Developing a mobile application is not sufficient. You need to focus on the UX, UI design of the app to attract and retain your customers. You need to focus on developing a mobile application that is well-thought, well-designed, and works fine on the device. 

Forgetting any one of these factors could make your app less valued. Don’t forget that users’ satisfaction is counted based on the overall experience of the users. And needless to say, UX/UI design is an integral element of an enjoyable user experience. 

We’ll discuss the importance of design in mobile apps and the major factors of mobile app development that you must focus on, in this article. Let’s begin. 

Why Mobile App Design is Important? 

Ever wondered why users should opt for your app, even though there are tons of mobile apps in the market? Well, the very first reason behind selecting any app from the users’ perspective has to be its design. 

Once the user is comfortable with the design of your app, they move on to evaluate its functionalities. So, for creating a great first impression, you need to focus on the design of your mobile application. 

Here are a few reasons why design matters for any mobile application: 

Interested Read: What All it Takes to Build a Mobile App: A Detailed Mobile App Development Process Guide

1. A good app design attracts the users 

The first thing you need to attract your users is cool visuals. If you can create a mobile app consisting of great visuals, infographics, proper theme colors, it is bound to attract the users’ attention at the first go. 

Your ultimate aim should be to make the users stay in your mobile app as long as possible. To entice them to spend more time on your app, you need a UI/UX design that resonates with them. The design of your app should be so on-point that users not only download it themselves but also recommend their friends about it. 

2. Responsive UI/UX helps you strengthen your brand image 

Your mobile app represents your brand image. So, it is certainly an opportunity for you to strengthen your brand image. An app with average UI can not help you keep up with your rivals. You need to create something beyond average to build an impactful first impression on the users. That way, the mobile app you design can empower your brand image. 

3. With an attractive UI, you can build a loyal customer base 

Building a loyal customer base pays off for all businesses. A decent UI and hassle-free user experience can easily build you a loyal customer base. Users are always looking for a painless experience from brands. If you can offer that through your mobile, there is nothing like it. A satisfied user will become a loyal customer and will tell others about your app. That’s the very first step to build a loyal customer base. 

3 Examples of Mobile Apps with Top-notch UI/UX Design 

Here’re the examples of 3 mobile apps that we absolutely love. Let’s have a look: 

1. Slack 

Here’s what we liked about the UI of Slack’s mobile app: 

• It lets you add as many workspaces as you want. That’s great for people who’re working from home, especially post-pandemic. 
• Slack uses fun and to-the-point copies. Nowhere on their UI can you find unnecessary content. Everything is brief. 
• Slack lets you create and discuss in different groups. 

In short, Slack delivers us a virtual workspace, and we think this app provides everything it promised us in the first place. 

2. Sephora 

Here’s why we think Sephora has an apt UI: 

• You can scan QR codes of Sephora’s products from its physical stores to find out all information. How cool is that? 
• Being a beauty app, Sephora helps you understand if a lipstick shade or a foundation will match your skin color or not. This feature is called “virtual artist” and we appreciate how this improves UX and stops us from buying something that may not suit us. 
• Interestingly, Sephora puts its basic navigation bars in the bottom. That is actually a breakthrough idea since most of us are familiar with side-navigation bars only. 

3. Spotify 

Below are the features we completely enjoy about Spotify: 

• Spotify has simplified its navigation bar recently after much criticism. Currently, their UI looks painless and the navigation bars focus completely on users’ playlists and preferences 
• Like Slack, Spotify also avoids wordy descriptions in its UI. They have included very specific content.  

The 10 Major Mobile App Development Factors that you Must Focus on 

Before you design your mobile app, you should focus on the following factors. These factors will help you find out the ways in which you can make a mobile app more user-friendly. 

1. Research thoroughly 

You might have a breakthrough idea to design the mobile app for your brand. But does it match the need of your customers? If not, you may end up spending a lot of money and energy and still not impress the customers. 

So, research thoroughly in the target market. Find out the customers’ demands, what the existing apps are already offering, where is the gap lying between the existing offerings and the customers’ needs, and so on. 

You should develop an app that has a simple yet attractive UI and that fulfills the demands of the customers. You can always refer to customers’ reviews and ratings on Google Play Store, Apple store to identify what issues customers are facing with similar apps. That will understand the opportunities and create a powerful mobile app.  

2. Find out your targeted users 

To understand the needs of your audiences, you must identify the target audiences first. The app you create and the design you use for it has to be user-centric. You need to create a buyer persona highlighting the key demographics of your audiences. 

This could include their age, gender, profession, hobbies, and whatever information you may get from social media, review platforms, etc. All these will help you get into the depths of your audience’s requirements and accordingly, you can develop the app design. 

3. Select the appropriate platform 

The two popular app platforms are Android, and iOS. It is an important decision to make that which platform do you want to target for your app. You can always target all three apps if you’re aiming to develop a cross-platform app. 

Again, the best way to select a platform is to find out where majorities of your target customers are. To identify that, you need to explore the comments of customers on all the app stores of all these platforms. This can give you an idea regarding which one or more than one platform you should target at the initial level. 

4. Create a roadmap 

Once you have a brief idea about the market, the target users, and their demands, you should create a roadmap. It must include the various stages of app designing. This should be a detailed roadmap starting from the initial stage to the final. Also, your roadmap must highlight the frequent requirements of updates and bug fixing in the app UI. 

5. Break the stereotypes 

You should focus on bringing out something new and different. Try to think out-of-the-box when it comes to app designing. People have already seen the regular app UIs. They are looking for something different. Also, an app that is different may not necessarily be difficult. 

Try to develop an easy app that engages your target users and converts leads quickly. Your app should break all the stereotypes to stand out in the crowd of millions of mobile apps.

6. Build a marketing strategy 

Designing an app is not where an enterprise should stop. They should build appropriate strategies to market their app.  You can use social platforms, ad campaigns, email marketing campaigns, or any other strategy that takes your mobile application to a large number of users. 

Also, you should remember that different mobile applications have different user bases. So, the marketing strategy your build to promote your mobile application has to be user-focused. 

7. Try to create a seamless user experience 

The mobile app you design has to be seamless and efficient in its approach. For example, if your app takes a long time to load or crashes frequently, people are not going to download it. So try to create a smooth app that creates a positive impression for the users. 

The app should also be efficient in terms of user-friendliness, security, data usage, etc. Don’t forget to focus on these factors while designing the mobile app. All these aspects add up to the overall user experience. 

8. Allocate sufficient budget 

App development and designing require sufficient investment. So, before you start any app designing project, make sure that you have allocated the optimum budget for it. Some of the major sources of expenditure in terms of mobile app development include app designing, maintenance, marketing, updates, etc. You should set your budget based on all these factors. 

9. UX is everything 

Don’t forget that improving user experience is your ultimate aim behind creating any mobile application. Better UX means higher customer satisfaction. Add something valuable to your app, something that forces the users to come back to the app over and over. 

The UX comprises of top-notch UI, great content, cool visuals, fast loading, and so on. Keep track of all these factors and create a mobile application that is a significant competitive edge over your rivals. 

10. Focus on testing 

Finally, make sure that you test all the functions and features of the app before making it available for the users. Also, testing should never stop even after the app is launched in the market. That way, you’ll get to know about the issues and bugs from time to time that need to be fixed. 

Final Words 

It’s time to sum-up now. We hope you’ve now gained a perspective on why designing your mobile app is important. We have also made the app designing process way easier for you by discussing the 10 factors to focus on. 

Any doubts? 

Let us know in the comments below. 

At ISHIR, we design and develop mobile applications to perfection, and ensure that all your queries get the right solutions. Reach out to us to know more!