As mobile app development has aged over a decade, it has seen plenty of changes and standardization. User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) are among the chief candidates to benefit from the standardization exercises. In this modern era, no mobile app developers will develop an app without considering the UI/UX aspect and expect it to succeed.
A mobile app developed without the consideration of UI/UX most certainly fails to attract and retain users. It’s a failure from the word go. What users expect is a good looking and easy to use mobile app that suits their expensive mobiles. Because the mobile app arena is plagued with cut-throat competition, users have plenty of options to go for. If they dislike the UI of your mobile app as soon as they have launched it for the first time, eight out of ten times they are less likely to launch it again. So, let’s have a look at what UI/UX actually means and how to improve them.
The user interface of any mobile app is the part that users interact with. It is the part through which a user input commands and receives the results. For example, the buttons and the tabs of the mobile app are part of the UI. Every screen and all the visual elements of the screen are a part of the UI. The UI presents the app to the users. And the user always interacts with the UI. For end users, UI itself is the mobile app. For them, its like dance and dancer. They cannot exist individually, according to them. So the user interface must be attractive in look, simple to use and easy to navigate.
The user experience (UX) means the experience of the user while and after using the mobile app. UX includes all the elements of the mobile app. They create a total package of user experience cumulatively. So, end of the day, what they feel while and after using the mobile app, is UX. It includes the UI, content, presentation, performance, results and everything in between. End of the day, the user experience (UX) has to be satisfying and/or leading to something new or better or it won’t succeed.
To make your mobile app popular among users, the UI/UX of the mobile app should have the following top 5 characteristics:
We live in the age of 4K TV and HD streaming so the looks and clarity matter a lot. Nobody will like to use and keep using an ugly looking mobile app. So you have to choose everything very carefully, from the overall arrangement of elements to the color pallets. You must follow all the platform-specific guidelines to make the user feel at home. Nobody likes a cluttered, crowded and unfamiliar outlook in the mobile app. So, the mobile app UI should be neat, clean and not cluttered at all. Take, for example, all the apps of Google. The simplicity of design will attract you the most in those mobile apps.
Navigation in the app means going from one screen to another. This navigational element must be self-explanatory or quite easy to figure out. To make it the easiest, iOS developers should follow Apple’s guidelines. And Android developers should follow Google’s guidelines. For example, Apple suggests developers provide a tab bar in the bottom for navigation. On the other hand, Google suggests slide out menu available from the top left corner of the screen. If a developer implements this thing in his mobile app, users will find it quite easy to understand and feel right at home.
The mobile app should be very light on resources when you want to have maximum users. The reason is simple. All the mobiles do not have high processing power. If your app uses too many resources, it will load slowly and respond more slowly. As a result, users won’t be happy and the overall user experience will be unsatisfactory. The UI should be lightning quick and responsive. Slow mobile apps with a higher response time degrade the user experience and eventually lose them. So, the mobile app must be light on resources for a better UI/UX.
We need a user interface because it bridges the gap between coding and usability. Any mobile app, or any software, as a matter of fact, is lines of codes, end of the day. When instructed, they perform certain tasks and give the desired results. But all the users are not coders. They need an easier way to instruct the codes to do something. That is why UI was invented. The point is, the origin of UI is in simplicity and ease of use. If a UI miss either of these two objectives, it fails its purpose. So it must serve both of its purposes and serve them well.
Nobody is perfect and new app users seldom are. So the UI should be helping them, assisting them in discovering new features. When something happens unexpectedly or suddenly within a mobile app, the app should have a help option. When the user can’t find something or he is stuck somewhere, he should have a search option. And, if a user commits a mistake, the UI should have an ‘Undo’ option to rectify it. Saving prompt at the time of exit or autosave options also help them a great deal.
If a mobile app developer or a mobile app development company takes care of these basic things, the UI/UX will be wonderful. It will help you create an intuitive app in such a way that success is bound to follow.
Equitysoft Technolabs is a full stack mobile app development company and web development company with exceptional expertise in UI/UX designing. We have in-house teams for iOS app development, Android app development, web development, and UI/UX designing. Our dedicated and expert developers and designers have delivered more than 100 mobile apps and 70 websites to the satisfaction of more than 150 clients. That’s why they have rated us so highly on platforms like GoodFirms and Clutch. Get in touch with us to have a look at the gallery of our UI/UX designs and quote for your mobile app development.