Ten App Design Commandments for Developers

Handheld devices have successfully replaced desktops and laptops in accessing the Internet. As a more personal, accessible and powerful device than a desktop, a smartphone or a tablet is all set to tackle day-to-day activities through interactive and engaging applications. Today, app stores witness a huge surge in a number of apps and developers find it increasingly difficult to stand ahead of the curve. In such a competitive scenario, we can bank on user experience through a seamlessl performance of your app across various devices.

Here we give top ten mobile app design and development rules for creating user-friendly apps that can work wonders for you:

1. Focus your mind

As an app developer, you know it very well that smart phones and laptops have entirely different domains to represent. It is necessary to make your mobile app user-friendly, reliable, and interactive enough to please the user. It is better to put yourself in the user’s shoes for enhancing UX.

2. Stay consistent

Your app design should be consistent, and each of its pieces must be matched with the overall design. The appearance of various aspects or features of your app needs to be compatible with the entire app’s appearance. App components with similar behavior should be of similar design and those with different behavior should have different appearance.

3. Follow the guidelines

Your app’s smooth flow also depends on following the design guide. Your app’s design should have a proper usage of thumbs as the user uses thumbs more than other fingers. The proper placement of buttons also plays a vital role in an app’s success through keeping users away from exiting your app. For example, while designing a messaging app, you need to put ‘send’ button adjacent to the thumb.

4. Select proper navigation model

These days, various navigation models are available for mobile applications, and you need to select the most suitable model depending on your app’s objective and nature. For example, for a single screen utility app, you require a Tab bar navigation with 3 to 6 distinct areas for content and a Drill down navigation having a list with detail content hierarchy.

5. Minimize typing efforts

Let’s face it. The user hates typing on a smart device! Your app should offer minimal typing efforts. However, giving an auto-correct option can act as a two-edged sword. It’s better to consider the most suitable input field. If your app requires a lot of typing, you should make your app to support landscape orientation.

6. Implement gestures

Modern touch interfaces support gesture-based user interactions, but you should think about the way of revealing the existence of gestures in your app as they are invisible. Though implementing multi-touch gestures is a good idea, but you should check whether or not the user wants them to use via a single hand in your app.

7. Check orientation

Usually, portrait type is more common in orientation, but at times, you need to make an app that support landscape orientation. For example, content-rich or typing-related apps need to support landscape orientation to facilitate the users. You can also consider putting orientation lock to avoid unexpected changes in orientation.

8. Use Modal Alerts

Instant feedback can give your app users a warm feeling and a personal touch. You can also use a spinner or progress bar to communicate with the user about the progress of their requests. Modal Alert is necessary to indicate the wrong process. However, care should be taken that “FYI” type of content should not be seen through a Modal Alert. Also, a ‘default’ button in the dialog can help you avoid any damaging actions.

9. Care for launching

However awkward it may feel to you, but your app should resume from the same place where your user had left it off. This seemingly small detail can give your users a feeling of responsiveness. Also, the launch screen of your app should have less or no content to avoid any frustration created by failed efforts.

10.Emphasize on first impression

The first impression has the maximum impact on your app’s future. You need to give special attention to your app’s first impression. You can enhance the impression through a polished icon and a strong silhouette with a minimal and to-the-point text in the beginning. You should consider giving orientation screens in the case of complex functionality to increase your app’s adaptability.

Well, that’s not all. Apart from these fundamental design rules, you need to pay attention to every minute detail for making your app successful in the mobile world. However, in the current technology-driven era, you can always take online assistance from an app development tool while focusing on integrating necessary features in your tailored application.