Top Six Responsive Design Tips For Mobile App Development

Designing a mobile app is not as simple as it seems. Why? It's because people from various backgrounds are more and more engaged in using mobile apps. In fact, most people averagely spend around five to seven hours a day on their mobile phones. Also, there is a rapid increase in using handheld devices is expected in the coming years.

The users expect a lot from the mobile app. The way they interact with the app counts as their user experience (UX) for that particular app. A successful mobile app is the one that gives the users a great user experience (UX). As it is said:

“Good design is good business.” - Thomson Watson, IBM

So for designing a responsive app for mobile, you will need to consider the following top six responsive designing tips:

Optimize Content

Don't overload the human mind with too much information as users would probably lose interest or forget what's written. In fact, it'll drive them away from the app. Just put the information which the user needs to know.

However, if providing the bulky information is necessary due to the nature of the product or services (for instance, information about medicine, etc.) then load the information upon the interaction of the user to that particular product by using expandable icons.

In this way, you'll be able to keep minimal design while showing necessary information to the user when needed to know.

Functions Minimalism

Adding too many functions to a single screen increases the complexity of the app for the users. And most of the time, those functions remained unused. So, you have to make sure to design a concise set of functions that are within the scope of the app and relevant to the target audience.

The best way to tackle this is to keep the most used options in the visible tab bar of the application. While keeping the rest of the least used options in the hidden tab bar.

This can help you to keep the mobile application simple enough and users can find the most used features just a tap away. While other rarely used options can still be there for occasional use.

Easy to Navigate

The users of the app must know where to go for a particular option. Designers may design a short navigation tutorial for new users. However, the way the app categorizes every menu in a tab is very challenging.

For instance, tile, image and additional information along with the actions that can be performed in a file storage application are placed on the icon of that folder. This type of navigation is called list style. While in block style, the designers only place the image, title, and actions upon the interaction of the users. In fact, for fewer features, designers prefer to use block style to make the navigation as much easy as they can for their users.

At times, designers tend to provide the freedom to users the way they want to navigate in the app. That is, they design an option to customize the navigation style that makes it easy for them to navigate through the app.

Easy to Understand

The use of hard to get jargon and images alienates the users from the app. It is highly recommended by the top mobile designers that use those keywords and visuals that are widely used and understood by the target audience.

The designers focus on making the content of the application more conversational to the users. It must be comfortable enough for the target users to make them feel easy to understand and make two-way communication, the user and the mobile app.

The more familiar words and images you use, the more your mobile is appealing to your target users.

Minimum User Input

The users do not enjoy entering information into different fields. In fact, typing on small mobile devices is prone to errors. And even if the errors are reduced, since we all use the mobile device keyboard a lot, the process is slow.

Practically, it is recommended to ask for the information that is really needed by the app. When possible, use the auto-complete feature to fill in the user's information. Also, use dynamic features to validate the information to make the mobile app interactive and user friendly.

The idea is to get the information from the users through the mobile’s keyboard while making users putting less efforts into type, providing a seamless experience of the mobile application.

Visual Distraction During Loading Time

Showing the loading progress can result in driving away from the users as it’s consuming their time and they do not feel engaged with the mobile app. So, giving them attractive visuals while loading the actual content, can make the user stay while the actual content is loading.

In some cases, designers make the app to load the minimal content that displays within the mobile screen first then loads the rest of the content in the background - just like loading news feeds on Facebook, Instagram, and others. It helps the users to stay on the app and engage with the mobile app content loaded on the screen of the device without experiencing any content loading delay at their end.

The users won't pay attention to the loading time taken if eye-catching visual displays or initial content is loaded during the loading time. It lets users stay entertained even when waiting for the actual content to show up.

Final Thoughts

The perfect responsive design is an evolving process. It is highly dependent on the user's experience and feedback. Therefore, overtime changes are often requested by the client-side to the designers.

So, the development of the mobile app is an ongoing process that aims to increase the user experience at its maximum level. It is because the higher the user experience, the more successful the mobile becomes.

For more information, check out the comprehensive guide for designing a mobile app by smashing magazine. And, all images have been taken from the mentioned guide. 

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