After you come up with the basic premise for your new app and have a firm idea of the user base you are targeting, the single most important aspect of making it into a reality is the design process.

Design has as much to do with how your app looks as with how it functions in the real world. This is why it’s so important to go with a developer that has experience designing apps that are easy to use and will improve people’s lives in some way. Whether you are helping your end users do their jobs more effectively or providing them information or entertainment, design is a critical aspect of the app development process.

1. Set Goals

You won’t know how to design the app until you set your goals. What is the purpose of your app? To save people money by providing them with a comparison tool? Is it to help them use one of your existing products?

When you determine just how your app will help customers solve a particular problem or otherwise improve their lives, you will have a goal for the design team to get behind, so they can focus their efforts on your requirements.

2. Understand the Needs of your End Users

Assume your users are busy and don’t have time to waste reading an instruction manual just to use your app. create an intuitive and easy design

Create use cases to help you determine the most likely circumstances under which people will be using your app.

If you have any rivals in this space, study competing apps both to see how well they work and where they go wrong. Learn from their mistakes and you can capture market share with your improved app.

3. Pick a Platform

If your goal is to reach a particular group of users, don’t just port an existing app from one platform to another, such as Android to iOS or Web to Windows Phone.

It’s better to take advantage of the distinct characteristics of each platform and design your app accordingly. Budgeting for development on each platform ensures that you will meet the needs of your end users more effectively.

4. Gather Assets

Your app will have a number of elements to integrate. You’ll need to source such items as stock imagery or create new photos or drawings, for example.

Mobile app templates are also useful to examine, as they can help you figure out what assets you’ll want to include. The selection of which design kit to employ can be just as important as choosing which fonts and color schemes to use in your new app.

5. Make Sure it’s Accessible to All Your Users

Don’t design your interface with tiny type just because it “looks cool” or you want to cram in a lot of details. Remember that your end users may be older and have problems with their vision or dexterity. With adaptive design, you can enable users to use a text size that works better for them and they’ll be able to work within your layout.

This is why it’s so important to conduct tests on your app during the development stage, to make sure that all your intended customers will be able to use it to its full potential.

6. Conduct Iterative Testing of the Prototype

You cannot release a product into the marketplace without doing extensive tests. The more time and resources you can budget for testing, the better. Begin with the rough mock-up and make sure that all stakeholders approve of the basic approach to the app’s design.

Then as work begins, only allow end user tests of the app prototype to take place on the actual device. This will help you identify bugs, navigational issues and other problems as they emerge.

The creative professionals at OpenXcell have years of experience in designing intuitive and easy-to-use apps for our customers. We build apps for all the major mobile platforms and can advise you on the best approach to get your project off the ground and to market as soon as possible. For more information on how our team will work with you through each step of the design process for your new mobile app, please contact the experts at XpertLab today.