The process of designing an app downright hard. Even a well-trained digital product designer doesn’t find it easy to come up with an outstanding software application, let alone a novice. You’re struggling to build something that creates the ideal experience for every user. It needs to look great and work even better. In other words, the app should have the intuitiveness to make it clear how to get things done and the depth to enable complex tasks. As far as making a mobile app design that works, there’s no set formula.

Image source: https://burst.shopify.com/photos/apps-for-life?q=app

Let’s admit it, there’s room for error. A bad layout and an unappealing design, besides sluggish load times and complicated navigation, can kill your conversion rate. If clients aren’t happy with the current product, they will want you to redesign the user experience. As mentioned earlier, app designers of all levels of experience are likely to make mistakes. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Nevertheless, if you’d like to deliver a great app, stay away from these mistakes.

 

Poor IA (Information Architecture)

Applications contain a lot of information that can’t be left unstructured. The average mobile app user is a busy person. They have so much to do, so little time, so they will immediately abandon an app if it takes more than 4 seconds to load and the info isn’t structured in a way they can understand. The content should adjust to the functionality of the digital product so that the end-users can find everything they need right away.

Plan and design based on the significance of the information that you’re presenting. You can classify the content according to task, product category, user, location, and so on. App users should be able to figure out where to go and how to get there. Even powerful UI design and irresistible content elements can fail without proper information architecture. Add shapes and connect them in an organized manner to a single document. You must organize the info in a readable, legit format.

Ignoring the Thumb Zone

When designing for a mobile device, it’s important to consider the thumb zone, i.e. the most comfortable area for touch with one-handed use. App users navigate using the first digit of the hand. Regardless of the position of the mobile device, this is the most natural way of navigating, swiping, and tipping. A user interface that makes the user do more than that is strenuous, so as to say. Actually, the user shouldn’t make an effort. One-handed use is a bet that is certain to succeed. Before you jump into the app design, identify the “safe zone” on the screen.

The buttons, as well as the other interactive elements, should be placed within the safe zone. You’re designing for mobile users, so they shouldn’t encounter any inconvenience when using the thumb to interact with the software application. Test the user interface design and ensure that it plays nice with the thumbs. Take into account the way users hold their mobile devices and design a product based on their behavior and preferences. Perform a thumb mapping; this will allow you to get an idea of the areas that are accessible via thumb.

Failing to Maintain Design Consistency

If you take the time to examine the design of various apps, you’ll notice that some of them present inconsistencies. There’s a different color on every page or the typography confuses the users to the point that they become frustrated. If the elements in a user interface aren’t uniform, there’s no sense of control, familiarity or reliability, for that matter. A useful rule of thumb is that if you choose one element you need to stick with it. The elements of the user interface can’t be treated as separate entities.

Be consistent when you design the app and don’t give users mixed messages. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

  • Apply UI elements as they’re originally defined.
  • Make sure the visual progression moves from heavy to light.
  • Use the same colors and elements to create a repeating pattern.

Nobody approaches an interface for the first time without becoming familiarized with the way it works. Consistency simply ensures that the digital product works the same way as the ones users are used to. Simplicity, on the other hand, enables app designers to create a competitive advantage when getting new users to engage with the mobile app. There is no place for redundant elements.

Placing Ads in The Wrong Place

In-app advertising enables publishers to reach out to audiences with great accuracy. If you decide to make room for ads in your app, don’t neglect the flow of user engagement within the software application. Promotions shouldn’t make users’ life unbearable. Only good placement will ensure reliable revenue. Instead of sacrificing user experience, you should better rethink the placement of the ads. There is no best place to put apps in a mobile app, which means that the choice is up to you. Find a spot that causes the least amount of irritation.

As a rule, you have to test the digital product time and time again and make improvements, if necessary, of course. It’s not a good idea to create a software application without testing it on real users. You don’t know whether you’ll meet with success or not until you test the interface and the functions of the app by real users in realistic conditions. If the ad placement is wrong, the mobile app will push users away. To put it simply, inadequate ad placement can kill the purpose of the digital product.

To sum up, app design is a challenging undertaking. It’s difficult to design an app with intuitive simplicity without making it repetitive or boring. Maybe so, but it’s not impossible. Design mistakes can become a major problem when it comes to adoption and usage. So, update your knowledge about user patterns to stay on top of the game. Think from a mobile app user’s perspective. Imagine your digital product the way they would.