The fierce competition in the mobile application development sector has made the jobs of developers tough. But despite the efforts, does every mobile app get success? The answer is ‘NO.’ Then what are the parameters that play a key role behind the success of any mobile application? Well, there are many of them.
One of those factors is the UI/UX of the mobile application. An attractive and well-designed app will offer a great experience to the user making it worth their choice and time.
Before moving any further, let us find out what the User Interface actually is.
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What is the User Interface?
The User Interface (UI) is the point where a human user interacts with an application. The goal of an effective UI is to make the user’s experience easy and intuitive while requiring minimum effort on the users’ part. UI design consists of the buttons that users click on, the text, the images, the sliders, text entry fields, and other items that users interact with. It also consists of a screen layout, transitions, interface, and much more.
A good UI design will help improve the conversion rate through your mobile application. There are however elements that can interfere with UI design that could also alter the roadmap for the strategy of the development. Therefore, we have compiled a list of top 8 UI design tips for Android apps that you must keep in mind while working on the UI.
So, without any further ado, let’s begin.
1. Use appropriately sized graphics
When it comes to graphics, a majority of the android app developers go for a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Even though it makes resource management simpler, it can create a blunder in the visual appearance of your app.
Therefore, to make your app look the best, you must have graphics specifically tailored to meet the desired screen dimensions. The most appropriate graphics will be loaded at runtime – making the best possible user experience.
2. Don’t forget the thumb zone
With every new mobile launched in the market, the screen size is increasing. It has made holding the device with one hand and browsing apps difficult. The mobile app design should not be aesthetically designed but should focus on the movement of the fingers and thumb.
When you keep all the zones in mind, you can create better mobile app designs. After all, you are designing a UI that must be able to provide a comfortable experience to the users.
3. Make it responsive
The UI must be designed in such a way that the app is fully usable on several different devices and various mobile OS. Both android and iPhone users have a great proportion in the market. Therefore, your UI must not be inclined towards only one of these platforms.
While designing the UI, keep in mind a halfway split (50/50) unless your product or company is specifically designed for a single platform. Ensure that you examine, explore, and discover all the possible issues that might come up while using your app on various devices.
4. Don’t drain the battery
If your app is eating a ton of battery life, the users are less likely to open it. Screen brightness and screen color are the two major factors in mobile battery consumption, in addition to other background services such as location.
The Material Design Initiative by Google is encouraging designers to use white as their primary color for mobile applications. Apps that need heavy screen time such as YouTube have introduced ‘dark mode’ to cut down the battery usage.
YouTube in dark mode used 43 percent less power than the normal mode. That’s quite a big number.
5. Avoid the long-scroll problem
Long scrolling is probably the best way to keep users focused while reading long blocks of text. However, in several instances, when the user has to complete a certain task, studies show that the more they scroll, the more they tend to lose interest.
Therefore, try to keep screens as short as possible while using cards with a ‘tap to expand’ feature. You can also break up the tasks into screens to keep the interest of the users alive. Of course, you won’t want the user to get irritated and leave the app.
6. Keep market needs in mind
Marketing applies to all industries, and app development is no different. It is therefore important to understand customers while creating the UI design of your mobile app. Create use cases for what a targeted audience is actually expecting from an app.
The users expect a personalized touch that depicts that the developers paid attention to their needs. Interactive apps never fail to deliver visitors the best UI.
7. Don’t make random color choices
All of the design elements of your mobile applications must have a clear purpose, be it text or the color aspects.
Don’t use colors that are too bright, contrasting, or difficult to read. After all, you can’t hurt your user’s eyes if the colors are too bright.
Therefore, you must try to stick with colors that work and use common color associations for your buttons.
Let us make it more clear with an example – anything that is yes should be green, which exit should be red.
If you go for reverse color associations, the user will get confused and irritated. It will also impact your conversion rates to a great extent.
8. Invest in testing
At times, the elements that you design in your app UI do not work as they are expected to work. In such situations, they tend to ruin the UI instead of adding value to it.
Therefore, it is always advisable to invest time and effort in mobile app UI testing. When you test your app icons and other elements in different test cases, it ultimately helps bring a positive impact on the users.
When we are talking about app testing, one thing that UI/UX designers must keep in their minds is the depth which they should test their UI screens for.
WRAPPING UP
Do you wish your mobile application to be successful? You have to consider the UI. You can follow the tips mentioned above to create better UI designs for your Android apps.
Try to keep the minimal design while focusing on 1 or 2 actions per screen. Try not to fill the screen with irrelevant content. You must focus on keeping the headlines and text concise and use brand colors.
Have an amazing mobile application idea in mind? It’s time to hire an android app development company to turn your vision into reality.
Author Bio:
James Grills is currently associated with Cumulations Technologies, a React Native Development company. He is a technical writer with a passion for writing on emerging technologies in mobile application development and IoT technology.
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