What I know about Mobile App Design

We have shared our thoughts about a mobile app in LimeCommerce last week article. For now, we should into a specific topic, which mobile app design. For me, this is an important part to build an awesome mobile app. There are so many mobile apps on any platform. Almost all companies willing to spend their budget on mobile app design. Just like a website, mobile app design is the first approach to build a great first impression when the customer uses your mobile app for the first time.

Today, I will give you some tips to make a mobile app design. But to make it more specific, I will talk about flat design. One of the most trending designs in a mobile app. Flat design is trending because they manage to give the simplest yet most important information to the audience. Well, in my opinion, since we go this way, people want to make their works go faster. And to do so, they need a fast and simple method. If it's not important, I assume they won't waste their time on something unuseful. So does design. If they think the design is not important to be there, they will skip it and search for the simple one.

Ah yes, it's okay if you are not an app designer. I think this is also an important lesson for an e-commerce players to give ideas about their mobile app design. Since they are the ones who know the whole concept of their companies and brands. And the designer needs some inputs to make a basic concept of what to create.

Well, I don't know about the device you use. Mostly you will use Apple or Android. Windows is outdated and the last time I checked, they just decided to stop producing Windows Phone. Although they are the one who introduces this ‘authentically digital design' that make a big shift from skeuomorphism design to flat design. So we will talk about flat design for Apple and Android devices, in general.

Flat isn't ‘Flat'

Flat design doesn't mean boring. You still have something to make it attractive and intriguing. Playing with boxes, typography, and iconography are effective to make a good user experience. Using the icon that represents your feature and put simple words for it. So, long story short, if your customer uses your mobile app for the first time, they can easily learn how to use that because of your flat mobile app design. And when they use for the second time, the learnability is quickly helping your customer to learn easily and faster than before. The flat design is not ‘flat' anymore.

Designed for Accelerated People

Not everyone will love and enjoy this design. Some people will say that an ‘artistic' design is better and more enticing to use. Design that uses particular ornaments for its border, use handwriting-like font, realistic illustrations, full-color banner or something like that. People like this will think that flat design is boring and doesn't qualify for a good mobile app design.

Flat design is different. As well as the people who use it. People use it for efficiency. They don't demand beautiful colors, buttons, or something unimportant. As long as they got what they want, it's done. Your mobile app design is effective and will be loved by them. You need to maintain this flat design and give a better and more efficient way to make your audience put their trust on you. They become loyal to your app and you will get 5 stars for your hard work.

So, know your users. It would be difficult if you have no idea of what kind of people who will use your mobile app. This thing will be your basic concept to create your mobile app design. You can do a research or hire some people to do that. Creating prototype is also an effective way to know how people use your app.

Color Pallete

You don't have to choose the bright color for flat design. For example, if you want to make a Weather Forecast mobile app, you can use white, gray or even black to show cloudy and rainy weathers. Or use two colors like yellow and orange for a bright day.

To make it more enticing, a designer will use a bright color for a specific call-to-action feature. Let's say you use blue as the main color in your mobile app design. You can choose one or two more colors as the additional color. No need to make a rainbow. Just use two or three. It won't be called flat if you use the whole pallette, right?

Color Gradation

Use the color gradation for more than one call-to-action buttons. Use the boldest color for the one that you want the most to click on people and use fade color for the rest. Sometimes some known brands will use white as the last option.

Free Space

To make your mobile app design more simple, free space is also needed to give people some room to breathe. After you use typography and iconography to simplify your interface, the free space plays its role to make those words and icons become more attractive. Not just attractive, you can say indirectly that those features are the most important part of your mobile app. And the customers don't have to worry about unuseful things.

For the color, it's all up to you. But remember to choose the color that the market loves the most. It's business, not your personal blog. So it's not about you, it's about your brand and products. For example, if you want to make an e-commerce store that sells luxury products. Simply use silver or gold and add black as your main background color.

Conclusion

For the summary, we can say that one of the most famous mobile app design these days is flat design. It becomes famous because people now tend to use an effective and fast app for daily needs. And to make it real, you should play with simple colors, put simple font and icon to inform the audience and create more free space to give the audience a room to breathe, yet still find it useful.