Creating a design that stands the test of time and trends is easier said than done. Design is what creates an everlasting impression. And yet, getting your design right can be a tough nut to crack. Being a UI designer since 2014, here are the best mobile app design tips that I can share with my fellow UI designers.

It all starts with basics, so…

1. Keep Basics in Mind

Research is the first and very basic step in any kind of project to start with. Once you get the project, start researching on the similar type of other trending apps and check what makes them so prominent. Also, ensure the design makes the app useful and easy to operate.

Fetch useful ideas from other apps and brainstorm on them. Once you filter the needed ideas from all, start working on the designing part.

Next comes the color selection. Each color has its own mood and story. Just find out which color matches your application’s story. Different moods of color are shown below:

After choosing the colors, start studying the elements that you are going to use in the app. Placement of those elements makes the app user friendly. What to show and what to hide are the tricks to make the app simple to understand and use. For example, Navigation must be shown at the top or somewhere on the main screen so that users can easily navigate to other screens.

Last but not the least, use design grid as much as possible. Creating application designs in a grid helps you keep elements and whole design balanced. This makes your app look neat and clean. Nobody loves to use a messy app. Misaligned images and text make it difficult to understand the working of an app. So, use grids to define margins and paddings easily and effectively.

2. KISS Model

Keep It Simple, Stupid. Or simply, the KISS Model is based on minimal design. Nowadays, many clients prefer simple and easy design. Simple doesn’t mean a basic design. On the contrary, it’s a clean design that is easily understood by users. As everyone knows, mobile screens are small in size, so putting a large number of elements in a small space is not a good idea. There are so many apps that use simple UI and let users perform multiple tasks in fewer steps.

Simple design does not distract users from the actual motive. Messy design always leaves a negative impact on users. Some of the examples of a messy app are the ones with flashy elements like pop-ups, unnecessary notifications, etc.

3. Add Attractive Graphics

In today’s designing scenario, every mobile app design company knows that attractive graphics are the key to lure users towards a particular app and get more traffic. Graphics make users feel like they are talking to the app in some way. If your app has this feeling, it would be popular among the users. Moreover, it is easy to understand images better in first look rather than reading lengthy content. It saves users time also, which is immensely important in the contemporary world, where everyone has a lot of things to do in such a short span of time. Nobody gets time to read lengthy texts. Images play an important role here.

4. Focus on Thumb Rule

Thumb rule plays a major role in an application’s popularity. The way of designing apps has evolved over the years. Research shows that 67% of people use their right thumb to access the apps. About 33% of the world’s population is left-handed, so most of the apps are designed by taking care of right thumbed users. Important content that a user should focus on, and should be easy to reach by the thumb, is mostly designed on the right-side for easy access.

5. Include Users to Get Feedback

The last and most important part of the apps’ completion is getting users involved in testing the apps. The variety of phone platforms helps app designers to get their apps tested on different parameters. This involves getting the app design tested on different screen sizes also. Designers can arrange questionnaire feedback from users to know the positive and negative points while using the app. Negative points can be sorted out before the next test.

So, here you have it, the 5 tips to design mobile apps that entice, engage and enthrall your end-users. Before be we go, here’s a quick recap:

• Keep basics in mind
• KISS model
• Add attractive graphics
• Focus on thumb rule
• Include users to get feedback

I am sure by following these tips, you’ll be creating new app design benchmarks real soon.  Share your suggestions and queries in the comment section below.