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Businesses are often advised to “meet customers where they are,” and when it comes to apps, where they are is on their mobile devices. Most people always have their cellphones with them, so a well-designed mobile app can give customers instant and convenient access to the information and services they need from a business—which can lead to more loyalty and higher sales.
With the variety of devices on the market and a diverse user base, however, creating an effective mobile app that provides a good user experience requires thoughtful design choices. Below, 20 members of Forbes Technology Council share their tips for building an ergonomic, user-friendly mobile app.
1. Avoid Crowding The Screen
Create an interface that is minimal and uncluttered. Avoid crowding the screen with too many elements. Instead, adopt a clean, minimalistic design that focuses on key features, resulting in a clutter-free experience. – Farhan Masood, Soloinsight Inc.
2. Incorporate Gesture-Based Navigation
Implementing a gesture-based navigation system can significantly enhance the user experience. A design that allows users to interact with the app through intuitive swipes, pinches and taps minimizes the need for complex button navigation. This not only promotes ergonomic comfort, but also aligns with modern mobile usability trends, leading to a more seamless and enjoyable user experience. – Ranghan Venkatraman, Rezilyens LLC
3. Make It ‘Install And Go’
Make sure your mobile app is “install and go.” A simple-to-use interface coupled with extensive UX testing means that application developers can sometimes overlook tricky sign-in drawbacks. Most apps require a tedious set-up process, which is disengaging and harms the overall user experience. When a mobile app is coupled with seamless user login, it has a big impact on usability and longevity. – Martin Taylor, Content Guru
4. Follow Apple And/Or Google Guidelines
There is no one magic bullet that makes the UX of a mobile app better. It is, in fact, a system of choices. Both Apple and Google have created design guidelines that help developers navigate those choices. Apple publishes its Human Interface Guidelines, and Google publishes its Material Design Guidelines. Following these guidelines can ensure a pleasing UX experience across a variety of devices. – Matt Dickson, Eclipse Telecom
5. Leverage The Work Already Done By Platform Designers
Use controls that are as close to standard as possible. Colors and fonts aside, the platform designers have spent much more time on each control than your team ever will, so leverage that work instead of trying to reinvent it. Users will also more immediately understand how to use your app and know what to expect from any action they take. Meeting expectations leads to more satisfied users. – Luke Wallace, Bottle Rocket
6. Keep Required Actions To A Minimum
It’s critical to keep the number of user actions required to an absolute minimum. An effective mobile app UX can clearly and concisely display the most important information at a glance—no clicks or swipes are needed. When user input is needed, an effective design will allow the vast majority of actions to occur within a single click, drag or swipe of the thumb of the hand holding the device. – Dustin Verdin, Zipline Logistics
7. Ensure ‘Thumb-Friendly’ Navigation
One ergonomic design feature that can significantly improve the UX of a mobile app is intuitive and thumb-friendly navigation placement. Placing important controls and menus within easy reach of the user’s thumb can enhance one-handed usability and reduce strain, leading to a more enjoyable and efficient mobile experience. – Akaash Ramakrishnan, AdSkate Inc
8. Focus On Key Features
Simplicity is a key and underappreciated feature of any successful UX. The app world is littered with solutions that attempt to cram every possible option into every screen and interaction—a sure sign of an inexperienced product manager. The focus should be on key features that enable what the app actually does, with an intelligent design that hides—yet makes accessible—additional functionality. – Michael Lines, Open Technology Solutions
9. Incorporate Adaptive Layout And Responsive Design Principles
The UX of a mobile app is strongly impacted by the usage of adaptive layout and/or responsive design, two crucial ergonomic design principles. This entails developing a user interface whose structure and information dynamically change depending on the size and orientation of the device’s screen. By optimizing readability, accessibility and touch target size, this strategy increases user engagement. – Neelima Mangal, Spectrum North
10. Integrate Haptic Feedback
One ergonomic design choice that enhances a mobile app’s user experience is the integration of haptic feedback. Haptic feedback provides tactile responses to user actions, improving the sense of touch and making the app more responsive and engaging. Subtle haptic cues can be used for confirmation messages, button presses or other actions, improving the overall sense of control and satisfaction. – Cristian Randieri, Intellisystem Technologies
11. Consider Accessibility
Mobile app designers should make accessibility an integral part of their ergonomic designs. Accessible apps can integrate with screen readers (such as VoiceOver for iOS and TalkBack for Android) and offer features including voice commands, text-to-speech and adjustable contrast. Designers can also research other Web Content Accessibility and Americans With Disabilities Act guidelines that can be applied to mobile screens. – Konstantin Klyagin, Redwerk
12. Enable User Changes To Fonts And Button Sizes
There’s one design choice that’s simple yet effective: allowing users to change the font and button sizes. Each user is unique, making it challenging to create fonts and button layouts that are universally comfortable. Font and button size options would revolutionize the world of applications forever. – Igor Pertsiya, Hypra Fund
13. Include A Hideable Control Bar
Place a control bar at the bottom of the screen and hide it when it’s not being used (it should reappear with a scroll up). Users need to have access to the app’s navigation at any point within a reach of a thumb, but navigation shouldn’t distract them from the content. – Yuriy Berdnikov, Perpetio
14. Enable Dynamic UI Adaptation
Apps are beginning to feature dynamic user interface adaptation. They’re leveraging ambient light sensors not only to adjust brightness, but also to modify UI colors and contrasts. This innovation ensures readability across various lighting conditions, reducing eye strain and boosting comfort during prolonged use. – Andrew Blackman, EZ Cloud
15. Carefully Design Affordances
Affordances are visual cues for users that make apps more functional and improve the user experience. To work well, they need to have a consistent look and layout across buttons, labels, icons and images. And when designing an app, you need to A/B test user interaction and optimize, optimize, optimize! – Gergo Vari, Lensa, Inc.
16. Offer Cross-Device Options
Cross-device options are one of the most important ergonomic design features you can add to your mobile app. In other words, can a user start placing an order on their smartphone and finish on their laptop? Can people download your app on their tablet and then sync it to the smartphone version? These features play a big part in usability and retention. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
17. Optimize Loading Speed
Don’t underestimate the power of loading speed. It’s not strictly a design feature, but it directly impacts the user experience. By optimizing code and reducing file sizes, we ensure that users can interact with the app swiftly and seamlessly. Because let’s face it: In our fast-paced world, users simply won’t wait for slow apps. Their time is precious, and we should respect it. – Sandro Shubladze, Datamam
18. Offer A Dark Mode
Implementation of a user-centric dark mode can significantly enhance the user experience of a mobile application. This ergonomic design feature not only reduces eye strain in low-light conditions, but also conserves the battery life of a smartphone. Moreover, this visually pleasing and comfortable option ensures lasting user engagement with your mobile app, fostering satisfaction and a high retention rate. – Dharmesh Acharya, Radixweb
19. Support Landscape Mode
Support for landscape mode is often overlooked in app design. The older we get, the less certain we feel about our grip and the more likely we are to want to hold an object with two hands. Consequently, the number of users who routinely use their phones in landscape mode increases with the age of the target group. Thus, designers should support the inversion of the aspect ratio. – Kevin Korte, Univention
20. Allow User-Defined Gestures
Allowing users to create personalized gesture shortcuts for various app functions can revolutionize a mobile app’s UX. Allowing users to define their own gestures for tasks, including navigation, saves them time and effort and provides a unique and empowering user experience. – Jagadish Gokavarapu, Wissen Infotech
