Mobile App Design Features – Tips and Usability Guide

People are spending more time on their phones than ever before using all kinds of apps to help make their professional and personal lives easier to manage. There are many things that people expect from a mobile app:  

1. Quick load time 
2. Ease of usage  
3. An intuitive interface  
4. Responsive design 
5. Offline availability 

The job of a app designer is to take the user demands and incorporate it into the technical specifications to produce an app that will be widely used and one that distinguishes itself from the competition. In this article, we will take a look at some tips for mobile app design so that the customers will feel comfortable using the app.  

Designing an App That is Simple and Easy to Use 

A mobile apps user interface design that is jam-packed with all kinds of features will not be received well by the users because they are looking for simplicity above all else. When you design mobile applications, less is more because the users immediately understand what your app is about. One of the biggest reasons people delete apps from their phones is because they are difficult to navigate and one of the common mistakes of mobile UI design is that a lot of times designers think that what works on a laptop will also work on a phone and this is rarely the case.  

Therefore, before you start working on your app, be sure to do your homework on what the users are demanding, in order to get rid of some superfluous features preventing you from achieving the major goals.  

Time-saving Design 

A basic and straightforward mobile interface will allow you to score more points with the users since they will not have to waste time figuring out how the app works, but also a quick load time will make the app more accessible. The users are looking for a touch-based features design without any extra stuff that could distract their attention. With this in mind, the key question mobile development services everywhere are asking themselves is what objective the user is trying to complete by using their mobile app? By finding an answer to this question, you will be able to give the users a higher level of comfort and usability.  

For example, if your app helps people manage their finances, you have to consider that the main goal the user is trying to achieve is to stay in the black not just this month, but long term as well. So, you have to make it easy for the user to see where they stand financially and make it simple for them to get their finances in order.  

Offline Usability 

By creating an app that works offline, you are giving the user an extra level of comfort knowing that they will be able to transmit important information regardless of the situation they find themselves in. This could be particularly important for travel apps since the user is worried about accessing their travel information, maps, photos, and other information especially since a Wi-Fi hotspot is not always around. Having said this, if your apps deals with classified or sensitive information, be sure to do some research into which aspects of the app should be available offline and be saved on the phone without compromising any of the sensitive data.  

For example, some virtual data room companies offer mobile to help their customers access the documents that are stored inside the mobile apps so their customers can access their file on the go and even offline, but more advanced features such as downloading, or sharing are available online only. They also feature a responsive mobile design that allows customers to access documents on a variety of devices.  

We hope that these tips will be of use to you when creating your mobile app since all of them are geared towards improving the user experience. Nowadays, the competition is so severe, even in very niche-specific markets, that if you do not give your users an app that is easy to use, they will simply go elsewhere. Be sure to take into account the original purpose i.e. why the user downloaded your app, to begin with. Once you are able to answer this question and focus your design to help users achieve their original purpose, everything else will fall into place.