeably, but the fact is that UI and UX are quite different from each other. “Design is not what a thing looks like or feels like; design is all about how anything works.” Steve Jobs’ legendary words sum up the co-dependence between UI and UX. A great product design strategy for your mobile app will keep end users’ needs in mind and meet the bottom line of conversion, every time.

Both UI and UX work hand in hand to make interaction with a mobile application as painless and smooth as possible.

User experience refers to the interactive side of a website or application. It governs the kind of experience a user has while interacting with a product. An application having a great UX will put new users to ease and actually encourage them to explore the application. So, UX developers have to actually anticipate how a user will think when they use a product and then design it in such a way that the interaction becomes seamless and intuitive. When talking about a website’s UX, site map, page load, responsiveness, and content are relevant aspects and for apps, navigation and layout are relevant UX aspects.

User Interface on the other hand refers to the visual elements in a website or app. The typography, color schemes, and layout of various design elements are usually a part of UI design. So, if a call-to-action button has to be placed on a webpage, its color and fonts will be decided by the UI developers but its placement, resolution, and functionality will be determined by a UX expert.

So, while UX professionals make designs centered on user’s needs and research, UI professionals create visual designs based on a client’s needs and requirements. But the end objective of both UI and UX is to please website visitors and app users and encourage them to return to the app or website again and again.

Tips to Improve Your Mobile App’s UI

Designing the perfect UX and UI is an art and a science. Your mobile application’s design can make or break its fate. While style certainly can’t beat substance, it’s a definite deal breaker for app users. All users love apps with familiar layouts, quick load times, and seamless experience across devices and screens, cohesive visual elements and strong branding. So, for your app to be a hit, it needs to be appealing inside and out.

Have a Unique app icon

A killer app icon will make your app stand out among the dozens crowding a user’s screen. Facebook, Google and WhatsApp icons are recognizable by people across the globe. Ensure that your app icon reflects your brand’s colors and style. Use the icon consistently across screens and pages and on all marketing collateral. The aim is to forge a strong bond between your brand’s message and its icons so that people make the connection instantly.

Keep in mind the following when designing your app logo:

Either use a unique image or your brand name’s initials in the icon. Your company’s logo is also a good choice as it might already have established repute and visibility in the market.
Avoid incorporating long words in the icon as it affects readability adversely and crowds the screen.
Submit several iterations of the icon while publishing your app.

Prioritize interaction design

Interaction design is an essential aspect of mobile app design. Apps with great interaction design are simple to use and seem like second nature. Users are able to figure out how to use these apps without reading lengthy tutorials or seeing complex demos. Each element of the app just fits together perfectly such that design becomes secondary and functionality gains priority.

The three pillars of interaction design that can enhance your app’s UI are:

Goal-driven design: User research and use case scenarios should be made for numerous situations so that you understand how a user will behave in a particular situation. Your app should not lose users at any point. Since it’s relatively easy to acquire an app from play stores, users don’t hesitate to abandon an app that isn’t meeting their needs instantly and opt for a competitor app. So your UI developers have to only attract visitors but also retain and convert them efficiently through brilliant design and interactivity. Customized workflows have to be designed for different use cases. Familiar navigation and simple layouts are best to guide users to the next steps. Uncluttered typography and contextual content are absolutely essential to maintain attention.
Usability: Usability testing is arguable the most important phase of app development. It allows real users to interact with an app under construction. Careful observation should be made to identify breakpoints and incoherence in the app’s UI. Usability testing should be repeated a number of times with different users and in different environments. This will probably give the most authentic feedback to your developers even before the app hits the market.
Feedback: Users need to be validated after they complete an action, especially new users unfamiliar with an app’s functioning. So, provide timely feedback in the form of visual cues, sounds or prompts as a user performs an action. It’s also a great strategy to include a prompt about the next step they should perform to guide them towards conversion stage.

Reduce, Reduce, Reduce

While mobile applications are becoming the go-to source for every kind of transaction, it’s a harsh truth that people’s attention spans are reducing by the second. Web users have no patience to read walls of text or go through lengthy how-to guides.

Keep your app copy clean and engaging. Also adhere to the context of the content. The aim is not to wow audiences with long, technical terms but to endear them with simple easy to understand content.
Use pictures and icons lavishly. They not only make your app attractive but also occupy less space and are more effective that textual cues. Keep in mind that pictures used should not be generic stock images. They should be customized to platform and screen size and have a comfortable resolution.
Mobile apps have trouble with multitasking. So focus on limited features. Don’t try to accomplish everything with a single app. Remove all extraneous elements and features and make your app screen uncluttered. This will appeal to users and also up your app’s performance.

Concentrate on Responsiveness

Finger-friendly design is a must for mobile applications. Your app should run flawlessly in different devices and screen sizes. Whether this requires tweaking media queries or JavaScript, no stone should be left unturned to keep users engaged when they switch between laptops, smartphones and tablets.
Use images in suitable format that fit the platform on which your app runs. Stretchable graphics are a great choice for Android app design.
Follow platform rules and design for best utilization of the particular platform. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel and create unfamiliar screen controls an interface elements. Take cues from the platform about the look and feel of your app. This will not only reduce redundancy of efforts but also delight users.
Adhere to the UI guidelines prescribed for mobile applications. There are norms for buttons, menus, widgets and every mobile element. All applications are scrutinized for these guidelines by play stores before they are published there.

Know Your Visual Elements

Visual elements such as fonts and colors although a part of UI, contribute substantially to the holistic user experience with an application.

When choosing typography for your app copy, focus on readability rather than attractiveness. The aim is not to distract users from your app’s features by using large, whacky fonts. Too small fonts become miniscule on smaller screen sizes. So, keep font size above 12 pt. at least.
Understand colors thoroughly and use them smartly to enhance visuals and show screen transitions. Fade out between screens will soften screen transitions. Highlighting a button can prompt a user to perform an action. Changing a button’s color after it’s been clicked will show a goal-driven action has been completed.
Use popular icons to show typical actions. For instance, a heart can be used to signify favorites and a tick mark to show completed action. Replacing text with representative icons will help your app’s international users who may not understand your app’s copy.
Keep an eye on app design trends as they keep changing rapidly. Material design, flat design, minimalistic design- choose wisely to give your mobile app a contemporary look.

Designing a mobile app with a great UI is a tough task. It requires years of patience and an in-depth understanding of user psychology. But practice makes perfect. So, keep iterating and testing to get the perfect mobile app design. Anteelo’s skilled UI and UX team has created more than 350 Android apps and iOS apps. We even provide comprehensive design consultancy to audit your app’s design elements and enhance its performance and usability.

Tips & Trends to Follow For Mobile App UI Design in 2021

Posted on 28/02/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

UI design has proven to play a crucial role in mobile app success. It has positioned itself as a ladder to reach the hearts and minds of the users and customers by displaying engaging visual content and more.

But, is everyone able to relish its benefits? Do all the designers and entrepreneurs know about the best mobile app UI design tips that work in the customer-centric world?

Sadly, no.

So, with the intention to simplify their journey of figuring out what the UI of future apps look like, we have prepared a list of tips and trends that will be popular in the mobile world in 2021.

But first, let’s take a recap of the benefits of UI design.

Now that we have taken a visual walkthrough of the importance of good user interface design during app development, let’s peep into a few mobile apps that are giving serious UI designing goals to others in the industry.

Best Apps That You Can Get Inspiration From

1. Netflix

Netflix app – the one that has changed the landscape of the movie streaming industry – tops the list with its breathtaking UI design.

The application introduced incredible layout and color options to the mobile domain. It has not just worked on simplifying the navigation process but also ensured that all the reported bugs are solved in real-time. In this way, it has increased the chances of offering a positive experience to their audience.

2. Splitwise

The UI design of the application is simple, sophisticated, and pleasant. The color scheme is chosen in a way that it complements app elements as well as employs the center of the device effectively.

3. Spring

Spring, the popular shopping app, is also a good option to consider while looking for design tips for mobile apps.

The mobile application offers a simple and interactive experience – using icons to give a hint of the functionality of each element. The app uses different font styles and sizes along with a card layout to deliver an enhanced UI experience.

4. Trello

Trello is yet another application you can consider for deciding the type of UI design to create.

This productivity app is easy to use and gives the facility of creating boards for managing their tasks. It comes with a clean and sophisticated look and feels along with its tactics of arranging all the pins in a ‘pipeline’ manner. Also, it offers tons of cool backgrounds and labels colors to amp users’ experience.

5. Shine

Another application that has enhanced its customer experience via the user interface is Shine.

The mobile app uses custom and abstract aesthetics to match the mood of users. It also relies on soft shapes and calm colors to make them experience some peaceful moments.

6. Coursera

Coursera is yet another mobile application whose User interface offers some real goals in the design world.

The app design is simple and smooth, offering the ease to navigate from a well-organized syllabus. It uses different font styles and colors to give users an idea of what they have covered, what they are interacting with, and what’s next.

Now that we have taken inspiration from different mobile applications, let’s turn towards the main part of the article, i.e, best mobile app UI design tips to follow in 2021.

Mobile app UI Design Tips To Follow While Designing Your App

Keep It Simple

The foremost tip for designing a better mobile app is to keep the UI simple.

When you restrict the number of app UI elements, users do not get drifted by unnecessary details. They find it easier to focus on the prime elements of the application, which eventually improves the user retention rate.

Make it Responsive

Concentrating on responsiveness is also one of the proven tips to enhance mobile app design by improving its UI.

This is because when you design elements that fit the screens, regardless of the device users are using, they find ease in performing actions. This, in turn, encourages them to spend more time on your platform and add higher value.

Use Popular Icons

Users, when interacting with various mobile apps on a daily basis, become familiar with certain icons. They can easily relate those icons to particular functionalities without even reading the label.

In such a scenario, using those icons can cut down the hassle of making users understand what an app element is for. This eventually enhances customer engagement and delivers higher ROI. So, introduce popular and similar icons in your UI designing strategy.

Maintain Consistency

Another best practice for app designing that UI mobility experts follow is showing consistency. That implies using the same font style, color, design, and icons throughout the app screens – and that too in the same order.

This simplifies the user journey and helps them make an action without getting a feel of being on some other platform. So, keep it into consideration while planning the app UI design.

Follow Platform-Based Rules

Both Apple and Google have set guidelines for mobile app design for iOS and Android platforms

. Following those guidelines improves the look and feel of your application on the respective platform.

So, do not overlook these Google and Apple UI design guidelines while crafting your app design.

Do not Forget about Loading Speed

Focusing on speed is also one of the best design tips for enhancing user interaction. This is because when UI elements take too much time to load, users get frustrated. They decide to exit the platform soon, because of which all of your efforts could go in vain.

So, think about optimizing your app speed frequently.

Invest in Testing

Many times, the elements you introduce in your app UI design do not work effectively. In such cases, they ruin the user experience instead of adding value to it.

So, it is good to invest your efforts into mobile app UI testing. For when you test your app icons and other elements for different conditions, it ultimately helps bring a positive impact on the users.

When talking about app testing, one thing that UI/UX designers must consider is the depth to which they should test their UI screens.

While educational and commercial apps require thorough UI testing across all the devices and OS versions, business apps can skip investing in extensive testing. This is because their audience, in most cases, is trained to employ the application.

In a nutshell, the depth of UI testing depends on the app’s purpose and the market it will target. However, it is a must to test your app UI on at least three different OS versions.

Iterate Regularly

Since user behavior and market trends keep on changing with time, it is again effective to upgrade your app UI design timely. And eventually, gain higher conversions.

As previously mentioned when talking about the latest mobile UI design trends 2021, changing market trends also influence the success of the user interface you design. So, let’s uncover what are the future mobile design trends 2021 to pay attention to.

The State of UI in 2021: Technologies and Trends That Will Dominate the Industry

1. Conversational Interface

Conversational Interface is one of the leading UI design trends for the future.

Just like Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, various startups, and established brands will invest in Chatbot development to deliver the next level of conversational experience to their user base.

2. The Overlapping Effect

In 2021, UI/UX designers for a mobile app will embrace the idea of overlapping different elements, like text, image, and colors in a single screen.

The concept will help in creating a well-organized interface and create an illusion of space. This will eventually enhance the user experience to a great extent.

3. Typography

Just like last year, considering typography in-app UI design will be one of the best mobile app design trends in 2021.

While brands have been applying bold San-Serif fonts and strong typography for some time now, they will now focus more on typography that reflects motion-based and three-dimensional effects.

4. Voice-Powered Interfaces

By 2021, 50% of the search engine queries will be performed via voice. Because of this, voice-governed interfaces will also become one of the popular mobile application design techniques which are poised to deliver higher output.

5. Simple Curves and Geometry

Another UI design trend that will transform our future is the use of simple curves and geometry.

These curves and geometry will lower down confusion that might arise when multiple illustrations, pictures, catches, and animations are present in the design

6. Custom Illustration Interfaces

Illustrations will also be one of the popular mobile application design techniques to follow in the future.

Both brands and designers will turn towards introducing custom illustrations into their application – just like how Uber did.

7. White space

White space will also continue to be one of the core elements of mobile app design strategies.

With white space, designers will be able to deliver an uncomplicated experience to their target user base. They will find ease in making them focus upon the main part of the application over others. And ultimately, add value to their business.

8. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Another technology that will bring a major impact in the field of UI design is Artificial Intelligence.

AI will not just help designers with creating multiple versions of any particular landing page or screen, but would also introduce personalized elements backed by thousands of studies and visual analysis. This, as a whole, will encourage them to look into how to use AI for better user interface design.

9. Contrasting Font Color/Shapes

Using contrasting font colors/shapes for mobile UI design will increase its popularity in 2021.

Mobility experts will infuse contrasting colors and shapes into their design to break the regular flow and add a tint of surprise into user interactions.

10. Animation

Animation, which was one of the key app UI design trends for 2018 and 2021, will also continue to enjoy the same momentum in the future.

Brands will embrace the technique to introduce micro-interactions in their design process. And, in this way, prompts users to spend more time on their platforms.

11. Opacity

Setting the opacity of different UI elements will be considered among the top key app design trends 2021. The technique will be used to bring more emphasis on certain elements while maintaining smoothness and seamlessness.

12. Augmented Reality (AR)

In 2021, UI/UX design experts will turn towards Augmented Reality (AR) for creating real-world interactions. They will embrace the technology to add immersion effects to their apps and products and help users comprehend the information more efficiently.

Besides, the technology will also be considered for building 3D brand impressions in the coming years.

13. Storytelling

Storytelling, i.e. the art of engaging users by narrating a story, will also be seen as one of the best UI/UX mobile design trends in 2021.

Mobile app designers will put more effort into crafting a story that highlights the purpose of the app and make users feel like a part of it. They will turn towards the best visual storytelling guides, tools, and techniques to make a story that keeps their audience hooked to their platform.

14. 3D Graphics

3D graphics will also land on the list of top UI/UX trends to consider in 2021.

Mobile app designers will incorporate sophisticated textures and 3D images into their designs to add a realistic feel. Also, users will demand more 3D designs and marketing content to enjoy a vivid, fresh, and engaging experience.

15. Placement of Navigational Elements

Another trend that will change the future of the mobile app design world is the placement of navigational elements.

As we have already seen in our blog upon the impact of Phone X’s new design on mobile apps, the absence of a home screen button will influence the navigation process. This will urge mobility UI experts to discover new ways to deliver a seamless navigational experience to their users.

16. Virtual Reality (VR)

Last but not least, the incorporation of Virtual Reality (VR) in UI design will also be in trend in the coming years.

The technology, after redefining the healthcare, marketing, and gaming industry, is expected to boost interaction levels in-app UI design. It is expected to emerge out as the ‘Internet of experiences’ by spilling out the app elements in the real world and prompting users to feel them.

While these were some of the mobile app design tips and trends that are predicted to revolutionize user interface in 2021, many more are hoping

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?

A. UI deliverables

Mood boards

Visual designs

Dynamic prototyping

B. UX deliverables

Competitive analysis report

User personas

User journeys, experience maps and user flows

Interactive prototypes

The Key Components to Know When Designing Mobile Applications

A. Information architecture:

B. Interaction design:

C. Usability:

D. Wireframe:

E. Visual design

Importance of Mobile App UI/UX Design

Attracts users

Creates a good impression

Get featured in app stores

Get loyal customers

Saves time and cost in the long run

Builds brand

Increased traffic

Mobile App Best UI/UX Practices

Use conventional elements

Maintain uniformity

Employ the right UI and UX designer

Make it as interactive as possible

Consider platform specific designs

Don’t hamper the speed of the app

Keep it simple and don’t complicate things

Keep the focus on limited things

The Top UI/UX Trends 2021 and Beyond

Voice-based UI

Foldable/Split screen

Variety & combinations in fonts

Dark mode

Animation

FAQs About the Importance of UI/UX Design

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

Q. Why is UX important for business?

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/clay.global/static/img/reel/reel-1350-min.jpg" alt="Clay: UI/UX Design Agency, Web Design &amp;amp; Branding" width="562" height="318" />

INTRODUCTION

What are the types of design deliverables?

1. Discovery & Research

2. UX Design stage

3. UX Design stage

Stakeholder Interviews takeaways

User research document

UX Audit

Information Architecture

User flows

Wireframes

Visual designs

Animations

Design system

Visual design specification

Conclusion

Our first step in Healthcare UX

EMR – Electronic Medical Records

Start with Design Thinking aka Solution Based Thinking Session

Keep it device friendly

Create a UX Process

Know your Users and Know them better than them

Understand HIPAA Compliance – Health Insurance, portability and Accountability.

Follow “Intelligent Devices, Dumb People” Rule

Conclusion

We will call it a winner when:

What Makes Flutter a Better Choice for Developing a Startup App?

Benefits Of Building A Mobile App With Flutter

1. Fast development process

2. Utilization of widgets

3. Single code base for multiple platforms

4. User-friendly interface

5. Potential to move beyond smartphones

6. Serverless apps

Step By Step Guide To Flutter App Development

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