Are you developing a concept for an app? Before starting the natural process of building one, you should have all the information necessary to make sure that your mobile app stands out from the competitors. The most recent figures show that while Apple's App Store offers approximately 2 million apps to its consumers, Android users may choose from over 2.1 million apps on the Play Store. More than 2000 new apps are added daily to the app stores. Despite these staggering numbers, which highlight the fierce competition that new apps must contend with, the average app has poor retention rates. In the first three days following its release, the average app loses 77% of its daily mobile users (DAU), according to Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and writer Andrew Chen. Several things can explain this finding. This is where mobile app design enters the picture and becomes so important. Most of these problems can be fixed using the ideal design methods for your app. An app design studio must create apps that stand out in the sea of mobile apps that are produced daily. A beautiful design can keep customers who have already downloaded the app, but a fantastic concept can draw new ones.
Suppose you are an event planner (and do not reside in a wilderness cut off from society). In that case, you are undoubtedly already aware of the several event mobile apps available. If not, you can find an infinite number of possibilities by taking a short check at Google Play or the App Store. As a result, anytime you decide to buy a digital planning tool, the deluge of options will make your decision challenging. All these options—native, hybrid, and web-based—sound fantastic, but which is the best for you? The quick response is an intuitive event mobile app.
It's a solution that benefits both you and your audience. An easy-to-use event mobile app will save you time and make your guests' experiences enjoyable. What then distinguishes a well-designed, user-friendly, and genuinely exciting app? To put it another way, how can you know if a mobile event app is user-friendly? You can tell an intuitive event mobile app that is genuinely worth your money by looking for the following features:
Interactive User Interface
Try the demo version if you're trying to decide on an event mobile app, and check whether you can engage with it without experiencing any pain. Are the alternatives simple to comprehend and use? Are the visuals easy to use and helpful in doing jobs quickly? You can tell if you are using an intuitive mobile event app or not by the responses to these questions.
Unobtrusive Bits Of Help
Learning on the fly is made possible through an intuitive event mobile app. As the event organizer, you and your guests shouldn't take the time to learn how to utilize the app. However, "Users will occasionally need a light push in the proper direction," as stated in the Design for Founders article; in other words, a user-friendly event mobile app will quietly and promptly offer assistance, simplifying the engagement.
Integrated Back Buttons
An easy-to-use event mobile app will give users a one-click way to return to the home screen. The Think with Google eBook states that "apps should exploit return capability" so that users don't feel compelled to restart from the home screen and potentially lose any saved data. Attendees won't experience frustration due to unclear or ineffective remedies in this way.
Easy Password Authentications
People don't want to try to set and refresh their passwords to access an app. This procedure is easy and pleasant thanks to a user-friendly event mobile app.
Three-Click Rule
According to Leigh Gallagher, "Chesky and Gebbia were emphatic about certain things surrounding the website and the experience: in particular, it had to be frictionless, it had to be simple how Airbnb Turned Steve Jobs' Three-Click Rule into Design Brilliance. " The listings needed to be stunning. This was based on the well-known three-click rule from Steve Jobs, a design idol of Chesky and Gebbia's. When Jobs created the iPod, he wanted it always to be just three clicks away from a song. Given this, a great event mobile app should be simple and provide all the information you and your attendees could require in no more than three clicks.
Here are 15 design strategies for mobile applications that are sure to increase downloads and keep users engaged.
Beginning With The Basics
Having a clear vision for the final interface and developing a mobile app prototype are the first steps in creating a great mobile app. Don't skip this crucial stage when creating your prototype. You can write it or even draw it. It goes without saying that before wireframes and designs are started, a well-planned user flow should be ready to go. However, the majority of app developers still choose to skip this crucial stage. Having a clear vision for the final interface and developing a mobile app prototype are the first steps in creating a great mobile app. Don't skip this crucial stage when creating your prototype. You can write it or even draw it. It goes without saying that before wireframes and designs are started, a well-planned user flow should be ready to go. However, most app developers still choose to miss this crucial stage.
Making Optimum Use Of Designing Tools And Software
The mobile design process begins when you've finished conceptualizing the app and working on its prototype. A valuable mobile app can only be created with top-notch talent, originality, and, of course, the appropriate equipment. You can use these tools to structure your mobile app design and achieve the desired results. For this, there are numerous prototype tools, some of which are given below. To design Facebook apps like Facebook Messenger and Instagram, Facebook engineers created Origami Studio, a standalone interface design tool that is now freely available to you. It's a sophisticated tool with lots of features. It can be connected to an iOS or Android device so you can preview it and see updates as you make them.
Keeping It Simple
The best interface designs are often invisible. They don't have any UI bling or extraneous components. Therefore, consider whether the user needs it when considering including a new function or feature in your user interface. One of the winners of the 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference's Apple Design Awards is Robinhood (WWDC). The app won this award for its simple, content-focused mobile design and stunning typography, which successfully balances iOS design conventions and app branding.
Customization According To The Operating System
Each operating system has a distinct user interface, and as a result, each has a particular set of design principles that account for its distinctive aesthetics. For example, Android phones offer a back button that may be used to access earlier app displays. There must be a way to return to the previous screen, as iPhones lack this button. Similar to this, on Android, the text in the navigation bar is left aligned, but on iOS, it is cantered. You must thoroughly read each platform's rules if you have or plan to create a cross-platform application. These instructions are frequently helpful when you're unsure of what to do.
Putting Yourself In The User’s Shoes And Getting The Design Cues
The most excellent strategy to optimize the user experience for any app is to focus on a user-centric design. When we spend enough time monitoring the users, we always receive good suggestions on what will thrill them. The user will interact with the app for long periods, but there may be instances when they only have a short window of time. Therefore, navigation within the app needs to be quick and easy. Google's Playbook app, which now has a new feature called Night Light, is another excellent example of customization based on customer demands. It gradually switches to warmer, yellower tones in place of most of the intense blue light from the phone screen.
Considering The User Experience While Selecting The Font
Readability is the key to every typographic design on any device. The design is flawed if the user cannot read it. Writing that is too big will require many breaks, and text that is too small could strain the reader and make it difficult to concentrate. The people at User Testing studied two mobile websites with identical layouts to those above: one with optimal type size and the other without. Users liked the website with the more extensive wording, as expected.
Colour Customization According To Brand Needs
Choosing colours is frequently a vital first step in mobile app design. When determining which colours to use in your plans, there are various factors to consider because each hue denotes particular psychology. The methods of apps will be dominated by muted colour contrasts, per 2016 trends. The shades are comfortable on the user's eyes and improve reading comfort. Finding the ideal mix of differences is challenging. A grey that appears sufficiently black on the app designer's monitor may appear much lighter on the user due to the stark contrast between screens.
Using Negative Space (white Space) Positively
The area of a screen that is left unmarked, blank, or empty is known as whitespace, which is also frequently referred to as negative space. The app designer must use this often-overlooked design component while developing the UI. The members of white space are as follows:
- Vacancy surrounding pictures and graphics
- gutters, padding, and margins
- space between the letters and lines in the text
- between-column distance
Designing Everything Around The Invisible Grids And Ensuring Consistency
Invisible grids define your design base. Even though we might not be able to see grids in their natural form, they are present on every mobile device's user interface. They can be pretty beneficial in launching mobile designs. Element definition and repetition: if one of your "go" buttons is purple, all of your "go" buttons should be purple. Both screens should have the same consistency, such as 20 px of padding on all sides of one screen.
Making Use Of Placeholders And Loading Elements
The creator of a mobile app lacks the tools necessary to simulate various loading speeds when creating it. And even if they could, the app developer would likely choose to create user interfaces that are meant to load rapidly. We don't always plan for awkward pauses where users have to wait for the material to load. Facebook is an excellent illustration of this method since it first displays a temporary layout before displaying the content.
Focusing On Smooth Navigation Through The App
One of an app's most crucial aspects is navigation, which is not the place to experiment with unorthodox techniques. Additionally, not all design components are created by the designer. To enable more straightforward navigation from one screen to the next, the designer must collaborate closely with the team of app developers. The majority of mobile consumers prefer simple app navigation. Keep your content essential and provide labels for evident and concise actions. Here's an excellent suggestion for making navigation bars: "Use Google and Apple as models for your navigation." An app's interface can be visually appealing, but not at the expense of usability and clarity.
Design For Human Fingers
According to a study by the MIT Touch Lab on Human Fingertips to look into the mechanics of tactile perception, the average adult index finger width is 1.6 to 2 cm (16–20 mm). This amounts to 45–57 pixels, which is more comprehensive than what is recommended by the majority of mobile design guidelines. The average width of an adult thumb is 1 inch (2.5 cm), or 72 pixels. Tiny touch targets might lead to touch errors.
Don’t Rule Out the ‘Rule of Thumb’
According to a survey, consumers manage nearly 75% of smartphone interactions using their thumbs. The thumb was doing all the work, whether one or two hands were holding the gadget. Ninety-four percent of smartphones are used in portrait positions, and 67 percent of smartphones have screens between 4 and 5.5 inches. 72% of interactions in landscape mode require one thumb. Future smartphones are likely to be larger than the ones we currently use, so when building your app, consider using thumb motions to enhance the user experience.
Considering Left-Handed People As Well
One in every 12 people on the planet is left-handed. When positioning buttons within the app, remember that a user's thumb may easily access the bottom half of the screen when holding a smartphone in their palm. The bottom-right side of the phone is easiest to operate for right-handed users, whereas the converse is true for left-handed people.
Effective Use Of Animation As The Basis For Interactive Design
It's become popular to use animated videos to showcase a specific app feature or item. Users are also hardwired to pay more attention to moving objects.
Conclusion
A user-friendly event mobile app is essential for making the digital event experience as seamless as possible for you and your attendees. You must therefore comprehend a user-friendly and intuitive app and how to spot one.
An engaging user interface, discreet assistance options, a built-in back button, simple password authentication, and rapid access to various functions or chances are the quality features of an app you should pay attention to. Last but not least, test the demo of any mobile apps you are considering for your event to gauge their usability and intuitiveness. Please think carefully before choosing an app because it may impact your event planning efforts and the attendees' experience.