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Apple Brand & Identity Design Mobile Apps

Mobile UI Design: 7 Most Common Types of Screens

Mobile UI Design

There are over 2.7 billion smartphone users and 1.35 billion tablet users across the world. According to a study, on average, Americans check their phone every 12 minutes, and 90% of mobile time is spent on apps across the globe. Also, more than 6000 mobile apps are released every day. These figures are staggering and are sufficient enough to highlight the popularity of mobiles and their apps. The first thing a user notices while interacting with your app is its interface. So, it is crucial to have a pleasing mobile UI design to ensure that your user sticks around and enjoys browsing the app.

To build a useful mobile UI design, designers need to investigate its characteristics and learn their constituents and functionality thoroughly. Mobile applications indeed evolve with changing user needs. Thus, designers strive to add new functionalities every day to fulfill user needs. That said, there are still some screens that are default and are commonly used across a majority of apps. Here is a list of the top 7 most common types of mobile app screens.

1. Home & Menu Screen

The home screen is an essential part of any application. It’s the main screen from which users navigate to all the other sections and options of the application. Although home screens differ from one app to another, depending on the product and its purpose, still there are some common key elements of all home screens. Firstly, it has a search field so that users could easily search for what they are looking for. Secondly, it contains navigation elements providing access to the various content sections. There are two ways of presenting the menu in mobile applications – it can either be a part of the main screen or a separate screen. 

Note: It is advisable to keep the number of options in the menu under seven, featuring only the key sections. If the number goes beyond seven, use sub-categories to show them.

2. Log-in & Profile Screen

Creating personal accounts or profiles to sign into an app has become a standard norm these days. While this is a good way to ensure that your user gets a personalized experience, a lousy login screen could lead to people uninstalling your app. Designers must be able to understand how things work on login and profile screens. The key is to keep the login screen clear, uncluttered, and as minimalistic as it can be, to offer easy access to users. The amount of information has to be limited; otherwise, the profile screen may look too complicated. 

The UI must be intuitive, and at no point, users must be confused. The name and password sections, the confirmation button and a sign-up option must always be available on a login screen.

3. Product Screen

A product screen is most common in eCommerce apps. It displays the collection of products and when the user taps on the product they want, another screen displaying its specifications would pop up. 

The product screen shows the key information about the goods. It helps users to decide whether they want to buy the product or not. Designers usually place the product photograph at the center of the screen, with the description placed below it. The information is generally divided into small groups like size, material, weight, etc. so that users can get all the required info.

4. Catalog Screen

The primary objective of any e-commerce business is to sell products. For an e-commerce app, you would need a catalog screen to display all the products in one place. Visuals attract users and prompt them to make a purchase. So, designers must focus on designing a visually appealing catalog that will attract a user’s attention and encourage them to shop for a product. You can offer the user to scroll through the list, just like several other eCommerce websites and apps display it. The amount of merchandise/products in one row can be decided according to the width of the screen.

The product list in mobile apps can be similar to many e-commerce websites where the items are grouped and viewed via a vertical scroll. But, the products can also be displayed in a row with a horizontal scroll. To make the navigation intuitive, the last item in a horizontal row should be shown not in a full view to let the user see that this is the direction of scrolling. 

5. Check Out Screen

Nowadays, most of the shopping is done through smartphones. Therefore, it becomes crucial for companies to offer a smooth and convenient shopping experience to users. The checkout process is the final step during the buying journey of a user, and this has to be an easy task for them. 

The most fundamental aspect of a checkout screen is to have a form that captures all the personal data like name, address, contact number, card number, etc. Here, designers must ensure that their user data and sensitive information is secure. It can be callouts in a copy, icons of the famous brands who gave their approval or maybe even some certificate signs if there are such.

6. Splash Screen

The first impression may not be the last but is undoubtedly the most important impression. It influences the user’s opinion about a mobile application. When the user experience is pleasant from the very beginning of interactions with an app, there are more chances it’ll be more popular among users. That’s why splash screens should be given a lot of attention.

Splash Screen is the page in an app that demonstrates the main idea and features of the app. It must be minimalistic, displaying the logo, tagline, and name of a product. The fundamental elements must be kept in the middle of the screen for added visibility and a simplistic mobile UI design. The screen shouldn’t be shown for any more than 3-8 seconds. Users tend to get irritated after that. Also, it may be useful to show loading progress so that impatient users could know when the app will be launched.

7. Feed Screen

People typically use various social networking apps for communication and to remain updated with the news. You can take ideas from Facebook, wherein the feed is regularly refreshed, displaying the latest news and data related to the pages followed by the user. The mobile UI design should be simple and clear without a lot of fancy visual details. The stories can be presented one by one via a scroll. To make the navigation more intuitive, the next piece of news should be partially displayed.

We hope that these 7 most common UI screen designs will help you to get some clarity on how to get started with your app design. If you still have some doubts, talk to our experts NOW!!

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Mobile Apps Technology

Top 5 Reasons Why Users Uninstall Mobile Apps

Mobile Apps

The number of mobile apps available for users today is staggering. Daily use, shopping, health monitoring, entertainment, sports, lifestyle, gaming, and whatnot? There’s an app out there for every possible thing that you can think of. The competition between similar mobile apps is cut-throat. Day-by-day it is becoming difficult for businesses to survive and ensure that the users not only use their app but at least not uninstall it. So what is that makes users uninstall any mobile app?

In this article we explore the top five reasons why users stop using a particular app and uninstall it:

1. They No Longer Use The App

This one is pretty straightforward. Once users build the impression that the mobile app is of no use, they will surely uninstall it. Not that they find a better replacement, but the simple fact that they don’t need it any longer. This indicates that your user engagement and retention efforts are not adequate. If your DAU (Daily Active Users) to MAU (Monthly Active Users) ratio is declining, it means that the frequency at which the daily active users are returning is very less. These are early signs of a possible increase in app uninstalls.

TIP: Track retention rate metrics and user engagement to make adjustments to the re-engagement campaigns, such as push notifications and in-app messaging. But don’t overdo push notifications as it could adversely affect the mobile app’s popularity and success.

2. The Mobile App Isn’t Helpful and Easy To Use

People install an app to find solutions to their problems and get what they need in the fastest way possible. If it takes too much time to get what they want, they are unlikely to return to your mobile apps and will look for a better and faster option. Mostly, this happens because developers spend a lot of time thinking ‘what the users want in an app?’, rather than thinking upon ‘how the users want to use the app?’. 

TIP: Spend time thinking about how do users want to search for products or solutions in your app. What is the level of urgency? Do they want to buy the product right away, or wish to save it for the future. Run usability tests to understand user behavior. Conduct a question and answer session with test users to understand their purpose and goals. These insights, in combination with the data collected from analytic tools, will guide you in developing an easy to use and helpful app.

3. Too Many Ads and Push Notifications

A vast majority of the apps available come with a free version. People expect the apps to be free and resist paying the price to download them unless it’s really essential. The primary method of earning revenue for a free app is through advertisements. People have come to terms with the truth that there will be ads popping up while using the free version of the app. However, they have become much more sensitive towards the ads. This sensitivity is a result of invasive and aggressive advertising tactics.

Similarly, too many push notifications also annoy users. Forget about using your app regularly, they start disliking you as a brand; so much that they eventually decide to get rid of your app. Nobody likes constant nagging. 

TIP: For ads, consider how they will interrupt the user experience and work around it. Track conversion rates and reactions triggered by advertisements and push notifications. Also, use platforms that allow intent-based segmentation. With a better understanding of user intent, you can effectively show relevant ads without spamming them.

As far as the push notifications are concerned, it is best to use common sense and to know how often you must communicate with your customers. The frequency of sending push notifications varies; it largely depends on the type of campaigns you run and the products or services you offer.

4. Bad User Experience in Mobile Apps

It’s not just a visually pleasing design that keeps users hooked on to an app. Creating a good user experience is equally important. If the app is not designed keeping users in mind, it baffles the user. They find it hard to navigate within the app, struggle to find what they need. Sloppy navigation, lack of search functionality, poor use of icons, illegibility of typography, unresponsive gestures, etc. are all ingredients of poor user experience.

TIP: Always keep the users in mind before starting to develop the app. The app must be intuitive and easy to navigate within. At no point in time, the user must get stuck in the whole buying (or conversion) process. Your users must be able to reach their destination with minimum clicks. It’s pivotal to provide a search option in the app. The search should be intuitive and must be leading users by using a predictive keyword algorithm. 

5. Security and Trust issues

The Facebook data scandal was one of the biggest data scandals of recent times. It made people think about how various apps store their personal information and how vulnerable they are. They have begun to believe that their data can easily get into the wrong hands at some point in time. If they don’t trust your app, they will uninstall it.

TIP: Ask and store only the required information. Be transparent with users and explain exactly why you want this information, where will you save it, and how will you use it. Your users must feel safe using your app. They should be assured that they can trust you with their credit card number and other vital, personal information.

Read more about Mobile Apps security here

The customer is the king. It’s a fierce battle out there in the world of mobile apps, and you need to ace your game to stay in the game. Keeping users engaged, respecting sensitivity to advertisements, and performing adequate software testing are some of the ways to avoid app uninstalls. Need to know more? Talk to our experts now!

Categories
Design Mobile Apps UX

5 Key Uses of Animation in Mobile App UI

Mobile App UI

The advancement of technology has led to several new improvements and trends in web and mobile designing. Animation was once a visual luxury but has now become a functional requirement. Users expect to face animations at some stage while browsing a website or an app. Animation infuses life into interfaces and makes them more rousing and visually appealing.  The proper use of animations accentuates the responsiveness of an app. In this article, we will discuss five critical applications of animation within a mobile app UI design.

Animation infuses life into interfaces and makes them more rousing and visually appealing.  The proper use of animations accentuates the responsiveness of an app. In this article, we will discuss five critical applications of animation within a mobile UI design.

1. System Status

There are plenty of tasks and processes like downloading and uploading data, calculations etc. that continuously run in the backdrop while the app is running. While these processes run in the background, users often feel that the app is frozen, as there is no activity at the front end. You must always indicate the status of all the ongoing processes through visual signs of progress. It provides a sense of control over the app to the users.

Page loading time is unavoidable, however, it is a very stressful time for users. Using animations can’t shorten the loading time, but can provide comfort to the users while they wait. Creative progress indicators can reduce a user’s perception of time. If users can watch something visually pleasing, while they wait, they are more likely to divert their mind on the animation, rather than the wait time.

Similarly, “pull down to refresh” is also a well-known system status indicator that reloads the page. Pull-to-refresh animations should match the design outline of the app. Movement and visually pleasing items naturally draw attention and create interest. Animating your notifications is a pleasant way to notify users about things, without hampering their experience.

2. Visual Feedback in Mobile App UI

Visual feedback is critically important for any user interface. It helps users to know and understand their current context in the system at any given time. User interface elements like buttons and controls should appear to be tangible, as they interact with them in the real world.

But, bridging the gap between the physical world and on the web is challenging. Visual and motion cues must immediately recognize the input and animate in ways that appear to be direct guidance. Animations enhance various points of interaction and reinforce the actions taken by a user.

3. Structuring Information

Animation allows proper structuring of information across the app. An animation draws users and shows what content to look for and where can it be found. The menu bar is one of the most common places where this can be implemented. 

There are many elements on the main screen of the app. When we activate one of them, the app should change the picture and display a whole new app section based on the selection. Animation helps users to know that it is the same element but with different form and scale.

4. Navigation & Transitions in Mobile App UI

Usually, users take the help of menu bar to navigate inside an app. A lot of apps have a complicated structure to show the list of app sections or features, which is confusing for users. Animation works as a visual navigator. 

A user should notice a changing picture on the screen while selecting or changing app sections. This lets them know that they are navigating to a different section or using a feature. Animation is a great way to transport users reasonably between navigational contexts. 

Read more about Mobile App Navigation

5. In-app Guide

Some apps have a more complex structure compared to others. If you don’t want to scare-off or irritate your app subscribers, you should clearly explain to them how an app works at the very beginning. Animation comes in handy here. A user gets brief instructions about the app in very less time via animations. Usually, an animated guide opens up when the app runs. However, users should have access to the guide whenever they need.

Animations are really pretty, but as mentioned earlier there role is no longer confined to adding beauty to an app. So make animations with purpose and use it in the app UI design to simplify user interaction with the user interface.

Let us know if you are looking for designing your new or existing mobile app. Our UI and UX team will be happy to assist. Contact Us today

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Technology

How To Improve Your Mobile App Performance In Play store?

Everyone wants to climb up the ladder of search engines and wants to sit at the top of search results. Businesses spend a good fortune on SEO to better their Google rankings every day. Internet is literally the magic Genie which provides answers to all of our queries. Be it finding a nice fine dine restaurant, booking a flight, online shopping, checking match results, or something as basic as booking a cab. With time and growth of mobile usage, web applications have quickly found their better substitutes in mobile applications. Everything you ever wished and did through a web application can now be done through a mobile app.

There are more than 2.8 million apps available for users on Play Store. That’s a huge number. Literally HUGE! Imagine the level of competition amongst applications on Play Store. Web applications rely on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to better their rankings in Google search and similarly mobile apps rely on ASO (App Store Optimization) to make mobile app content rank high in Play store. Let’s find out the key factors that influence the Mobile App performance in Play store and how you can better your play store search ranking.

1. Mobile App Optimization

It’s a basic necessity to optimize your mobile app in order to get discovered by users. Using relevant content for your mobile app plays a vital role here. Title keyword and app description are the two pillars of your app content. Always use the primary keyword in app title. If your app title has the appropriate keyword related to your app, it increases your chances of getting discovered. However, if you use a very generic keyword which is used by thousands of other apps, Google will automatically direct or suggest the name of the most popular app instead of your app.

Secondly, use a very crisp yet strong description for your app. Your primary keyword must be used at least 3-4 times in the description but don’t try to stuff in keywords. The first 167 characters are counted as meta description for search engines and thus must be utilized wisely.

Use a tool to analyze keyword performances and popular keyword suggestions. App Annie is one such tool which proves to be really helpful in tracking the performances of your keywords. You can easily implement changes based on the results shown by App Annie. This will help in increasing organic downloads.

Mobile App Performance

2. Multimedia Plays A leading Role

We have mentioned this time and again that visuals are the best way of representation and are also the most attractive form of representation. When users land on your app install screen, greet them with attractive visuals in form of screenshots, pictures, videos etc. A video about the app is a good option to introduce users to your app. Screenshots can convince users about the mobile app design, flow, and structure.

Mobile App Performance

3. Use Social Media To Increase App Visibility

Social media platforms are tremendous launchpads to share and popularize your app. Share your content within Facebook and Linkedin groups so that it reaches to a maximum audience. Linkedin is more of a professional portal whereas FB is very informal. Thus, the content type and tone must match accordingly. Instagram has recently gained a lot of popularity and is bound to grow by leaps and bounds in terms of popularity. Instagram should also be focused when it comes to sharing your app content.

Mobile App Performance - Social Share

4. Responsive App Design

People will access your app through various devices like tablets, mobiles etc. that have different screen sizes and resolutions. It’s critical that your app is 100 percent responsive so that it provides flawless viewing and usability experience to users on all sorts of devices. Providing compatibility with all the devices will reduce chances of uninstallation and will increase app popularity.

Mobile App - Responsive Design

5. App Size

Another important factor influencing mobile app performance is the size of an app. Although space on a device is not an alarming concern for users these days, it still matters a lot that the app size is appropriate. If your app is too big, chances are that a user may become hesitant in downloading the app and will look for an alternative. There will also be situations wherein the install is abruptly canceled in the middle due to a long downloading time. The size must be kept just enough to provide a swift & smooth downloading and installing experience.

6. Reviews And Ratings

The most influential factor determining the popularity of your app is the Feedback & Ratings provided by the users. Your app will always rank high in the search bar if you have a high number of 5 ratings. The ratings of your app show how good your product is and will always encourage other users to install and use the app. Users rely heavily on ratings and feedback to know the real picture.
Exceptional ratings along with good reviews will boost their conviction for your app. As a company, the user reviews will help you to determine the flaws in your product. Use the reviews in fixing bugs, fine tuning the performance, and preparing the upcoming version of your app.

Mobile App Performance

The aforementioned factors can prove to be a game changer for your mobile app. In an app market that is full of similar applications, it becomes extremely difficult to attain high rankings in searches. Optimizing your app through ASO and following good practices of app optimization can be very helpful in this case. Reach out to our experts and discuss your requirements with them today.