10 Things I Learned While Redesigning My App
By: Swathy Reddy
Tags: Prototyping, UI Design, UX Design, Lessons Learned

Color sets the mood

I knew color selection would be key to achieving my goal of a mental health app that is calm and welcoming. Color theory suggests different shades of blue can create a peaceful mood. I couldn’t settle on one shade, so I went exploring for inspiration. Using canva.com, I went through a few logos and found one with a peach color, which had a warmth that was missing from the blue. Somehow my color palette came together right after selecting the logo. I’m not saying this will work for you, just saying how it worked for me.

2. How to create an App Intro for greater user engagement?

The intro screen should show the apps’ value proposition using a limited number of words and create a call-to-action. To tailor this for my app, I had to dig into the user interviews I initially conducted. Interviews are the best way to empathize with the users as they give you an understanding of the users’ values, experiences, and perceptions. For my app, the theme that constantly came up was that people need instant help free of cost. People value their time and resources and that’s what we are going to give them in this app intro.

3. Style Guide — Dead or Alive?

I struggled to put together the most basic screens for my app since I could not decide on the color palettes, fonts, imagery, UI elements, iconography, etc. I turned to a mentor for advice and he quickly pointed out that having a style guide would help me greatly. Once documented, I can reuse all the elements in the Style Guide for multiple screens in my app. And if I ever make changes to elements in the app, I can always go back and update the Style Guide. Style Guide is a living document, let it breathe in your innovations.

4. Craft a great First Time User Experience (FTUE).

User Flows come in handy when developing the onboarding experience. It basically maps out all the activities a user can perform while existing in the app. I created a couple of different user flows to capture all the tasks one could do in the app. The simpler the onboarding experience, the higher the retention rate will be. There is no room for complexity at this point.

5. Also build monetary worth for the business

Once the user is hooked on the experience of my app, I wanted to introduce a Premium feature to build some monetary worth for the business. The users want the best experience, consistently, and are willing to pay for it. After creating a great onboarding experience it was only safe to assume that we could capitalize on it.

6. How to prioritize features? Use Cake. Yes, you read that right.

One of my mentors introduced me to the Cake Experience Roadmap which contains a cupcake, birthday cake, and wedding cake. In short, a cupcake is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that you know you are going to build. It is tasty and has a low price. Level up to a Birthday cake. You think that you will build it. Lastly, a wedding cake is a deliverable that you may or may not build.

7. Payment Screen — No need to reinvent the wheel

For the premium feature on my app, I had to create a payment screen workflow. For the user that reached the payment screen with the intention to buy, the app has done everything right. As much as I want to revolutionize this workflow, I decided to stick with a standard one. The research has been done and tested. It was all about empathy for the user. There was no need to reinvent the wheel in this segment.

8. Inclusive Design and Accessibility — Icons Shopping & Labels

Initially, I had some difficulty with what icons I used. For it to be universally understood, I had to do some digging. I used thenounproject.com for icon shopping. Later I decided to add labels to the navigation bar. Labels are meaningful when it comes to information architecture. As long as there is no confusion to the user, it improves accessibility in the app.

9. Negative space is your friend

Proper sizing and spacing of elements are critical for interface design. When components get too close together or to edges, the layout will feel cramped. Using a grid with consistent margins and padding helps keep everything organized and aligned. This will look more professional and improve readability.

There was a moment or two when I failed to consider it. After talking to a mentor, I quickly realized what difference it makes in the composition of the design and included it.

10. Do not silo yourself, even on a solo project

I had a habit of working in isolation with respect to solo projects. But it all changed after I came across ADPList.com. Once I started showing my workaround to mentors from different backgrounds, I received valuable feedback. I was iterating on the app before I knew it. After going through this app redesign, I can confidently say that I’m no longer afraid of constructive criticism. The design community at large is a welcoming one and I struck gold with ADPList.com.