5 Steps To Follow In The App Design Process To Create A Great App

Imagine this: your team finally finishes coding your app, and you can’t wait to launch it. But it doesn’t get the attention you expected when it goes live. Instead of raving reviews, you find a long list of complaints about the app’s usability. Sounds frustrating, right? You can avoid this scenario by partnering with app design agencies to nail the app design process. This article will walk you through the steps to follow in the app design process to create a great app so you can reach your goals with the design and usability. 

NUMI’s product design solution is a valuable tool for achieving your objectives. With our help, you can create a user-friendly app that meets your target audience’s needs and preferences. 

What Does App Design Entail?

At its heart, app design is about creating a space where your app’s visual appeal meets top-notch usability. It’s not just about making it look stunning (though that’s super important) but also about ensuring people can use your app smoothly and intuitively. This involves carefully planning out the interface and interactions so that your app isn’t just pretty and purposeful.

UI vs. UX: What’s the Difference? 

The dynamic duo of app design is user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). They often get lumped together, but they’re not identical twins. 

Let’s break it down: 

UI (User Interface) 

Design is all about the look of your app. Think: 

• Fonts
• Colors
• Buttons
• Layouts

This is where you decide how everything will visually come together, creating an engaging and interactive interface. 

UX (User Experience) 

Design is more about the feel of your app. It’s like the blueprint that ensures everything flows logically and works efficiently. It covers things like how easy it is to find what you need, how smooth interactions are, and how enjoyable the overall experience is. 

The Perfect Blend of UI and UX for an Exceptional App Design

While UI makes the app visually appealing, UX ensures it’s intuitive and functional. Both must work together like peanut butter and jelly for a design that truly stands out.

The UI/UX Relationship

Here’s a fun way to think about it: UI is like your app's clothes, while UX is its personality. The clothes might grab attention, but the personality keeps people around. 

Together, they make your app memorable and enjoyable. So, whether you’re designing a sleek productivity tool or a fun gaming app, remember that the design process is where creativity meets strategy. Nail this, and your app will be something users can’t stop raving about!

5 Benefits Of An Effective & Enhanced App Design Process

1. Clarity Brings Predictability to Your App Design Process

An effective app design process creates a structured framework to follow. This framework helps eliminate confusion and uncertainty by establishing a clear sequence of events. 

As a result, everyone involved can understand how the process will unfold, who is responsible for each task, and what the timeline looks like. This improved clarity will help set expectations with all stakeholders, including your end users. 

2. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work 

Even if you have the best app designers in the world, their talents won’t matter if they aren’t working together effectively. An organized app design process improves teamwork by establishing a clear workflow for designers. This workflow will help clarify the design scope and objectives, who is responsible for each task, and which activities need to happen in what order. 

As a result, your app design team can work together more effectively, improving collaboration and alignment for better and faster designs. 

3. Establishing a Design Process Improves Efficiency 

An app design process is like a template to follow. And we all know that templates help us all work faster. So, with everyone on the same page, multidisciplinary team members know how and when to contribute during the design process. This means you can make essential design decisions more quickly along the way. 

4. An Effective App Design Process Improves the Final Product 

An organized app design process helps teams focus on the right things so they can deliver better final designs. For starters, it forces you to consider your users and their needs from the very beginning. 

This reflects positively in your final design and user experience. An effective app design process also allows for proper delivery and testing, so your team benefits from less friction during developer handoff and more certainty that the final designs meet all of the goals you intended for them. 

5. A Solid App Design Process Helps You Create Happy Users 

The ultimate goal for any design project is to solve a problem and make users happy. The app design process gives you the assurance that you’re doing the right thing and creating something your users will enjoy.

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5 Steps To Follow In The App Design Process

1. Define Your App Idea

Every app starts with a well-defined concept that resonates with its target audience. It’s important to validate your app idea and find a strong product-market fit to ensure you’re headed in the right direction. 

Here’s how to get started:  

Identify The Problem Or Need 

Pinpoint the problem or need your app solves and what sets it apart from what’s already out there. Ask yourself questions like: 

• What’s the main goal of the app? 
• What problem does the app solve? 
• Who faces this problem, and how does it impact their daily lives? 
• Are there any existing solutions to this problem?
• How can your app improve on them? 
• How will this app make users’ lives easier, more efficient, or more enjoyable? 
• How does this app align with the company’s larger mission and values? 

Answering these questions will help you better understand your app’s purpose and ensure it effectively solves user problems.  

Conduct Market Research 

Deep dive into existing apps to spot trends and identify market gaps. Knowing what’s already out there will make it easier to brainstorm how to design an app with standout features and functions that set it apart.  

Conduct A Competitive Analysis 

This helps uncover who’s leading, what they’re doing well, and how they stack up in the market. A SWOT analysis can help you identify your app’s: 

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Potential challenges to make sure your idea stands out 

Define Your Target Audience 

Conduct user research to understand your customer’s needs and preferences clearly. This will help you zero in on features that will grab their attention and keep them engaged.  

Start With User Interviews During The Early Development Phase. 

Talking to a few people can help you gather feedback on their behaviors, motivations, and pain points. Early insights will help you validate your idea, minimize risks, and uncover new opportunities.  

Create User Personas 

Create user personas to inform design, messaging, and product development. User personas give you a deeper understanding of your audience, allowing you to prioritize features that meet their needs. Throughout the app development process, refer back to your personas to ensure that every feature and interaction aligns with your user’s preferences.  

2. Design Your App

Balancing user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design is essential when designing an app. Remember, the goal is an app that’s easy and enjoyable. 

UI design covers everything your user interacts with—interactive elements like buttons and menus, icons, colors, and overall layout. UX design ensures the experience is smooth and intuitive by organizing content effectively and anticipating user needs.  

To successfully create an app with UI and UX design in mind, focus on these key actions:  

Outline Core Functions And Features 

Your app’s features should align with its core purpose. When designing an app, consider features that will enhance the user experience while also solving users’ problems. 

Here are a few popular app features to consider: 

• Push notifications 
• Location and GPS services 
• Payment capabilities 
• Search functionalities 
• Social media integrations 
• Order tracking 
• In-app support 
• Language options 
• Ratings and reviews 
• Gamification elements 
• Personalization based on user behavior  

Defining Your App’s Core Features and Functionality with a Product Requirements Document (PRD)

For example, Uber’s core function is connecting people with drivers for rides. One of its primary features is GPS tracking, which allows drivers to easily find pick-up and drop-off locations while letting passengers track their rides in real-time. 

Push notifications keep riders updated on their driver’s location, payment integrations make transactions seamless, and a two-way rating system lets passengers and drivers provide feedback. Consider creating a product requirements document (PRD) to ensure everyone is on the same page about your app’s purpose, core features, and key functionality.  

Create Wireframes 

Wireframes are early visualizations of your app used for initial concept testing. They offer a basic outline of the app’s layout, navigation, and functionalities. Wireframes might also include simple outlines of interactive elements that will be included within the app, aligning teams in direction early on. 

Focus on the essentials, like each screen’s primary goal, content organization, and usability. And remember, wireframes are flexible—you can always change things as the design evolves.  

Choose Your Color Palette And Typography 

Choose a color palette and fonts that match your brand identity while supporting the user experience. Your color choices help guide interactions and create a clear visual hierarchy for users.  

3. Build Prototypes

Prototyping is essential for early-stage app development. It helps you bring ideas to life and test them before final development. Prototypes visualize key design elements and user interactions, allowing for: 

• Quick testing
• Iteration
• Problem-solving

Think of a prototype as your app’s rough draft—it will go through several revisions before you get to the polished final version. 

When building your prototypes, focus on the following:  

Create User Flows 

User flows define how users move through your app, shaping their journey and ensuring usability. Think of them as pathways that guide users from one action to the next. For example, a user might browse product details, add items to a cart, and then complete checkout—all facilitated by a well-thought-out user flow. 

By mapping out your user flows first, you can design individual screens and features that support each action, creating a seamless experience.  

Organize App Content 

Information architecture (IA) is all about organizing your app's content in a way that makes sense to users. A well-structured app makes it easy for users to find what they want. 

Take Netflix, for example—if you’re in the mood for a comedy, its clear categories and intuitive navigation make it simple to find a good laugh. That’s the power of effective IA.  

Best Practices for Organizing, Labeling, and Navigating Content in App Design

Keep these best practices and tips in mind when considering how to design an app and organize your content:  

• Organization. Use card sorting to understand how your users expect content to be organized. This will help you structure and categorize your content to meet user expectations.  
• Labeling. Use clear and intuitive labels to identify information and navigate the app quickly.  
• Navigation. Create intuitive menus and systems that help users effortlessly explore content.  
• Search. Implement search functions, filters, and related suggestions to help users quickly find their needs.  

Prioritize App Features 

When it comes to app features, sometimes less is more—especially when launching an app for the first time. Too many features can overwhelm users and complicate the interface. 

The MoSCoW method is a great way to prioritize app features, breaking them into four buckets: must-have, should-have, could-have, and won’t-have. This approach helps you focus on the features that solve user problems and provide a clear path for users to complete key actions.  

Design For Interactivity 

Building prototypes allows you to create interactive experiences. This lets you visualize how users interact with your app, helping validate decisions before development. 

Use hover effects, colors, animations, and micro-interactions to transform static designs into dynamic experiences. Simple touches, like an animated heart when liking a photo or a color change when hovering over a button, enhance usability by giving instant visual feedback, making the user experience more enjoyable and engaging.  

4. Begin Development

Your app is starting to take shape. You’ve nailed the design layout, defined all the interactions, and feel confident about its direction. It’s time to bring your prototype to life and develop a fully functioning app.  

Choose Your App Type 

The type of app you choose determines the programming languages and frameworks needed during development. 

There are four main types of apps:  

• Native apps: These apps are designed for specific operating systems, like iOS or Android, allowing access to a device’s hardware and features. Native apps offer the best performance but are more expensive to develop since they require tailored development for each operating system.  
• Cross-platform apps: These are built to work on multiple platforms from a single codebase, saving time and money.  
• Hybrid apps: These are built using Web technologies but packaged as native apps. They are easier to maintain but offer fewer features than native apps.
• Progressive Web apps (PWAs): These websites behave like apps, allowing offline use and installation on mobile devices.  

Start Coding 

During the coding phase, your focus will shift to both frontend and backend development:  

• Frontend development: This involves building the visual elements that users see and interact with, such as layout, colors, and buttons. Depending on the operating system or type of app you’re developing, you might use programming languages like Kotlin or Swift and frameworks like React or Flutter.  
• Backend development. This focuses on functionality and how your app works behind the scenes. You might use languages like Java or Python and databases like SQL. 
  How do you design an app that seamlessly translates to code? Figma’s Dev Mode makes it easy to generate and copy CSS, iOS, or Android code snippets directly from your designs without leaving your text editor. You can also use plugins to customize code for your framework, speeding up the development process.  

Create An MVP 

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a simplified version of your app that includes only the most essential features—acting as your “test” version. Launching an MVP allows you to test your app’s core functionalities with real users before the final launch.  

Gather Early Feedback 

Gathering feedback early in development helps catch issues before they become significant problems. You want users and team members to test the core features and experience the app as they would in the real world. 

The team at Stripe uses friction logging, or what they refer to as “walking the store,” to identify pain points. This process lets different team members experience the product firsthand to reveal “friction” points. Friction logs offer early feedback from a user’s point of view to identify areas of confusion that can be addressed to enhance the user experience.  

5. Test, Iterate, and Launch 

Final testing and iteration polish your app so it’s ready for launch. Focus on the following areas to ensure a smooth release:  

Run Tests And Implement Feedback 

Releasing an app without proper testing can lead to a confusing user experience. To ensure your app performs well before launch, make sure to conduct these essential tests:  

• Usability testing helps you observe how users complete tasks within the app, revealing any challenges or areas for improvement.  
• Accessibility testing ensures the app is accessible to users with disabilities and impairments, providing an inclusive experience.  
• Performance testing assesses the app’s speed, loading time, and battery usage under different conditions to optimize efficiency.  
• Compatibility testing ensures the app functions appropriately across various devices and operating system versions (iOS or Android).  
• QA testing identifies bugs and errors within the software that could impact the app’s performance.  

After collecting feedback, incorporate the changes, and then rerun the tests to ensure the effectiveness of your improvements.  

Submit To App Stores 

Once your app is ready, it’s time to launch! Submit it to the Apple App Store for iOS apps and Google Play Store for Android apps. Apple and Google Play have specific submission requirements, so carefully review their guidelines before submitting for app approval.  

Continuously Improve 

Products are always a work in progress, so launching your app is just the beginning. Monitor user feedback and data to make regular updates, fix issues, and introduce new features. As your customer base grows, staying on top of evolving trends will keep your app relevant and engaging.

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9 Challenges To Overcome In The App Design Process

1. Compatibility: The Silent Killer of App Performance

The average smartphone user has around 80 apps installed on his device. Some of these apps might be dependent on other apps. For example, a restaurant app might require the help of Google Maps to optimize delivery routes. 

If the map functions fail, this results in a dependency error and reflects poorly on the restaurant app. This is the reason you must thoroughly test the compatibility of the app you're developing with other apps.

Solution:
Use the best compatibility testing tools to examine the implementation of your app design. These tools can be helpful for both platform testing and software compatibility testing.

2. User Interface Complications: Don’t Let a Fancy UI Undermine Your App’s Usability

It is important to create an impressive user interface. But that doesn’t mean you must exhaust every ounce of your creativity. It is necessary to design an interface that is simple and easy for the app’s users.

Solution:
Whenever you modify any user interface feature, be sure that design change is essential. Use a limited number of screens, keep the interface as simple as possible, and make the app easy to operate and navigate. 

3. Replicating Other Mobile Apps: Find Inspiration, but Avoid Copying

While we all use the designs of existing apps for inspiration, that doesn’t mean you should wholly copy the design of a competitor’s app. App users can easily spot the copies, which can negatively affect your business and users’ engagement with your app.

Solution:
Adopt the design best practices from competitors’ apps, not their designs. Doing just this is more than enough to overcome this issue. 

4. Inconsistent Design: Ensure Your App’s Visuals Are Cohesive

You must design each mobile app screen to be consistent and work well. Ensure that your app’s visual design connects with your brand, is consistent across every device, and uses a background color suitable for your app.

Solution:
Take design elements from your brand. Make sure your app has a simple look that is consistent with the purpose of your application and is compatible with the operating systems of the devices on which it runs. 

5. A Lack of User Feedback: Don’t Ignore Your App’s Future Users

Making major modifications post-launch, without getting any user feedback, could result in unwanted risks. This is a crucial aspect that some designers miss. Researching the market to understand your users and have actual users test your application is important. 

You can alter the app based on your users’ design preferences before officially launching it. Making major modifications post-launch without getting user feedback could result in unwanted risks.

Solution:
Get user feedback from the initial design stages to implement design updates before launch and deliver a positive user experience. 

6. A Lack of Architectural Understanding: Don’t Skip Planning Your App’s Structure

This is one of the major pitfalls of app design that is often left unaddressed. Design skills are certainly essential to designing an efficient mobile app, but that is not all. Deep knowledge of an app’s underlying architecture, including device compatibility, OS design rules, and user interface elements, is indispensable.

Solution:
Establish your understanding of the app’s architecture before getting into the design. From: 

• A technical perspective
• Map out the features
• Design components
• User flows

7. An Indefinite Timeline: Create a Schedule and Stick to It

You cannot design and develop your app overnight. You need time to think, define user needs, and design a solution that aligns with your brand. 

If you don’t have a well-defined timeline for all of this, you could run out of time and endure a messy work schedule as you try to patch up problems.

Solution:
To manage app design and customization within the planned timeline, use app developers to streamline the process and reduce time to market. 

8. Address Both the User Interface and the User Experience: Make Sure They Work Well Together

To provide a seamless user experience to your app’s users, you must deliver a coherent, holistic design solution. Create a user interface whose design elements positively impact the user experience.

Solution:
Consider both the user interface and the user experience when designing your app. 

9. Design and Development: The Keystones of an App’s Success 

Both app design and development are crucial to delivering an efficient app. Without design, development can become tedious; without development, there is no point in designing the app. Often, designers and developers work in isolation from one another, which can result in design misconceptions that cause problems during development.

Solution:
You can bridge the gap between your team’s app designers and developers by maintaining an interactive communication channel. Get everyone on the same page through regular meetings—and make those meetings productive. Together, you can avoid unnecessary anomalies.

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