UI/UX Design, referred to as “User Interface/User Experience design,” has become very important in the field of application design focusing on creating a visual interface and improving the experience of the user. The role of a UI/UX designer is to ensure that the application, or software is user-friendly and visually appealing for the user.
In this article, we will discuss the importance of UI/UX design in app development, but before that, let’s discuss some basic concepts:
What is UI design?
UI design or User Interface design is the process of creating the visual interfaces for a software application. There are lots of businesses where a designer will play both parts, but there are also lots of designers who specialize in UI design. UI designers help users to navigate an interface by using visual cues.
What is UX design?
UX design or User Experience design is the process of creating the experiences or the interactions that a user has with a product. The basic principle of UX design is to keep the needs of the user prior and improve the interaction of the user and the product keeping this in mind.
Components of UI/UX design
The process of UI/UX design can be divided into 3 parts:
Step 1. User Research
The process of UI/UX designing starts with user research. The UI/UX designer takes detailed notes of the user research. there’s a lot of information that will be gathered so the UI/UX designer has to analyze the information, understand the trend, and organize data using tools to identify trends and patterns in that data. The role of the UI/UX designer is to create reports and presentations to present that complex information to other people in the team.
Step 2. Wireframing and Prototyping
Wireframes are detailed structural sketches that illustrate a concept. A wireframe for a digital product is similar to a blueprint for a house. Wireframe clearly illustrates how the product functions and the core elements of its design.
Step3. Visual Designing and testing
The UI/UX designer then comes up with creative and innovative design solutions. he/she designs the User Interface and creates different visual touch points and establish the interactivity with them. Along with that the interfaces are tested and iterated upon the shortcomings.
Importance of UI/UX design in Mobile App Development
- Better User retention: User retention is a very tricky job and is completely independent of how good the codebase is. The user only looks and interacts with the interface not the code. Key to User retention is a good user interface coupled with great user experience. A user will not spend time on an app where text is overflowing and colors are causing eye strain.
- Effective and Enjoyable interaction: UI UX Design is the way through which users can interact with any mobile applications. User interface design is aimed at easy enjoyable and effective interactions between the users and the app. The primary goal of application UI principles is to provide the best interaction to the user.
- Turning customers to loyal customers: The whole idea of UX design is to create an application structure that provides the best experience to the users. The aim of application UX principles is to turn customers into loyal customers by providing a positive experience to them. UX is directly or indirectly responsible for a user’s journey through an application which ultimately decides the success of the business.
- Saves resources in longer run: While for a startup, UI/UX looks like the limited money they have. In the longer run, you cannot sustain without a UI/UX team/person in the startup. It becomes impossible to complete with an application that has a far better UI/UX. Investing in UI/UX design is longer term, so instead of getting the UI changed every time a new feature is added, its better to have a UI/UX team that researches and comes up with the features required, design, interface etc.
- Communicate your mission and your product/service: The visual elements along with the copywriting takes the major part of communication for the brand. To communication you mission and your product/service – you will have to do these to things right. Irrespective of what help marketing provides, users have to come to your website/app to buy product/service or know about it. Here good copywriting along with great UI can create a lasting impression in the mind of the user.
- Scaling the application with Mobile UI/UX Design: Mobile development of applications is better known for targeting more customers and getting more eyeballs to your product/service. The mobile approach UI/UX design can help us scale the application to more number of people. UI/UX design concepts like Repetition, Alignment, Contrast, etc. become even more important for the mobile app approach since the size of the screen and the visuals that can fit in are limited.
- UI/UX is not just design, it is much more: UI/UX is conventionally thought of as designing the interface and structure of the application while it is much more than that. The first step of UI/UX is to research about the user need and present it to the business team. interface designer is a small part of UI/UX. Researching about the customers gives valuable insights about the product/service and what things should be improved.
Best UI/UX practices
- Nothing compensates for good design: Good design is making something intelligible and memorable great design is making something memorable and meaningful. Nothing in application development process can make up for a poor design. Design should be the main priority.
- Focus on the wireframing part: Great UI design can make or break a great wireframe. And a poor wireframe can kill your application. if the imagery is not right or do not go accordingly with the style or does not match with the content
- Contrast: setting up a proper contrast to the UI is can be obtained through organizing the, design establishing hierarchy, emphasizing a focal point and adding visual interest. It can be done by a lot of different ways – we can add contrast with color, with weight, with size of typography or even with the imagery.
- Alignment and Proximity: a proper alignment in the UI helps organize and group elements, it creates a visual rhythm of elements on the screen, Alignment and proximity brings order in unordered typography.
- Repetition: Proper use of repetition through increasing consistency, increases the user’s ability to learn and identify the pattern in our interface or layout and it also reduces confusion and helps the user guess objects in the layout properly.
UI/UX deliverables in mobile application design
An interface with proper visual elements, typography, build using extensive researching, wireframing and prototyping builds a well designed mobile application, here are the important deliverables to take care of:
UX deliverables
- User testing reports and presentations.
- Guidelines for an accessible design.
- User Personas – demographics, pain points and data that can be used to understand the target users.
- User flow – structure of the application for user (entry points, interactions and exits).
UI deliverables
- Wireframes – detailed structural sketches.
- Mockups – visual representation of the UI.
- Visual elements – icons, logos, images and graphics etc.
- Style Guide – color palettes, contrast, typography related guidelines.
Avoid these mistakes while designing applications
- Not enough focus on user research: For a UX designer, user research is the starting point. Many beginners in UX design make this mistake to skip this part and directly jump to the wireframing part. User insights are the game changers in the longer run, make sure to do extensive user research before wireframing and prototyping.
- Never consider you job is over after handing over the design: While others focuses passively on the design after the design is handed over to the frontend or copywriting team, best UI/UX designer takes the feedback from frontend team and then from the users after the production and keeps of iterating until it becomes exceptional.
- Not learning new technologies and tools: We often tend to get stuck in our comfort zone after that first offer or that pay raise, As a UI/UX designer we must step out of our comfort zone and learn the new technologies and tools in our field. This will pay exponential results in the longer run.
Conclusion
We can conclude this article with the thought that no matter how good the product or service is without a proper packaging and without a propre appeal, it simply won’t sell. As much as development process is important in a product lifecycle, UI/UX design plays an equally important role. UI/UX design is not just about choosing the right contrast colors or using better visual elements. It’s also about conveying your message to the user in the simplest way possible. It is about providing an experience that remains in the mind of the user.