Sunday 17 November 2013

Designing Your Mobile App

So I have been working on my new app, all guns blazing. Which is actually not a very good thing to do. I was very close to completing the app when a few people pointed out some glaring design issues. Though I argued and tried to convince them that what is built is right, I soon realized my mistakes. Even tough I always knew that there was a big loop hole in the app, I went ahead with the design which backfired (luckily before the launch).

So now I am in the process of re-designing the app. And I am trying the be very careful with what I am doing. So here are a few pointers I have come up with which I would like to share with you. And hopefully you guys don't make the same mistake I made.


1) Make sure the core functionality of your app is air tight

By this I mean that you have identified, very very clearly, what your app is meant to do for the user. If your app is solving a problem for the user, what is the problem, and how are you going to solve it. Leave out the peripherals. Think about the first impression your customer will get when he downloads your app

2) Start with a birds eye view

Since we are so excited to develop our idea into an app, we get caught up in the nitty-gritty details of the app. What should my menu button look like, how should I construct my 'About' screen... 
Forget about these things when you are designing the first draft of your app. Zoom out to 1000ft and worry about what your app should look like from up there. Many a times during the initial design phase we start thinking about these trivial things. At that time, remember to zoom out.

3) Design the main screen first

In my case the main screen is the first screen the user will be seeing. This may not be true for all apps. Initially I coded my second screen first, which is the more heavy duty screen, and later had to somewhat accommodate the main screen. This was a huge mistake and cost me almost 2 weeks of my work. So please be very careful while deciding what your main screen is and make sure you design that before all others.

4) Keep it SIMPLE... really simple

We may like to put in a lot of bells and whistles in our apps, and it may appeal to the user as well when he reads the app description, but believe me if he even has a hint of confusion while operating the app for the first time, he will uninstall it without thinking twice. This is because the consumers are spoilt for choice with the millions of apps available. They will not be wasting their time trying to learn your app when they know there are ten others available in the app store.

I hope the few points mentioned above help you out. 

Till next time.

Adios

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