How Important is UX/UI Design in the Product Development Process?
By: Nagaraj Wadakannavar
Tags: Product Development, UX Design, Mobile App Design

Mobile applications are one of the biggest reasons why people are going for mobile. In 2019, the total number of apps in Google Play and the App Store has reached out to 4.5 million and the number is growing drastically because of the ability to get things done quickly. But what makes mobile apps better? The UX/UI is one of the first answers.

The design of an app enhances the user experience which is the biggest factor that ensures the success of an app. The majority of users prefer an app that has simple yet elegant designs and has good performance. The UI/UX design for mobile apps should not be such that it slows the performance of the app. This will result in a frustrated user eventually uninstalling the app.

The difference between a good app and a bad design is “Bad overweigh the Good”. A good UX is what separates successful apps from unsuccessful ones. Today, mobile users expect a lot from an app: fast loading time, ease of use, and delight during the interaction. If you want your app to be successful, you have to consider UX to be an essential component of product strategy.

What makes the design better?

1. Minimize Cognitive Load to Maximize the usability — The cognitive load affects how easily users find content and complete task so don’t overwhelm the user with too much information at once, it makes them abandon the task in middle.

2. Decluttering — Good design is all about organizing the information and showing only relevant information since mobile devices don’t have the luxury of free screen space to play with, every added button, image, the icon makes the screen more complicated. Clutter is terrible on a desktop, but it’s even worse on mobile devices.

3. You are not your user — Research before you design by doing a competitive analysis, find apps that are similar to the one you are designing and optimize the user flow by dividing the big task into a number of small subtasks.

4. Self-Evident Navigation — App features are useless if people can’t find them. The majority of mobile users are familiar with well-known navigation patterns i.e. the combination of App Bar, Bottom Bar, and Navigation Drawer so let’s not get clever when a simple solution works best and saves a lot of development time.

5. Retain Uniformity — You should always ensure the layout of your app is consistent across all platforms. A consistent app design increases familiarity with the app. This makes it easy for users to interact with your application.

6. Use Simple Design and Platform-Specific Elements — This increases the user’s confidence and familiarity with the app, you should use standard symbols, colors, buttons, and icons. The user will not require any additional guidelines on how to use the mobile app.

7. Use Adaptive UI Design — The use of adaptive design enables the app’s developer to make the correct plan for phones, tablets, wearables, and all screen sizes. An adaptive user interface allows users to alter it to fit the context and the needs of each user. By using the adaptive design, you solve the problem of designing for varying screen sizes and resolutions, too many screens which is difficult.

To be a leader in adaptive UX design, you should be an app developer.

Conclusion: Good design is a design that respects the operating system and meets the expectations of the user. The only way to achieve this is by understanding the platform’s capabilities.

The mobile app development guide has outlined some of the best practices to make your app look better. If you don’t follow design gets complicated hence increases the complexity and duration of development and makes your app look alien to the developers and users.