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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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Web Design

Looking To Develop a Professional Website? Keep These Tips Handy

Develop a Professional Website

A compelling design or enticing content is not enough for a successful, professional website. There must also be a sense of style that feeds your website’s user experience and functionality while being easy to understand at first glance. That said, different people prefer different styles, and preferences can be poles apart. But still, there are a few ground rules that should be followed when deciding on the appearance of your website. Here are 5 quick tips that you can follow to keep your website professional and successful.

Keep A Minimalistic Homepage

People don’t really read on the web. They simply scan pages, picking out keywords and sentences. Keeping this in mind, it’s better to target on emotions rather than word count. The lesser the information you feed visitors, better are the chances of them to remember. That makes it more likely for them to do what you wanted them to do in the first place. Text and calls to action are necessary, of course, but make sure to break them up with larger subheadings and legible paragraphs. Moreover, use images or icons as alternative ways to communicate.

Design With Visual Hierarchy In Mind

We’ve evolved a lot over the years. With computer screens and smartphones, as the technology to display information evolves, it remains the designer’s job to arrange the content in a clear manner. The amount of time to grab someone’s attention and tell them what your site is about, is very less. With a clear hierarchy to your information, readers can’t help but unconsciously follow the breadcrumbs you have left for them. Then apply color, contrast, size and spacing for further accentuation, remaining conscious of what is drawing attention on your page and making sure that it’s always intentional. Strips are one of the best design elements for creating a strong visual hierarchy.

Easy To Read Content

Readability measures how easy it is for people to recognize words, sentences, and phrases. When your site’s readability is high, users will be able to efficiently scan your site and take in information from text without much effort. Fonts on your website must be clear and readable. A typical rule of thumb you’ll see on the web is to keep your body text at least 16pt. That said, it largely depends on the type of font that you use. Sans Serif (without serif) are typically the best choice for online texts. As a rule, don’t use more than three different typefaces throughout your website. However, there might be a need of more than that, but if you do choose to use a variety of fonts, the overall effect should be harmonious, not cluttered.

Smooth And Easy Navigation

Having a professional website that’s tough to navigate is like owning an expensive copy machine that faces frequent paper jams. People will get irritated, frustrated and will simply bounce off. A lot of websites are still confusing, cluttered, and difficult to navigate, even though they look pretty. Starting with the navigation bar, you’ll want to make sure that you choose the right categories for it, ensure that you separate your product groups properly and don’t have too many categories. Also, make your navigation bar sticky. A sticky navigation bar means that it stays at the top of the screen no matter how far a user scrolls down.

Mobile Friendly

Let’s admit, mobile has become an integral part of our lives and a majority of people use their smartphones to access your website. So it becomes important to ask, what do my visitors see when they access my website on the go? That’s why you need to keep a mobile-first approach while designing your website, so that you can keep pace with the increasingly mobile world. If you take a look at mobile design trends over the last two years, you will notice a lot of attention is given to minimalism and simplicity of design. Put yourself into your users’ shoes, and test out every page, user action and button.

For developing a professional website, it’s important to keep these tips in mind. However, these are not the only things. There are a lot of other tips, tricks and thinking which goes behind developing a good website. Talk to our experts and discuss more on it.