How to properly design your apps.
Several things you should do before designing them.
Before you start to read this article. I really want to make sure that you understand that i don’t want to be rude to anyone and i don’t claim to have the perfect work flow. I don’t want to make any designer feel ashamed of his own process. I just want to share my 4/5 years experiences about create design for mobile devises with you. If necessary, i would update that article when i would include new steps in my working process.
That article idea came in my mind when I started to comment work from designer on the Design+Code group on Facebook. I have seen a lot of beginners talents asking for design feedbacks of applications screen-shots, and keep repost them after collected all feedbacks. But through their questions or comments replies, i could feel they just started to design apps from nowhere. Without getting any global view of their mobiles applications. So if you are designing just one by one screens of your application with real design contents, make a lot of versions of it after getting designers feedbacks and expect that the next screen will more or less work with it.
In this article i want to show how you could avoid creating tons of designed versions by establishing applications overview, problems, challenges, application events, user walkthrough, wireframe, but also to give you some tips how to make some concurrences research, inspiration buckets..
What is an application?
Let’s suppose that an application has to be something functional, that would provide service which majority of people would be able to use and/or understand the usabilities. In fact an application has to resolve a life-problem. Some applications can help to track your diet and workout, find a place to sleep during your trips, that’s for the complex ones. An application can help people to communicate by calling and sending texts. What I want you to understand here it’s there are tons of applications, some are easy to use and some have a complex approach. But the best of them are simple to describe and simple to use.
Overview
This step may sound a kind of stupid for most of you or maybe obvious, I don’t know. But I assume that if you don’t know how to present, in a few words, your application means that the idea you have isn’t clear enough. So you aren’t ready to build it. It’s all right, you just have to partition your ideas and ask yourself if each of them is really necessary for the first push of your application. Taking Facebook as an example. At first it was only an identity card for university. Then the development team have added features like the wall, photos, etc.. I want you to understand that some features you think about are useless. It’s always better to focus at first and pick up the most important features and then update your application with some new features. But keep it simple.
As i said, your applications has to resolve one problem at least. Ask yourself : what is the first goal of my application? Message texting, calling, setting up events, alarms, track books user had read to propose him similar. When that app-goal is clear in your mind, then write it somewhere, it is the red line of your application.
Problems & Concurrences
If you are about to design the application, that means there is a potential market, that means that there are also potential concurrents. I advise you to make a market research. Search if there are any existing apps which provide the same service. Download and analyse them. Make notes about anything about these apps’ good or bad sides. Analyse if the user-experiences are fluent or tricky. If the apps are simple or complex to use. Determining concurrents’ problems will help you to create a better user-experience.
Challenge
It is always a challenge. It can be a number of the team members, budget, deadline. But it can be also a new way of designing user interface, a new way to dealing with user experience, a feeling that you want to transpose through your app. For me any challenge is a great fuel for inspiration, make your application a challenge for yourself.
Application events
This table will drive you to create a great user walkthrough. The events table is the list of the principal screens of your app, where the main events will appear. Take a look on the app event I did for Pancake below. As you can see each screen has its own events. I encourage you to make such table for your project and try to clarify events, make them as simple as possible.
User walkthrough or user task flow
It helps you to think out the design, organises your user experience, and helps you to get an overview on all interactions the user will have to deal with during his walkthrough. This schema helps you also to articulate your project properly. Keeping it next to your screen is the best way to make your application look sexy and smart. It will determine the way of designing and developing the application.
Wireframe or mockups
I know from a designer’s point of view, it might sound boring to use these white, black, grey paths. But using a wireframe helps you to visualise the user’s walkthrough / user’s task flow. You can even sketch it on paper and continue defining the mockups on Sketch. There are wireframes in Sketch App Sources you can re-use as a library. Try to get as much real data as possible, I am thinking about friends’ comments and designers’ feedbacks, they would be a great help during the process. And until your wireframe will not be fluent and will not expose any screens of your application, you aren’t able to design your app yet.
Inspiration buckets
Even before creating wireframes, I search on Dribbble, to check how talented designers around are dealing with user-interface and to get inspirations for my project. Tracking recent works will also help you to get a fresh view on what you are doing. I encourage you to put the best of you on each part of the design.
Even if you aren’t invite as a designer you are able to create an account as a prospect. And create buckets where you can save interesting works.
Only after following all these steps, you will be able to design your application. So far, i have seen talented fresh bloods who won’t take that step back, that is sad because the projects they are into, could be even better. For me these steps are mandatory before having designed any version of your app, you would avoid wasting your time with re-designing your project again and again because at the end of your version, you will release that you forgot a button which is essential or you will get a feedback to change the all the user’s walkthrough. I did that kind of mistakes, never again! And finally these all steps would help you to keep an overview on your app project.
Trust me if you do all of this, your application will surely provide a great experience and you would be the man!
Rudy with love ❤
