There's no denying that UI and fluid motion are the focal points that delivers optimal iOS app experience, but make sure it doesn't compete with the content. Put simply, it's very important to ensure that the UI elements of your app should not cover the entire
iOS device space hiding the content from the user. Adding gradients, drop shadows etc. make your UI elements heavier and they can overpower the content. So, make sure to add only relevant visual indicators in your app.
Clarity.
Your app design needs to be clear. And so, make sure that the text can be read at every size; add precise and lucid icons; lastly, make sure that the adornments are subtle. In order to provide clarity there are a few key points to consider, such as:
- Use good amount of negative space: Adding negative space to your app design makes important your app content and functionality easily noticeable and understandable.
- Use the right colors: Make sure to use the right colors for your app icons, settings and so on. Using appropriate colors improves interactivity. However, make sure to use colors that make your app UI look good on both dark and light backgrounds.
- Use system fonts to ensure legibility: iOS system fonts adjust the letter spacing as well as line height automatically, in order to make text legible at every size. Just remember to select “Dynamic Type” when you're using system fonts or custom fonts, as it will make your app respond well to users’ choice of text size.
- Use borderless buttons: All bar buttons are by default borderless. Just make sure that in the borderless button in the content area uses color and a call-to-action title to enable interaction.
Pillars of a Great iOS App Design
1. Adding Uniqueness to an Existing App
As we know, the Apple app store is filled with dozens of apps and some of them are already a hit among users. For instance, there is an app for the most popular social media network Facebook, and Instagram app amongst many other popular services. You'll find some of the best selling iOS apps for everything – be it any games app, entertainment app and so on. But that doesn't mean you can't built one using the same concept of an already popular application, you just need to give it a unique spin. Even great selling apps will have some flaw (try to find some flaws in the app design). Once you've located some design issues with any existing app, decipher a way to add uniqueness to it.
2. Know Your Target Audience
You're designing an app for the users, and thus it's important to know about their preferences. Try to know about the pain points of your users. For this purpose, you can conduct a short-term online survey to ask what users didn't like about an iOS app design. By figuring out, what things your target audience doesn't like about the app design, you can plan the design of your app accordingly.
3. Create a Clean and Obtrusive Design
Avoid over-boarding your iOS app with too many design elements. Besides, since the app market is getting more congested with each day — and users are becoming more demanding — seek an app which is easy to understand and not complicated. Adding only the most essential design elements that functions exceedingly well is enough to attract users’ attention towards it.
4. Design for Multiple Devices
New iOS devices with different resolutions keep on developing. And thus, it's very important that your app can adjust to the device screen it is being viewed on.
5. Follow Designing Principles
You'll find numerous novel navigation models when designing your iOS app. However, you can't choose them all, so when you need to use one of common navigation models, pick one that makes sense for your app.
- None: For single screen utility apps such as weather app.
- Tab bar: Ideal for apps with distinct content areas such as Twitter app.
- Drill down: It can be used for an app that list and detail content hierarchy, for example, settings app.
The app supports either portrait or landscape orientation. Though, portrait is considered to be the most popular orientation, but in case your app demands lot of typing, then you should support landscape orientation because it enable users to access larger keyboard.
- Add Touch-Friendly Gestures
More and more users today prefer having touch interfaces. And thus, it's imperative that your app supports either a swipe or flick gesture. This will save you from explicitly indicating which areas of your iOS app are scrollable.
Now that you've come to know about some key aspects of iOS app design, you most likely would be racking your brains to understand how an iOS app design helps to boost your business productivity.
Benefits of iOS App Design For Businesses
Operating a business whether large or small in size involves lot of challenges’. But there are some great Apple’s iOS apps designed to simplify your day-to-day business operations without much headache. In fact, crafting an iOS app design for your business will help you perform better work in a faster and smarter manner, with optimal productivity. Let’ have an overview some key benefits as to how designing an iOS application can heighten your business productivity:
- Organizing and analyzing your business data is important for running your business smoothly. This objective can be accomplished by using iOS apps available online, for example, the Spreadsheet iOS app helps to manage your profits and perform many other important business activities effectively. And so, you can create an app that work in a better and similar manner as the Spreadsheet or some other app that help create documents, presentations that can be accessed while you move.
- Good business productivity demands maintaining security and privacy of your customers. Apple Pay is a great iOS app that comes packed with multiple levels of security, so as to ensure consumers’ credit card information is passed on in one piece from the merchant to the credit card company. You can choose to build an app using the concept of Apple Pay, but remember not to create a copy of it. Rather use that concept to ensure you’re building something out of the box.
- Whether you want to start discussing your business ideas with your team, or may have to start a video conference while on the move, Building an iOS app can definitely help you to collaborate with your employees or clients effectively, in today’s connected workplace. For instance, iOS apps such as DropBox let you handle your files from your phone, and even let you assign files to the members of your team; and help you see the work that has been viewed or updated by your team.
Wrapping Up!
Apart from functionality, you need to pay close attention to the design of your iOS app. Most importantly, you should focus on UI design of your app. Other than that, you need to learn about key essentials of creating a compelling app design. Hopefully, reading this post will help you learn about the basics of iOS app design and designing one helps to boost productivity.
Other Resources:
iOS APP Marketing Strategy Guide
How to Develop and Launch Your Own iPhone/iPad App
About Author: Emily Heming is a mobile app developer for Xicom Technologies Ltd. a leading provider of mobile app development services which also offers the reliable service to avail mobile app developer for hire with her best assistance.
