Designing a mobile interface is already a difficult task, but designing one to look as professional as possible can be even more difficult. Fortunately, this guide can make it easier for you. Here, some of the professional mobile app designers at LogoCorps will help you with designing your next mobile app interface like the professionals do, giving you the guidance and understanding of what you need to do to excel.
Of course, when designing anything, we might be too tempted to think that we can just jump right into it, but there is a reason that we teach theory before jumping into practicality. Don’t worry, this one will be a short read before we really get into the meaty stuff.
The Critical Crackdown of the Mobile App Interface Requirements
We will start with the general principles of design, heuristic theory that lets you understand the what and why before getting to the how. After that, we will get to the building process, as well as how you can test your designs to ensure that they are practical for real-world use in a mobile device.
The UI Design of the Mobile App Interface
Whenever dealing with things that may have some form of variation or combination, especially in a focused field as tech, there are standards made. The standardization of anything is not a hard and fast rule, but general rules of thumb that make it easier to do anything. Standardization allows for you to take your phone to any mechanical engineer, who will be able to understand the electronic insides of the device without having specific knowledge about that specific model. Standardization is why everything is secured with a Philips head screw instead of a unique one that requires its own special screwdriver to open.
In other words, standardization can help everyone.
That is why it is so important to try not to stray from the UI design principles when making a mobile app interface. Sure, you want to bring your own blend and your own innovative designs into the fold, but following standards make it universally accessible, not just to consumers, but to other people working on your mobile app interface as well.
Aspects of UI in Mobile App Interface Design
The UI generally has six principles that are followed to create a robust and effective
mobile app UI interface.
Those are:
- Structure
- Simplicity
- Visibility
- Feedback
- Flexibility
- Consistency
A focused structure allows the mobile app interface to be clear and precise. If you enter a mobile app, might be you need to switch to dark mode if you prefer. You generally find that in the settings menu. That is because any amount of user customization is structured to be in that part of the interface.
Simplicity is about making things as easy as possible for your users. It is not about giving them as much info as possible, but to make the completion or execution of tasks of that app to be done in the least number of touches or taps, or simply making complicated tasks easier. An example of this can be users being given shortcuts to a procedure they do often, thus saving time. Visibility works in this way for the mobile app interface as well, as it allows the user to understand where they need to go to perform a task, even if they have not used the app before. There should be one way to get to where you need to go, and the task should be performable in minimal, simple steps.
Feedback, flexibility, and consistency work towards the end-user’s benefit as well. Feedback informs the user of changes of state that is neither intrusive nor easily missed. Flexibility allows users to be able to manage those changes of state easily, and consistency simply is an extension of structure. If a menu enters a sub-menu related to those aspects, users will expect the same across the entire app.
The mobile app interface is a learning process. The UI design principles can be understood and expanded upon, and they should be considered as a process where the designer learns and incorporates new ideas, building on old ones over time.
What You Need to Consider When Building a Mobile App Interface
When you design a mobile app interface, you need to have a clear idea of every aspect of the design you need to put in. Not only do you need an understanding of the basics, but you need to understand what the app is for, what resources you have for that app, what the end user experience will have to be like, etc.
Overall, these considerations can be exemplified by the following:
- Push/Real-time notifications.
- The dashboard/home screen.
- Progress/Tracker pages.
- Viewing experience.
- Interfacing/Interacting experience.
- Review/Archives.
Now, these cover just the basics, but they give you a general idea of what you need to do. For example, you need to understand whether you need notifications for your app at all. Next, you need to understand whether you need popup notifications, real-time, or push notifications. Understand what the home screen needs before building it, what and how the user will see the data, before you set about designing it.
Every use case of the app and the product/services the app is being made for has to be understood before you get on to actually building the mobile app interface. The User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) go hand in hand, which is why UI/UX are often mentioned in tandem with each other.
Designing You Mobile App Interface
Getting started with the design still doesn’t mean you actually get started. First, like any designer, you need to create a basic sketch. In the mobile app interface designing sector, we call that wireframing.
A wireframe is essentially a sketch of what the mobile app interface will look like. Here, you don’t do any intricate designing, and wireframing can be as simple as putting a few boxes in places in accordance with the mobile app view, such as where the buttons, preview screens, etc., will be.
Designing for an Ideal User Experience
Now, you need to understand what happens when new user onboarding happens, and mark the paths the user can take. This process can help reveal potential mobile app interface design aspects that the pre-planning stage might not have revealed.
Always Test Your Mobile App Interface Designs
Your mobile app interface design might be intricate and exceptional, but it might not be user friendly. Or perhaps, everything might work for you, but might not on another device. This is why testing is a crucial part of the process where you not only make sure everything works, but ensure that everything works with the hundreds of thousands of combinations of devices and software a user could be using that app on.
Now that you have the knowledge and know-how to understand what it takes to design a mobile app interface like a pro, get started on a new design, or ask us as LogoCorps for any further questions or queries you might have!
Conclusion
LogoCorps brings the best of the best to tell you a little bit of a few things about mobile app interface design that you can use to start designing like a professional. Our expertise can help you bring out your best as well, and we ensure that we can guide you through every step of the way.
