Fundamentally, application development can be broken down into a series of different phases. The number of app design steps varies for each person, depending on how one organizes various tasks. How well the users will receive the app will depend on the design. If you hurry into the design process, the result may suffer. It recently dawned on me that the design process for an app is not well understood, which is what led me to write this guide.

Below you’ll read more about the app design process and why it’s so essential to your app development project. I will dig into valuable design guidelines solutions you can leverage as an integrated service with Swiftspeed Appcreator. Let’s begin.

Pre App Design Preparation Stages

Before commencing app development, you need to understand some of the app development life cycle’s key steps. The competitive analysis steps include a brief description, device design, and wireframing of the app before the actual development commencement. You are having a complete insight of what you are trying to put together, defining and drafting out your app features, and making sure that no feature inclusion will hamper the user experience.

This section is also related to the production, just exactly like in the app design stage. To create a beautiful app, you need to understand and make these choices first.

Competitive Research and Analysis

Before starting a new enterprise, it is necessary to understand your competitors. Evaluating your competitors’ performance helps you know what other applications are in the field; This enables you to narrow down what features should be included in your app version and what part should be removed. Copy validated strategies for applications that have paved the way. You will find the competition’s flaws and use them to make your own more competitive. Let’s presume you want to make a workout app – exclusively for wearables. A market review will be the first step in this industry.

Rather than starting from scratch, you can extract your own app ideas collected by various competitors in your niche. Your app will still be exclusive, so it’s wise to use similar applications as inspiration to create your app. Look at the home screen. Analyze the UI and UX architecture. Ultimately, you can use bits and pieces of each interface to build a much-improved structure.

Where do you find any friction or pain points within your competitors’ apps? Make sure to avoid those mistakes and improve in these areas when designing your own.

Related: App Development: 7 Things You Should Consider Before Building An App

The App Design Architecture

This stage is frequently ignored in app creation. But by understanding your market first, you can expand your business without outgrowing your app. The best apps are scalable, efficient, and stable.

Without an architectural review, you may overlook something in the shuffle. So consider the different entities in your scheme. Think of all the data flows between each person. How will the process be conducted? Do you need third-party integrations? What technical specifications do you even have or require? Build a specification sheet that describes both data flows and flow maps. Your design team will get this knowledge and concept. App designer needs to consider the app’s layout to build an image that makes sense for your app development. With Swiftspeed Appcreator, You have several options for templates in different categories.

Build The Design Wire Frames

Your app design wireframe is another valuable method used in the app’s final design. Anyone can build a wireframe—it doesn’t matter whether or not you are a designer to do this.

Think of the wireframe as the rough sketch of the end user’s understanding of the app. The contact can be relatively relaxed. I’ve also seen sketches sketched on napkins or post-it notes, but most people today can create a digital version with Photoshop software; at Swiftspeed Appcreator, we use Figma mostly.
It is a view of what the app would look like from screen to screen.  Please identify the steps your app user must go through to get to a specific page in the app.

So, let’s take a look at an example of a fitness app. this is what a part of your wireframe might look like in your mockup:

Let me explain this app design wireframe: Users can access the “Back” or “Chest & Back” sections of the app (page) to see different workouts. There will be separate exercise pages such as “Bench Press,” which will open up in a different browser, one page away from the “Chest & Back Page.” It is much easier to figure out the wireframe for the homepage ahead of time. If these blueprints are completed, it will be easy to change the development before the design and production phases formally began.

For an interactive version, wireframes may be used to do a click-through analysis. This step’s primary goal is to ensure that your users can navigate through your app by minimizing friction, ultimately boosting the app UX (User Experience).

App Design Phase for Mobile App Development

• Mood Boards

You can always begin with a mood board. App creation techniques are the perfect way to activate specific app types. Mood boards are used in apparel, interior design, web design, content design, and graphic design. A mood board will provide a solid base for your design. It helps to have the designer on the same page. Mood boards can assist with the app’s design and make it easier for many people to work collaboratively. You want to build an app with a partner. How do you express your thoughts on something intangible (like a design)? Mood boards aid build.

Check out this app type.

A simple restaurant food ordering app design

• Color Mix

App Design, Color palettes, and mood boards are not the same stuff. Your mood board can be used to express the look and sound of your app’s architecture, but it is also essential to be consistent with its colors. Colors should include lead, secondary, notification, progress, text, symbol, and more. Make sure the shades are not too contrasted. The study architecture and graphical methodology should balance each other well.

It is not appropriate to use yellow text on an orange symbol. Although orange and yellow fall within the same color palette, mixing them will cause issues for consumers. It would be a difficult challenge to read yellow text against an orange backdrop. So try to keep the colors in mind when you’re designing your app.

• Supported Devices

Your app design would look different on each device. It would help if you considered how different screen sizes and device types affect the app’s look. What would the style look like on an iPhone Xs Max compared to a Samsung Galaxy Note 20? How would the Android tablet change to an iPad mini or be the same? Android applications would be different from iOS apps. But you need to still look beyond iOS vs. Android. Devices may have a different OS, hardware. The colors, mood, and on-screen elements will be the same on all screens. There will be minor differences in the OS-dependent on screen size, maker, and operating system.

• Research & Strategic Consultation. 

Proper app design encourages strategic consulting; Not all app designers are trained to understand much about strategic consulting. You’ll need to locate an app design team with a vested interest in your success and growth. For instance, if you are looking for a designer on Upwork or Fiverr. UX designers are paid to do a job and go on to the next. They won’t have that much thought or feedback in the project. Yet, a strategic partner challenges your ideas and makes you develop new solutions. They can help find any vulnerabilities in your concepts, like UI/UX.

Strategic consulting helps distinguish mediocre apps from top-rated apps.

• App Design Mockup and Prototyping

It would be best if you built high fidelity mockups and samples before you finalize the app. It will provide you with a live demo to show you how it will work once completed.

The software will help you better understand the app’s architecture, accessibility, and usability.

Mockups and designs integrate wireframes with the design process. See Example

CONCLUSION

Developing a mobile app can be a complicated process, but it doesn’t have to be. To get the design correctly for your app, make sure you adopt the design recommendations explained in this post. Depending on your expertise in this subject, you could need some assistance to come up with a solution. We can accommodate all of the conceptual aspects and much more while also maintaining our app’s advisory services.

Mobile app designers and app creators that we have on our team will provide you with strategic partnerships for your app development project. It’s time for you to move your idea to the next level. Together, we will create something unique. New to Swiftspeed Appcreator? Sign Up Today