5 design philosophies to creating a kickass app

Building apps may be hard, but designing them is harder. The conscientious effort of tying up logic with a strong UX is monumental and can be daunting.

Why? Because design is subjective.

However, there are 5 philosophies which guides Rainmaker Labs when it comes to UIUX design and has proven to be widely accepted by users and clients. 1. Consistency Everything from the colour schemes, button layout, typefaces, etc must show consistency. 1 example is the rule of 4. a) Never have more than 4 colours (some would argue 2) b) Never have more than 4 button designs (anything more would be pushing it) c) Never have more than 4 typefaces (anything more would be really pushing it)

2. Cohesiveness Google defines it as the act of forming a united whole. All supporting elements (websites, lifecycle EDMs, response EDMs, everything) need to show uniformity and consistency. With cohesiveness, you build credibility as well.

3. Predictability Keeping up to date with design trends is essential in building a predictable product. For instance, instead of using the word; “Menu”, many designers have opted for a menu icon This has saved valuable real estate, allowing for a portrayal of space which is luxurious in my opinion — and it’s one of the many reasons why designers opted for the (insert menu icon) as a standard which eventually led to a prominent shift in user behaviour.

4. Keep it simple Always ask 1 thing before adding elements to a design. “Is this necessary?”

5. “That was cool” Cool animations like the Origami SDK or slick precision controls like the Pop animation engine of Facebook’s Paper will definitely help score user-brownie-points.

But it is only until you master steps 1 to 4, then should you start building cool stuff.