10 expert tips for mobile app design
Suhan Gorya
Too many iOS and Android apps are hard to use due to poor design -- follow this advice to make sure your app isn't one of them
Good design is important for any application, despite what years and years of bad apps from vendors and IT shops have led us to believe. In the mobile context, good design is even more critical because the small screen and unsteady operating environment makes it even harder to use an app, which good design can overcome.
What can developers do about it? And what should users look for? I spoke recently with Michael Griffith, creative director at Bottle Rocket Apps, a mobile app development shop whose apps include the nicely designed NPR News app. He had a set of 10 principles and recommendations that if followed should lead to better apps -- especially better mobile apps.
1. Don't simply port what you have to other platforms (iOS to Android, Web to iOS, Android to BlackBerry, and so on). The look and feel should honor the target platform, which users chose for a reason. Also, capabilities may also differ based on what the platform offers, so developers need to decide when the platforms are too usefully different to deliver the "same" app across them and do related apps instead.
For corporate apps used in multiple contexts and devices, Griffith notes the degree of standardization should be greater than in consumer apps, so users can do what's familiar across all devices they might be provided in the course of their work, assuring them they can do what they need regardless of device and reducing learning time. In this case, the app is the center of the user experience more than the device is. (By contrast, the device tends to be the center of the user experience in consumer usage.) You still must honor fundamental UI assumptions of the platform in the app's basic interactions -- such as access to menus.
2. Take advantage of mobile (especially smartphone) constraints to think creatively. An example is for an app to use facial recognition to auto-crop on the central focus of image rather than manually build all the views in the app's asset library. Anticipating all the sizes and crops is a daunting task, and storing them in the app only makes it fat, which clogs devices' limited storage space and consumes a lot of bandwidth during app updates.
3. Take advantage of mobile capabilities not available on a PC. For example, use the camera to snap images or "signatures," or location services to narrow down suggestions such as in search or suppliers. Use those sensors, especially where their additional data can reduce user and/or app background effort.
4. Design accessibly. It's common to see young designers use small text and tight layouts that are hard for older users to read and accurately tap. Avoid the Retina effect: Just because there are now smaller pixels that make text technically readable at even smaller sizes, if you're much past the age of 35, human eyes still can't read such minuscule text. Use adaptive design instead, such as preferences over text size that adjust the layout accordingly. The new text-size API in iOS 7 should reduce the burden of that coding for iPhones and iPads.
5. When showing mockups and prototypes to clients or users, do it on the device the app will run on.
A PDF or Photoshop mockup on a large computer screen simply doesn't
reflect the look and feel of a smartphone or tablet, nor are the
interactions (such as touch, swipe, and type) the same. What looks and
works right on a big screen with mouse and keyboard may feel horrible on
a mobile device's small touchscreen. Likewise, what works well on a
mobile device may function poorly on a computer screen, causing users
and client to reject good options. Show your comps and protoypes in the
actual context.
6. Beware metaphors. There are fewer universal graphical metaphors you can count on people understanding -- the old analog images (TV screens, radio controls, tape players, cameras, filmstrips, LPs, rotary dial, pilot lights, and even CDs) are not operationally familiar to younger generations, even if they may have seen them in an older movie. Although iconography thoretically allows for more universal design, many of the analog bases for the icons are becoming less and less familiar, confusing users. The use of text may be better, even if localization is required -- Apple's apparent conclusion, judging by iOS 7.
7. Beware oversimplification, where everything (color, weight, texture, and so on) looks the same. Too simple is as confusing as too complex, as both lead to difficulty in centering user focus for the task or content at hand.
8. Design apps, not applications. The more complex an app, the harder it is to use and navigate, especially in the smartphone context of on-the-go, uncertain environment (where users could be standing, sitting, or jostling, as well as working in dim light or bright light). If you have a lot of functionality to provide, consider breaking it into a set of related apps, each focused on a core functionality. This "don't overload the app" notion can be tough to explain to clients, especially given the pressure to "do more" in each revision, but it's essential that apps don't become unwieldy or confusingly complex. (Griffith suggests you cite the line "Freedom of choice is what you get, freedom from choice is what you want" from the band Devo's iconic "Freedom of Choice" song.)
9. Design for layers of experience. First-time users should feel something special and immediately valuable when they launch your app. Subsequent users should discover more utility that is easy to access. People using the app regularly over time should get deeper functionality to make even more sticky and useful. Flipboard is a good example of that approach, Griffith notes.
10. Make data travel to the user in context. Techniques include motion and transitions to enrich the user experience, and push the value to the user rather than force the user to look at it. Leave a way to go deeper for those who want to, rather than overwhelm people with information by default.
6. Beware metaphors. There are fewer universal graphical metaphors you can count on people understanding -- the old analog images (TV screens, radio controls, tape players, cameras, filmstrips, LPs, rotary dial, pilot lights, and even CDs) are not operationally familiar to younger generations, even if they may have seen them in an older movie. Although iconography thoretically allows for more universal design, many of the analog bases for the icons are becoming less and less familiar, confusing users. The use of text may be better, even if localization is required -- Apple's apparent conclusion, judging by iOS 7.
7. Beware oversimplification, where everything (color, weight, texture, and so on) looks the same. Too simple is as confusing as too complex, as both lead to difficulty in centering user focus for the task or content at hand.
8. Design apps, not applications. The more complex an app, the harder it is to use and navigate, especially in the smartphone context of on-the-go, uncertain environment (where users could be standing, sitting, or jostling, as well as working in dim light or bright light). If you have a lot of functionality to provide, consider breaking it into a set of related apps, each focused on a core functionality. This "don't overload the app" notion can be tough to explain to clients, especially given the pressure to "do more" in each revision, but it's essential that apps don't become unwieldy or confusingly complex. (Griffith suggests you cite the line "Freedom of choice is what you get, freedom from choice is what you want" from the band Devo's iconic "Freedom of Choice" song.)
9. Design for layers of experience. First-time users should feel something special and immediately valuable when they launch your app. Subsequent users should discover more utility that is easy to access. People using the app regularly over time should get deeper functionality to make even more sticky and useful. Flipboard is a good example of that approach, Griffith notes.
10. Make data travel to the user in context. Techniques include motion and transitions to enrich the user experience, and push the value to the user rather than force the user to look at it. Leave a way to go deeper for those who want to, rather than overwhelm people with information by default.
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