13 Mobile App UI UX Design Best Practices For Your Projects – The Global Tofay

What influences a mobile app’s UI/UX design? Is it a design trend, changing customer behavior, advancing technologies, or anything else? It is a combination of several factors that transform user interactions. Designing mobile app interfaces based on user demand and modern trends is beneficial. Amazon, Meta, and other enterprises have adapted UI/UX according to customer demand. So, shaping your app UI UX designs to align with customer needs makes sense.

But how is the customer demand changing?

Customers’ focus has shifted from how a product is to how is it’s experience. This shift has now seen a new wave of personalization. Customers expect a personalized experience based on specific circumstances.

According to Salesforce, 73% of customers expect better personalization when technology advances. Customers also expect higher personalization if they provide more data. Addressing these customer demands can be challenging. However, strategically implementing mobile app UI UX design best practices can help.

This article will help you understand the best practices to implement for better UI/UX. But first, let’s understand the fundamentals of UI/UX design.

Fundamentals of Mobile UI UX Design

Mobile applications have seen massive demand over the years. On average, a user uses mobile apps for more than 4 hours daily, accounting for almost a day per week. So, getting the UI UX of mobile app design is crucial for your business. But before planning for mobile app design, you need to understand two key pillars—UI and UX!

1. What is UX Design In Mobile Apps?

User Experience(UX) design is a process of creating a holistic experience. This includes consideration of all their emotions, perceptions, and behavioral patterns.

The goal behind any UX mobile app design process is to fulfill customer demands. It encompasses user research, information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, and extensive testing. But, if you think designing UX is all you need to fulfill customer needs—WAIT!

You also need a well-designed mobile app user interface design!

2. What is UI Design In Mobile Apps?

User interface design includes both visual and interactive elements. App UI design is like creating a door to your business. Customers interact with your user interface to engage in different activities. These activities include accessing content, downloading visuals, or even purchasing.

Designing a mobile UI requires a mix of elegant visuals and functional components. This will allow you to create an interactive interface. This means easy-to-engage mobile apps that users repeatedly use.

Now that you know what UI and UX are, let’s understand how they affect user satisfaction.

To see these principles in action, visit ourDribbble and Behance portfolios. Our projects highlight best practices in UI/UX design, illustrating how intuitive interfaces and thoughtful user experiences enhance app performance and satisfaction.

3. How Does UI/UX Affect User Satisfaction?

UI/UX can make or break user satisfaction for your business. The reason is simple- visibility. Consider any mobile app available on the Play Store.

You download the mobile app and use it. The first thing you will interact with is an interface. Creating effective UI/UX design can increase user engagement, retention, and satisfaction.

Airbnb is a classic example of how UI/UX affects customer satisfaction. Its UI/UX design makes it easy for travelers to book properties.

The “best part”- travelers and property owners can communicate easily with the app.

But are UI and UX the same?

Understanding the difference is essential before you plan for app UI UX design!

UI vs UX: Differences You Must Know!

User interface and experience have different aspects that overlap. In fact, UI is a subset of UX, while user experience design has a broader spectrum. On the other hand, UI design focuses more on the visual appeal of mobile apps.

So, if you are designing for better functionality, optimizing UX design is crucial. It will involve conducting user research, wireframing, prototyping, and testing. Optimizing UX will allow you to create a user-centric app UI UX design.

If you consider the detailing aspect of UI vs. UX, both have some stark differences. Designing UI is all about optimizing individual elements like fonts, color, and layouts. However, for UX design, you need to focus on improving the user journey.

Now that you understand the difference between UI and UX, it’s time to consider the design process. Choosing the right best practices is essential when planning a mobile app interface design. These best practices can help optimize UI/UX design, improving the entire user flow.

SEE ALSO: eCommerce Web Design & Mobile App UI: 17 Factors to Increase Sales in 2024

13 Best Practices for Mobile UI UX Design

Getting the UI UX of mobile app design right involves a process with multiple levels. The first level is extensive research. The second is creating a design architecture, and the third is testing it. Acing all three levels requires executing the following best practices.

1. Simplified Navigation

Every user seeks simplified navigation. Imagine you are going home after a workday. Which route will you choose? Yes, you will prefer the shortest route on the map.

Similarly, a user who navigates your mobile app wants the shortest route. This means keeping the design simple by reducing the steps needed to complete specific actions.

For example, the steps to find, compare, and purchase a product on your eCommerce app must be minimal. This improves user experience satisfaction.

2. Clutter-free UI/UX

Clutter-free mobile UI UX design can mean better engagement. The entire principle depends on the psychology of space. If you have a larger living room and stuff it with a lot of furniture- it looks cluttered.

Mobile app designs need to accommodate design elements and still be clutter-free.

Here are some tips that you can use,

• Keep the mobile app design minimalistic.
• Optimize the negative space(white space)
• Keep the size of icons optimal
• Ensure functional buttons are easy to access

The best way to apply the above tips is to hire UI UX designers with design expertise. Such designers help create clutter-free mobile UI UX designs.

3. Study Heatmaps

Studying heatmaps is tracking where users tap on the device more while using the app. It indicates key touch points and how users engage.

Warmer colors like red indicate higher user engagement. Whereas blue shows lower engagement. You can analyze the volume of warm or cool color patches. It will provide data on which areas of the mobile app design you need to optimize. Heatmaps provide content information you must place close to the critical touchpoints.

4. Signal-to-Noise Ratio

Signal or noise is relevant or irrelevant information placed in the user interface. Keeping the signal-to-noise ratio right helps reduce the overload of information. The human mind is conditioned to process only a specific amount of information.

Blasting the human mind with a massive chunk of data can be detrimental. According to NNGroup, the signal-to-noise ratio represents the ratio of relevant to irrelevant information in any interface.

Consider an optimized signal-to-noise ratio, especially when planning mobile UI UX design. This allows designers to accommodate relevant content in the interface for better engagement.

5. User Flow Optimization

User flow is a set pattern every customer follows from the first interaction to the last. So, if a user is on an eCommerce mobile application, the first interaction may be a product search, and the last one will be making a purchase.

Optimizing the user flows will help improve the entire customer journey. Here are some tips to improve the user flow in your mobile app design,

• Understand the target audience.
• Use analytics tools like Google Analytics to analyze user behavior.
• Iterate and refine user flows for better customer satisfaction
• Conduct A/B testing to compare UI/UX versions
• Incorporate user feedback with each version

6. Content-First Design

Content-first is an approach where you create content before designing the mobile UI. Such content includes photos, videos, tables, buttons, data visualizations, and social media feeds. This is an ideal approach if you want to create a content-focused design.

However, this approach has specific downsides. For example, if the content and design teams are not aligned, the UI/UX can be text-heavy, cluttering the entire app UI UX design. Conversely, you may also need more content to work with. The most prominent drawbacks are repetitive iterations and delayed design.

7. One-Handed Design

One-handed UI/UX design helps designers ensure users can easily use the mobile app with one hand. This is also known as ” Thumb-Friendly Design.” It makes interacting with your mobile app easier by adjusting the proximity of design elements. For example, when designing a mobile app, you must consider the proximity of critical touchpoints.

In other words, you need to design mobile UI/UX so that crucial functions are near natural areas. This area should be comfortable for the user to interact with even when using the device one-handedly.

8. Integrate Security Features

Levi Strauss & Co. suffered a data breach affecting 72,231 customers. This cyber attack exposed personally identifiable information for customers. Such attacks show the importance of security integrations in UI/UX design.

Here are some tips for integrating security features in the app UI UX design,

• The first tip to secure the app UI UX design is ease of use. This allows users to avoid common mistakes while using the app.
• The second tip is to design for security. This means integrating measures like multi-factor authentication and encryptions.
• The third tip is to improve privacy. This is also important for compliance with the data regulations like HIPAA and PCI DSS.
• Integrate biometrics in your mobile app design to enable single sign-on(SSO).
• Add popups and security checkpoints across UI to educate customers.

9. User-Centric Design

Your primary goal should be user-centric design(UCD). It enables businesses to create compelling products, generate revenue, and improve ROI.

If you can execute UCD well, it will help you reduce design costs. UCD can be a cost-efficient approach, especially if you are worried about the cost of designing a mobile app. Here are the essential steps to create a user-centric app.

• Conduct in-depth research in the context of design use cases
• Align business objectives with user needs
• Build a design that is inclusive of empathy towards users
• Test the design extensively
• Integrate feedback continuously and iterate

10. Mobile-First Design

Mobile-first design where mobile user experience is a priority. You design the interface to maximize the mobile app experience. This also involves developing the app for different screen sizes. Mobile screens are significantly smaller, and you must ensure complete visibility.

Mobile-first design allows developers to design web application interfaces according to device size. This includes reshaping, sizing, and color-coding of design elements. It will help create a distinctive interface that offers a better mobile experience.

11. Usability Heuristics

Usability heuristics were first introduced in 1990 by UX experts Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich. Four years later, Jakob again refined them based on factor analysis of more than 249 problems.

The last update on heuristics was done in 2020, and more examples and explanations were added. Optimizing these heuristics will help you refine the user experience. Here are ten usability heuristics that you can optimize,

• Visibility of System Status- You need to ensure users are informed on what is happening with the system.
• Match System and Real World Environment- Make sure your mobile UI/UX design speaks the language users understand.
• User Control and Freedom— Design your app with an emergency exit whenever a user performs any actions by mistake.
• Consistency and Standards- Users need clear visibility across the UI. Designers must avoid using confusing design elements.
• Error Prevention- Reduce UI/UX design conditions that can cause errors. Focus on two types of mistakes primarily: “Slips and Mistakes.” Slips are errors that are caused unintentionally, while mistakes are intentional errors.
• Recall over Recognition— Build a UI/UX design that is easy to use. This means users don’t have to remember UI aspects while navigating from one part of the interface to another.
• Flexibility and Efficiency— Use shortcuts to speed up user interaction. Consider both experienced and inexperienced users.
• Aesthetic and Minimalistic Design- Use the relevant information properly.
• Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover- Ensure error codes are easy for users to understand. This will help them understand the problem and solution.
• Help and Documentation- Design the UI/UX so the system is easily understood. Users should be able to handle issues without complex information.

SEE ALSO: 6 Usability Testing Tools That Help You Create Better User Experiences

12. Animations and Micro-Interactions

Animation and micro-interactions offer instant visual feedback on user actions. You can implement loading animations to keep users hooked to the app while waiting for the content. Further, you can use animations to enhance the user onboarding process. For a better user experience, you can add progress bar animations and dynamic elements.

13. Load Time Optimization

Load time optimization is crucial because users have short attention spans. An average human may take around 2.6 seconds to make an impression. At the same time, a study shows 94% of user impressions are based on product design.

Load time optimization is crucial for your mobile app design, so you must strategically plan for it. Here are some tips to follow,

• Use browser caching to reduce the loading time for app pages
• Minimize the HTTP requests to the server to reduce response time
• Optimize images and content to minimize loading overhead
• Leverage content delivery network for better loading speeds
• Control usage of plugins to reduce additional database queries.

You can follow these best practices for app UI UX design. However, you must consider one more factor before designing UI/UX- “Design Trends!” Using key mobile app design trends, you can ensure relevance and better engagement.

Emerging Trends in Mobile UI/UX

Recent user interest in Apple Vision devices has opened up a new avenue for app designers. Apple’s announcement of support for designing and developing VIsion-based apps is encouraging. However, AR/VR is a new trend in mobile app design. Here is a list of app design trends for your project.

1. 3D and Faux-3D Design

3D elements help you add depth and realism to mobile UI UX design. Faux-3D elements highlight critical data on your app so users can make informed decisions. For example, a fashion eCommerce app can use 3D elements to offer a realistic view of products.

Users can view a product from different angles and zoom in for a detailed view. 3D objects expressed with instruments that work with 2D objects create a unique visual impact. This visual element is also known as the Faux-3D. Such visual elements are best for mobile apps with limited performance and screen space.

2. Liquid Swipe and Buttonless Design

Buttonless mobile app design allows users to leverage different gestures. For example, an eCommerce brand offers a feature to add a product to the cart with a right swipe. Similarly, there can be other use cases for users’ actions on your app. Based on the use case, you can design different gestures.

3. Device-Agnostic Experience

Designing a mobile application is about more than aesthetics. You expect the characters to evolve when you watch a web series finale. Similarly, your mobile app design needs to grow with time. This improves adaptability across different devices and accommodates innovations. It is a device-agnostic experience that you can offer through adaptive design.

A device-agnostic design approach considers different variables. These include device innovations, how users interact with a device, and network speed. Such an approach allows businesses to scale their UI/UX. Yes, you can cater to more users with this approach. It will help you cover more devices with app Ui UX design.

4. Neumorphism

Neumorphism helps you create the illusion of 3D graphics with 2D versions. It is a blend of skeuomorphism and flat design. You can offer a smooth, minimalistic design that emphasizes typography with bright colors.

This emerging design trend offers a realistic visual style. The buttons sit on top of the background surface and are slightly raised. Tesla’s app is a classic example of metamorphism UI, offering a visual representation close to the real world. Another example is Nike’s eCommerce app, which uses a neomorphic-style UI to showcase its shoes.

5. Asymmetrical Elements

An asymmetrical design approach allows designers to distribute UI components. These are spread out over an area until they balance out. Asymmetrical elements can be significant texts, prominent images, or illustrations.

Mainly, asymmetrical elements in a mobile UI UX design enable creativity. This design approach can be informal. Adding asymmetrical elements needs a creative eye. So, you need experts at the helm of your mobile app design.

6. Voice User Interfaces (VUIs)

Voice User Interfaces(VUIs) allow users to interact through voice commands. They help improve user experience and accessibility. Due to the increased usage of digital devices and screen fatigue, VUIs have gained traction.

Take, for example, the popular voice assistants Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa. These voice assistants have scaled so much that devices are designed around VUIs. Integrating complex technology like VUIs into your mobile app design will require expertise.

This is where a mobile app design company can help. Such experts will help you build custom VUIs based on the business logic and integrate them into mobile app design.

7. User-Generated Content (UGC)

UGC boomed with several short video platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and others. Users who use such platforms create content and engage others. However, UGC is not new. It has been present since the inception of social media platforms.

However, integrating UGC into your app UI UX design requires careful planning. First, you need to design the review and ratings feature. Further, you must create interactive features like polls, quizzes, and surveys.

While these are some standard UGC features, you can add more. Create features for users to generate, share, and engage through original content.

8. Glassmorphism

Glassmorphism is a mobile app design trend that offers a unique visual design style. It allows designers to create depth and contrast between different elements. Glass-morphic UI elements, especially, mimic a frosted glass-like look and feel for your mobile app design.

Glassmorphism offers,

• Opacity which defines how much a user can see through a design element
• Background blur offers the same visual impact that users can discover while in a shower with a frosted glass door or an office space with privacy glass.
• Strokes(borders) and gradients help emphasize the depth of glass-morphic elements placed on simple backgrounds in the app.

How Can Excellent Webworld Create Highly Engaging UI/UX?

Mobile app design is a complex task with multiple elements and best practices to apply. As an entrepreneur or even an enterprise, mobile app UI UX design becomes challenging. Researching the UI requirements, identifying elements, and implementing them requires expertise.

Fortunately, Excellent Webworld can provide mobile app design services tailored to your business requirements. Our mobile app design solutions offer,

• Custom design elements
• End-to-end mobile app design
• Prototyping and design testing
• AI-based integrations
• Comprehensive support

So, contact us now if you want to implement design best practices to create a unique user experience.

Article By

Mayur Panchal is the CTO of Excellent Webworld. With his skills and expertise, He stays updated with industry trends and utilizes his technical expertise to address problems faced by entrepreneurs and startup owners.