There is a wise saying– the first impression is the best. And it may be 110% applicable when a business is showcased through mobile apps to its viewers. If the mobile app design is alluring and easily accessible, hopefully, a company can expect to build a long-lasting relationship from a 16 seconds visit. So, to turn visitors into loyal customers first, there is no alternative to a helpful mobile app. And in this case, proper mobile app design is the key to outperform competitors.

Technically two things drive how to create mobile app design – UI and UX design, i.e., user interface and user experience design.

Though it sounds similar, UI meaning is not similar to UX. Instead, we can say UI design is a part of UX design. If UI is about the interaction between the product and the user through the app, UX deals with the user emotion with that interaction. Hence, UX design is more about functional, while UI is related to creating an aesthetic interface, i.e., presentation related.

Thus, both need different technical skills also. However, the ultimate goal is to make an app that is optimized for the end-users.

So, what are those mobile app design guidelines which can produce the right mobile app for business users? Let’s explore!

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What is UX design fundamentals in mobile app design?

As per Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen, "User experience" encompasses all aspects of the end user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.

In technical terms, UX defines and realizes the following characteristics of human-machine interaction:

- Practical feeling

- The experiential features

- How meaningful it is for the users

- How effective it is for the user

In a mobile app design, specifically in UX design, how the designer encompasses the user’s perceptions and feelings before interacting with the app matters a lot. At the same time, how the interaction will go during and after the interaction also decides the company’s product and services' success.

Hence, the thumb rules are –

#Know the audience before you design

What does a UX designer do when the design directly relates to the emotion of the users? Not to mention, he needs to know more about the users.

- Who the audiences are

- What do they want out of the product company is trying to sell them

- And how do they expect it to be represented in front of them

are few of the primary points of concerns. Thus user research is essential to work before every other task.

#Design thinking – an integral part of UI and UX design

The UX and design thinking process of mobile app design recognizes

- The purpose of the mobile product

- Customer needs

- Business objectives

- And pain points

- How the product will resolve those problems.

Here prototyping that involves design and discovery engagement is used to prioritize the product features. After testing, the prototype could be validated or invalidated based on business needs. Once both the business model and users validate the prototype, the actual development takes place.

#User interface design brings the flair of usability

User interface defines the interactions between the users to the UX design by adding visual objects. This gives the user clues on how they will successfully navigate through the app. In most cases, the UX design will come before the UI design. However, exceptions are there in some cases.

How to create a mobile app design for UI also largely depends on the designer's functional knowledge. Here they should be analyzed first -

- How to place the visual components

- What could be the maximum benefits in terms of look and feel?

- How a call to actions will be implemented

Furthermore, as today's customers have reached a wide range of mobile devices and tabs on different operating systems, responsiveness plays a critical performance factor in UI design. Also, load time is a vital factor, and unless the app is designed responsively, it can severely affect business performance.

#Without proper testing a design cannot be finalized

A designer may be experienced and skillful in a project. He may even have performed the mobile app design awfully with great functional features. However, that does not assure it will be a great success for the mobile app. A UI UX design & development can be baselined only when it passes the testing criteria from real user's perspectives.

As mentioned above, UX design is all about user emotional reaction towards the design, and unless it is tested with real users, it cannot be finalized. One of the main reasons is users can be from diverse interests. This is in terms of demography, from their backgrounds, interests, languages, etc.

Thus usability testing is the right answer that helps discover whether the designed app is correctly addressing the users' needs.

#Effective Mobile app content strategy – AMP

A mobile app is not all about visual components. It is about selling a brand. Hence, content is the medium through which the company conveys its client's information about the product. Today, when the app store is full of thousands of similar apps, what is the best way to compete in the market?

It’s Google’s SEO strategy – content is the king. This could be text, image, or video. First of all, it should be real content instead of that dummy Lorem Ipsum kind of content.

There are few more points to keep in mind regarding this –

- Make concise and clear information in the content. Nobody has time to go through a story.

- Font size and line spacing should be considered wisely. If a user needs to zoom in to read the content, it will definitely be a frustrating user experience.

- Make it AMP (accelerated mobile page) enabled to take minimum loading time and compatible with any screen size.

#Minimize cognitive load and make the design simple

The more easily the interface is accessible, it will provide a better user experience. So, in a mobile app interface design, avoiding cognitive features is good. Easy accessibility enhances usability.

To conclude, UI and UX design's ultimate goal in mobile app design is to solve the user pain points. As mentioned, there are some fixed rules. Along with that, prototyping before actual design is a part of the UX design workflow. It works as a prevention to avoid the extra burden of cost and effort. Giving design thoughts a competitive edge can definitely stand an app separate from the competition.

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