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Top 15 Apps for Designers & Creative Professionals

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Super Admin Testreveal

If you are a creative master, graphic storyteller or just want to use your brush to improve your design skills professionally, all you need a digital assistant. Like other lifestyle needs, mobile apps also help designers to bring out true aesthetics for the audience to appreciate.

Designers, artists or avid photographers can avail these pocket-size wonders that are nothing but brilliant mobile apps. They give you highly polished, technically sound and advanced tools to add elegance and craftsmanship to the existing photos in your devices.

So here is the most carefully made list of the best mobile apps for designers and creative professionals in 2020.

Canva	Behance	Poster Maker
Desygner	Adobe Photoshop Express	Logo Maker Plus
PixelLab	Adobe Illustrator Draw	SketchBook
Instasize	Designer Tools	Infinite Painter
AutoCAD	ArtFlow	Infinite Design

1. Canva

Looking for a designing tool, which can help you create a stunning logo, poster, and photo grid? Then Canva, the designer app is the best solution. The designs created in Canva give a professional look. The tool is simple and easy to use.

The tool is the major source for creating posts for all of your social media handles like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. apart from that you can even make invitation cards, invoices, etc. and you can use it both on your phone as well as the desktop.

App Features

You can create Social Media posts through this app.
Design Motivational quotes, funny memes.
You can also use it as a video editor.
It helps you design the logo.
You can create the story cover for Wattpad.

Rating: 4.7/5

Installs: 50,000,000+

Download: Android, iOS

2. Behance

Behance is a part of the Adobe family and is the one-stop solution for finding the best creative talent across the world. This app allows you to browse the best works from the field of photography, advertising, fashion, etc.

If you are a creative company and are searching for new talent for your firm then Behance is the go-to option for you, undoubtedly.

App Features

You can get access to the work done by the artist every day.
You can even get a job opportunity.
It lets you send and receive private messages.
Get the feedback for your projects, when you upload it.
It notifies you if someone engages with your content.

Rating: 4.7/5

Installs: 1,000,000+

Download: Android, iOS

3. Poster Maker

Getting a poster with a professional look and design is now made easier with the app Poster Maker and the best part is you don’t have to be a designer. You can create the poster you want just at your fingertips. You can choose the designs which are trending in the market.

Right from creating a promotional poster, offer announcement, advertisement to cover photos for your shop, and many more, you can create with the help of a poster maker. The app has a simple and easy to use, user interface.

App Features

You can share it on social media platforms.
You can add your personal pictures from the gallery.
It lets you add the text with the poster designs.
It has a huge collection of backgrounds.
You can even some wonderful stickers.

Rating: 4.6/5

Installs: 1,000,000+

Download: Android

4. Desygner

Desygner is one of the best apps for designers available in the market and its simple user interface and easily navigable options will be the prime endorsers for that. Right from the social media poster to the design on your book cover, through Desygner, you can do it all.

The best part is, it is free of cost. With Desygner, you can create custom templates and layouts for any purpose, which is like absolute creative freedom for the artist.

App Features

Get access to millions of royalty-free images and fonts.
You can print the design through the phone.
It lets you customize the privacy setting.
You can edit it from anywhere (phone, tablet, or PC)
You can create social media ads like Facebook ads, Google Ads, etc.

Rating: 4.6/5

Installs: 1,000,000+

Download: Android

5. Adobe Photoshop Express

Used and trusted by millions across the globe for all their creative needs is the Adobe Photoshop Express designer tool. Make amazing and pro-looking images with this tool on your mobile device.

All the tools and effects required to make the image look surreal are all available at your fingertips. You can even fix the distorted images and crooked images, easily.

App Features

You can remove the spots from the selfies and portraits.
It lets you apply dramatic filters in the pictures.
Reduce color noise, sharpen the details to enhance the photo.
Fix the cooked images and distorted angles of the image.
Upload directly to social media apps.

Rating: 4.5/5

Installs: 100,000,000+

Download: Android, iOS

Read Also : 15 Best Photo Editing Apps 2020

6. Logo Maker Plus – Graphic Design & Logo Creator

Creating a professional logo is now made easier through Logo Maker Plus, you can access the thousands of editing options and graphic elements for absolutely free. The app is so simple to use that it takes one logo generator to create a professional logo.

Changing the colors of the icons, using texture image for your logo and filters are now available in Logo Maker Plus. This app doesn’t just provide you with the free logo design templates but also all the tools necessary for creating an original logo.

App Features

You can add borders and shadows.
You can use various fonts to enhance your logo.
You can import your own pictures from the gallery.
You can always save it in the draft and work on it later.
You can blend one image into another image.

Rating: 4.5/5

Installs: 10,000,000+

Download: Android

7. PixelLab

If you are looking for an app that lets you add stylish text, shapes, and stickers to images then Pixellab is the one-stop solution for you. It has a wide variety of presets, fonts, stickers, and more than 60 unique options that you can use and make some amazing pictures.

It lets you change the color of the background, make the background transparent without any hassle. Add effects such as vignettes, stripes, and saturation, etc. to the pictures and make them look more appealing.

App Features

It lets you insert a quote in your work, that you found on the net.
You can add texts and customize as much text as you want.
You can even create 3d texts.
You can draw on the image by just picking a pencil from the option.
You can use fonts 100+ hand-picked fonts or can use your own font.

Rating: 4.4/5

Installs: 50,000,000+

Download: Android, iOS

8. Adobe Illustrator Draw

If you are passionate about graphic designing and are looking for a tool which helps you create some amazing designs that you always wanted to design? Then, Adobe Illustrator Draw is definitely the tool for that, you can create vector artwork with image and drawing layers and send to adobe illustrator.

With this tool, artists can zoom up to 64x to work on the finest detail. It also lets you work with multiple images and drawing layers.

App Features

You can sketch with 5 different pen tips.
You can duplicate, adjust, rename, and merge with an individual layer.
It lets you insert basic shape stencils, vector shapes from capture.
Zoom up to 64x.

Rating: 4.2/5

Installs: 10,000,000+

Download: Android, iOS

9. SketchBook

Every idea or concept starts with the journey of the sketch. It is the heart of all the creative process. A great idea might strike you any time of the day, capturing that idea instantly helps you reap maximum benefits as you will be able to work on it later.

With this concept in mind, SketchBook was incepted to be your, sketching companion.

Sketchbook is free of cost and anyone can use it for their creative endeavors. The app is simple and easy to use, even a rookie will find it easy to navigate it.

App Features

The app is free of cost.
It has a wide range of color palettes which has every color.
It has housed all the tools necessary for sketching.
It gives a variety of options for the brushes.

Rating: 4.2/5

Installs: 10,000,000+

Download: Android, iOS

10. Instasize

Editing a picture is an artist which needs skill and every artist explores his full potential only if he is exposed to the app which lets him be his best version and creates some amazing designs.

Instasize is one of the best designers apps that lets you edit the pictures, apply filters, and even collage them.

The best part is your artwork can be featured if you post it with the #instasize hashtag. This tool allows you to edit the photos and videos, free of cost, apart from that you can add text, borders, etc. to the image.

App Features

Edit photos, videos, and collage them.
Add texts to the photos and apply borders that you like.
The photos and videos edited are free of cost.
Get featured by using the hashtag #instasize.
Resizing the photo according to the social media post format is possible.

Rating: 4.2/5

Installs: 50,000,000+

Download: Android, iOS

11. Designer Tools

Designer tools are completely dedicated to the UX designers to check if the color or the layout used is correct. It provides you with the features to validate the specification of the app.

This is one of the best designers apps that you would definitely want to add to your tool kit.

It checks layouts to see if there is any inconsistent spacing or misaligned elements. It also lets you customize the grid size and color.

App Features

Identify the hex codes of the colors at the pixel level through your finger.
Get information about the device, screen by adding a panel to the screenshots.
It helps you detect the inconsistent spacing.
It will help you validate if the color is correct.

Rating: 4/5

Installs: 1,000,000+

Download: Android

12. Infinite Painter

Infinite Painter is an app which is developed for artists, if you think, you are one? Then it’s time to get your hands on Infinite Painter.

Unlike other apps, it has some of the best and most advanced painted engines on tablets for designers. It has more than 160 natural brush presents.

If you want to create your brush or want to change the settings of the brush, it can be done with ease. The brushes in this app interact realistically with the texture of the paper.

App Features

You can experiment with four types of symmetry.
Turning a photo into a painting is possible.
It has a simple and easy to navigate interface.
Share your artwork amongst the Infinite Painters community and on Instagram as well.
Export images as JPEG, PNG, PSD, etc.

Rating: 3.9/5

Installs: 10,000,000+

Download: Android, iOS

13. AutoCAD – DWG Viewer & Editor

AutoCAD is undoubtedly one of the most sophisticated drawing apps used by the designers for drawing and drafting. The best part is you can use this tool on mobile devices.

This app lets you be more productive in the field by working on the latest drawings.

You can collaborate on your work and reduce the risk of rework which is wasting the time and replace the blueprints at the job sites with drawings on the mobile device.

App Features

Using object snaps, draw, and edit shapes.
Easily plot DWG to PDF or DWF.
You can duplicate and move the existing blocks.
It lets you work on an offline mode as well.
You get access to advance technology tools.

Rating: 3.8/5

Installs: 10,000,000+

Download: Android, iOS

14. ArtFlow: Paint Draw Sketchbook

For an artist to explore his full potential it is important to work on a tool or an app which lets him be his best, now with a drawing app, ArtFlow, the artist will get a chance to access the wide variety of drawing tools from brushes to smudges which will enhance his craft.

This application is free of cost which houses some amazing features like pressure-sensitive pens which will literally transform your device into a real canvas.

App Features

It has a canvas up to 6144×6144 with 50 layers.
It has a pressure simulation for brushes.
You can get access to the artworks of artists across the globe.
It has a 10 layer filter.

Rating: 3.7/5

Installs: 1,000,000+

Download: Android

15. Infinite Design

A drawing app which is a perfect companion for the artist across the globe. It has an infinite canvas that can be rotated, panned, and zoomed with unlimited layers.

This app is all you need to explore the full potential yours. The app has a simple user interface that can easily be used by even the rookies without any hassle.

The app houses some of the amazing features like unlimited undo unlimited layers and scrubbing through from scratch to finish. Which will make it unique and has kept it ahead of its competition.

App Features

Placing the text horizontal, vertical, circle, or on the path is possible.
You can now draw 3Dscapes.
It has an unlimited layer.
You can drag out the color when with two fingers.

Rating: 3.6/5

Installs: 5,000,000+

Download: Android

Read Also : 15 Best Video Editing Apps 2020

Conclusion

These top 15 mobile apps built for designers can bring magical effect to your original photos and make them more stunning, vivid and elegant.

Hopefully you will download them and fiddle with them a little to decide which of them deserve a place on your device screen. Embrace the technology and experience the phenomenal results.

Importance of Choosing the Right Color for your App Design

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

Well, when it comes to mobile app development, arguably there is nothing more important than user experience, but the very next important thing would be color of the application. Of course, both user interface and user experience are vital when it comes to engaging and interacting with more users. However, we certainly cannot ignore the fact that the impact of the combination of vibrant and lively colors is just as important.

Don’t believe me? Did you know that almost 93 percent of users’ purchasing decision is affected by the visual dimension? So there is more to this color theory than meets the eye and that is why the mobile app designers should not only focus on ensuring the application user-friendly but also make sure that they chose the right proportion of hues for the app to attract more users.

The importance of selecting the right color for your mobile app

In most of the cases, the mobile app designers follow the footsteps of the recent trends and happenings in app design, but only very few of them choose specific colors whether it is their logo or any other element of their app.

Red color

Signifies vivacity and desire and is one of the most suitable colors to build youth-centric applications

Blue color

Highlights success and integrity and can be utilized to show a sense of trust and fidelity toward the users

Pink color

Has become one the top colors that most women love around the globe and is right color to build both women-centric applications and apps that break stereotypes

White color

Usually means peace and harmony and is a significant aspect of an application to amass coordination between distinct palettes

Green color

Always signifies money and sustainability. Applications that are related to financial and environmental-friendly can blindly opt for this color.

When working on a new mobile application, it is often a bit hard to choose the right color combination which works great as there are tens of thousands of users to target. In this article, we’ll see you can select the right color for your mobile application.

How to choose the right color for your mobile app

If you check App Store and Play Store, there would be infinite apps’ icons that have plenty of colors. Usually, the color of the icon mostly depends on what type of app you are building. So, for a better understanding, will see how you select your hues correctly.

1. Figure out your target customers’ perceptions

When it comes to colors, some of them have a universal meaning while others have a distinctive local perception. So before finalizing any specific color, you should take into consideration the different meanings of different colors so that you can rightly target your audience.

One deviant color meaning to your mobile app can bring catastrophic outcomes. In addition to that, a variety of colors might signify multiple meanings for various generations. So the ultimate motive here is to understand the underlying meaning that your target customers attach to various colors.

2. Understand your brand philosophy and identify a corresponding color shades

The color combination of your app is an extension of your brand philosophy and vision. Every company/business has its guiding value which makes it stand out from its competitors. Ensure the colors you utilize show this very same philosophy to your customers. The coordination between your brand philosophy and the color scheme will make it much easier for your target customers to interact and engage with your brand. The perfect color and philosophy combination will itself acts as a marketing tool for your mobile application.

3. Choose the color of your application icon

The application icon is the first thing that your target customers will notice when they see your app on App Store/Play Store, and it plays a vital part in deciding whether they’d like to download the app or not. The app icon color palette should show the application the app utility in a clear and concise way. Hence, the color palette you select for your app icon will define the whole app. Figure out what colors define your brand philosophy and go exceptionally well with the app icon design.

The symmetry in the icon design and the color palette will uplift your application design. Utilize the icon colors as the foundation shade for the whole app to avoid a fine art of multiple colors which might be visually repulsive.

4. Limit the number of colors to three

Having a little mix and match of colors is always good, but it is also essential to make sure that you are not going overboard with your application design and incorporate too many colors as possible. Make sure you limit your color palette to maximum three and choose your app’s primary, secondary, and background color for better readability and clarity.

5. Utilize multiple shades for better brightness and highlighting essential features

As you would like to limit the number of colors to three, there is no particular limitation on the number of shades of colors you can use. Try and experiment with various shades of one color to understand exactly what shade suits your app. Utilizing multiple shades will lighten up your application without looking too bright with colors which clash with one another. Likewise, you can also utilize various shades and tones to highlight the essential features which make it special and different from other apps.

Wrapping up

After the complete post, you indeed must have understood how colors are essential for your app and how they can affect your overall popularity in the app stores. It can make your app stand out from your peers’ apps. The bottom line is that the visual appearance of your app is what first attracts your customers in the first place. The user interface and experience only come into the picture when your customers appreciate the look of your app. So make the best use of the color palette and scheme to enrich your app design.

Tips To Design The Best UI For Mobile Apps

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

What glitters is not gold. But in case of mobile app design, the look speaks a lot to the eyes of beholders. Although design style and aesthetics are not everything, having a visually delightful and appealing UI is as important as the main substance and helps drive conversion. Combine the eye-catching look with amazing features and you have the recipe for delivering incredible user experience.

It is important, however, to understand the target market so that you can implement best UI design practices for your mobile app to enhance users’ interest and credibility. Based on our experience and research, we have put together a few essential tips to help you create highly engaging UI for your mobile app.

1. Users-centric approach

You must first prioritize user requirements and accommodate current market trends to create a wave for your mobile app. Gather all the details of target demographics using power analytics. based on the data, you can discern what they always needed and obstacles they face. You must think beyond the basic stats and discover the actual users of your app. The better design practice is to start with an MVP and watch users as they interact with it and encourage them to share their views. This will not only help you tune your app to their needs, but will help you make right decisions and minimize frequency of design iterations.

2. Technical details of design

a) Round cornered controls

There is no thumb rule of just sticking to rectangle pixels for UI elements. You can alternatively opt for roundish edges for the corners of buttons or other controls. Having pointy corners is an old custom in the world of mobile app interface. Round-shaped cornered action buttons and controls subdue the intensity of the interface and make it softer, more appealing and comfy for users.

b) Contrast for view

You don’t want to make it a painful experience for users as they navigate inside your application. The app content should be easy on eyes and effortlessly legible. To avoid awkward effects, it is good to include high-contrast colour schemes that create fine, clear content-friendly design. You can even go beyond system default colours and experiment with different variations.

c) Size-optimized graphics

In order to optimize the available resources, developers often reduce their efforts by keeping one size for many devices. This approach can turn abysmal nemesis to your app’s overall appeal. To make it spectacular, make unique graphics to suit each target device screen. Device-specific graphics tend to load in time and results in stunning user experience.

d) Picture format suitability

The chosen picture format in app graphic may become inimical to the loading speed of the page. The size is often blamed, but the real fault is inappropriate format. The Android-compatible media formats include PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, etc. While PNG suits lossless images, JPEG is a good choice for editing. Each format has its own qualities and designer should know which goes where.

3. Finger-compatible interface

Make sure your app’s UI is finger-friendly. Mobile developers sometimes skip the consideration of keeping finger-compatible buttons with space enough to enable convenient typing for users. You must understand that human fingers are thick and may cause trouble while selecting options with a tap of fingertip. If app buttons are tiny or are placed too close, users will feel frustrated and may quit your app. Hence, your UI design strategy should emphasize optimizing the interface for finger-based interaction.

4. Smooth transitions

Trying variations in colours is a tricky job for mobile app designers. When the user is navigating, they should experience pleasant transition between the screens or and experience comfort while changing UI control states in the application. The approach of this sort maintains consistency and smoothness while switching from one state to another. Use eye-friendly animations and suitable colour combinations. This way, users will feel connected while making transitions. Also, with a change in button control colours, users can confirm their action after clicking on it.

5. Maintaining Simplicity

Simplicity of design helps ensure new users can onboard easily and start using the app without groping for detailed guide or tutorials. This does not necessarily mean adopting minimalist design style. The simple UI allows users to execute the action and reach their goals in minimal steps. Certain variations in colours, buttons, spacing pattern, fonts and navigation path are all critical factors that go into making easy-to-understand interface, enticing more traffic to your mobile app.

6. Back button and Fonts

Back button is meant to shepherd users back to the previous page consistently. Being an app designer, you can either leverage the native OS back button (the default choice on the device) or develop a back button at the top-left corner of UI as often seen in iOS apps. This approach helps you incorporate users’ impulsive tendencies for quick navigation.

As for fonts, it is wise to stay away from using anomalous or bizarre fonts that often drive users away. Such practice discourages the real motive of UX and drains users. Instead, include fonts that are both spectacular and readable. Keep the font size optimized (usually 12pt and above) to both screen as well as users’ viewing experience.

7. Emphasis on clutter-free interaction

If you have powerful data analytics to monitor user journey through your app, you can effectively judge what features are most welcome by 80% of users. The task becomes easy especially when your mobile app is the direct extension of an online website. This fundamental is based on 80-20 principle that defines the 20% of app frequently explored by 80% of users. Apply this 80-20 rule so that you can easily identify the features that are redundant from users’ perspective and retain those that are compelling to ensure clutter-free interaction.

8. Relatable icons

In the last 5 years, there has been a tremendous advancement in the way mobile app UI icons are presented to users. A whole new range of icons have risen to enable more comfort and luxury to users who are always curious to try something novel, unique and relatable. Hence, UI designers looking to score better should develop relatable icons that create intuitive appeal and effortless user experience.

9. High resolution

Modern smartphones usually offer in-built support for high resolution that creates impressive picture view and enhances user’s interactive experience with interface. If you wish to acquire and engage more users, make sure your interface design is perfect for high resolution images and shows vivid picture quality to the audience. You can opt for images with 264 ppi or better to bring out stunning interface and amplify the clarity especially if the target devices have large screens.

10. Effortless error notifications

A phenomenal mobile app UI is the one that minimizes user’s side of efforts while identifying the errors. In the event that the error strikes, the UI design must reduce users’ guesswork and clearly notify them of what went wrong while performing an action. Users will be delighted to have clear guidance about how to rectify faults and things gone wrong while interacting with the app interface.

Conclusion

To build an attractive UI for mobile app to user’s tastes, mobile app designers must delve into the target market and scoop up the essentials. The second important aspect of brilliant app architecture is following the guidelines for user-friendly, business-specific interface.

To ensure massive usability, your product should be easy on eyes and create positive appeal on minds. Hopefully this post will help you develop deeper insight and excellence required to construct an outstanding user interface for a competitive mobile app.

Top 10 Dos and Don’ts For UX Approach in Mobile App Development (2018)

Posted on May 7, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

Mobile app developers across the globe will agree with the fact that the development of user friendly mobile apps calls for a lot of forethought. It is through this farsightedness that you can create apps that can rank high on their user experience. Here is a rundown of do’s and don’ts that you must consider while designing your mobile app. Once you keep these pointers in mind, you will be able to attract the attention of app users in more ways than you can imagine.

Firstly, let us shed light on what you should do to churn out a user-friendly and appealing mobile app.

The Do’s

1. Research – A Data Collation Spadework

Most of the apps fail because the developer does not research before designing them. Hence you should resist the temptation of skipping the most important task of researching and abstain yourself from jumping straight to the designing process. Researching includes that you spend time conducting a competitive analysis.

Researching supports you to work in the direction of a blueprint that you have come up with, keeping user experience as your mission statement.

2. Enlist Crucial Mobile App Characteristics

The next thing that you should do is to come up with priority features. It is a matter of excitement for developers to add many features to their apps. However, this clogs the basic intention behind a clean user experience.

You will have to decide and stick to important features that will better impact your users while doing away with such features which are good-to-have.

3. Support Every Click With Feedback

For every user input, it is important that you provide some feedback so as to direct your users to a state of process completion. Only when your app provides feedback will your users be rest assured that the desired action was performed. Without feedback, your app will keep your user guessing whether the intended process is complete or unsuccessful.

4. Do Away With Unnecessary Clutter

Too much information can spoil and complicate user experience. Cluttering does more harm to mobiles with smaller screen space when compared to desktops which have wider screens. Here, your aim is to stick to minimalism. It is best to include content that can impact your users, discarding all those elements (unnecessary images, buttons and texts) which clog the mobile screen.

5. Legible Text Drives Usability and Readability

Content is what drives your users to pick your app. The text that appears on your app is part of the content that demands attention. You should hence ensure that your text is legible so as to come up with a user-friendly mobile interface. Choosing a legible font size is a recommendation that should be given serious thought.

6. Navigation Should Be An In-Built Feature

The compelling content in your mobile app should be evident so that users locate it without any additional efforts. In view of this feature, it is important to come up with navigation patterns that are familiar to your target audience.

7. The Lesser the Typing, The Better It Is

You as a mobile user will agree with the fact that, typing on a mobile is a tiring and error-making process. Hence, the smartest tip is to minimize the typing on a small mobile screen. Removing unnecessary fields will be an intelligent move in the direction of allowing users to give you the information that you need to know.

8. Offer A Seamless User Experience Across Multiple Devices

You should not go by the idea that mobile apps offer stand-alone experiences. For a user handling multiple devices including tablets, desktop or mobile phone, he/she expects your app to provide a seamless experience across all devices.

9. The Use of Finger-Friendly Taps

It should be your objective to come up with ample touch targets for all interactive mobile desiogn elements. By doing away with smaller touch targets which lead to mistaken taps, you will be able to address the most common problem faced by mobile app users. Thus it is recommended that you include targets that are big enough for users to tap.

10. Test Your Design

A real world implementation of your mobile app will help you come up with unseen flaws that were masked during app development. Hence the trick is to test your design with multiple real users so as to work on their feedback. Their pointers will thus become your guiding light to come up with an app that only appeals to users but is also effective.

Let us now move on to the don’ts that dampen the mobile app user experience.

1. Don’t Strive to Get It Right The First Time Around

Try and try till you succeed. In line with this common adage, it is important to keep in mind that it is difficult to come up with a perfect experience with your first attempt. Even after meeting all you mobile design requirements, there is every possibility that you will step on a new set of requirements that have emerged after testing the app. Hence it is advisable to adhere to an iterative designing pattern and test your app early on.

2. Don’t Drift Away from Customer Needs

Once you start focusing on meeting customer needs, you will not get carried away by an idea that looks lucrative on the face of it but fails to deliver any benefit to users. Only when you spend time validating your design theories based on what your target audience wants, you will be in a position to work around a feedback loop that permits a solid mobile app design.

3. Jargon – A Big “No”

User interface which is devoid of jargon appeals to users. When your app starts conversing with users in the language they are comfortable with, the interaction between the interface and the users is simplified. Here, you should abstain from using words that are beyond the understanding of users.

4. Avoid Seeking User Permissions Right At The Start

It is a common phenomenon with many apps that were just downloaded to seek user permissions in the beginning itself. Such questions can discourage and confuse users who will in all probability deny such a request.

5. Abstain from Using Custom Gestures As a Primary Means to Interact With Your App

Instead of offering custom gestures to interact with your app, it pays to come up with standard gestures for shortcuts. Since users are familiar with standard gestures, they need not expend any effort to learn or recall them.

6. Users Should Not Be Kept Waiting for Content

Users’ reactions like unrest and frustration will set in when they are kept waiting for content. A black screen that pops up when the content is loading can dampen the user experience, giving an impression that the app is stalled.

7. Dead End Pages Are Best Avoided

You should be mindful of the design flow concerning user experience. Your app, with every action should move in the direction of accomplishing a goal. In this regard, you should avoid creating dead-end app pages that hamper the user flowassuch pages not only confuse users but also lead to unnecessary actions.

8. Avoid Tagging the Web Experience on Apps

If you noticed, web browsers work through links. On the flipside, it is buttons that drive mobile experiences. In line with what users expect with regard to interface elements and interaction patterns in mobile apps, you should avoid underlined links in mobile apps.

9. Don’t Lead Users to a Browser

It can be terribly frustrating for a user if the app leads him/her to a web browser, during instances requiring to either complete a task or those that seek additional content. Such an occurrence will reduce conversion rates.

10. Seeking User Feedback During Their First Experience – A Strict “No”

Notwithstanding the fact that user reviews and ratings are the important data points for the success of your app, it is through such feedback that users will either choose to download or skip an app. At times, the frequency with which the app seeks user reviews can also annoy the users when they are interrupted while performing an important function.

Closing Thoughts

With new mobile apps mushrooming with each passing day, the expectations about user experiences are increasing manifold. In an attempt to sustain competition and meet the varying needs of users, you should come up with an app that is not only useful but also valuable and relevant to your target audience. Hence, the above 10 do’s and don’ts will help you attain the objective of a promising mobile app that ranks high on usability and user experience.

9 Tips To Make Your Mobile App Beautiful

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

Whether you have a start-up or an established firm, mobile app becomes a necessity for all. Basically, making your mobile app attractive is one of the key elements that compels users to embrace it. So what all you need to consider while designing an app to get a good look and feel?

Right from the beginning you think of an app idea, be specific about your design and how you want your app to look like. As soon as the mock-up part of the app gets ready, allow the designing team to discuss with developers to understand the actual functions of the app, so that the designer will be able to focus on the elements that have needed to take the app beyond function and into an attractive form. Including features like attractive icons, unique title, informative image/videos, attractive animations, UI/UX interface etc. can make a simple app better and beautiful.

Mobile app design is quite challenging but can offer big deals to your brand if you do it in the right way.

Curious to see how to make your app beautiful? Checkout this info graphic and learn more about the tips to follow:

Essential Aspects To Focus On While Designing Apps For iPhone X

Posted on December 16, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

In September 2017, Apple launched iPhone X along with other upgrades. The device instantly caught the attention of the iPhone lovers mainly due to its fresh features: new Super Retina display, bigger screen, higher resolution, faster processor, wireless charging and face ID authentication. iPhone X comes with a lot of improvements from design perspective. Even its old iconic home button is changed to a tiny white line as home indicator.

Like all Apple devices, this one also offers challenges to designers and developers in terms of features that make designers work harder on UI and UX of iPhone apps. So what all essential aspects iOS designers must focus on while designing an interface for iPhone X?

Here is the answer:

Unique layout design for larger vertical Space

Much of mobile apps design quality depends on interface design. iPhone X is gifted with 20% more vertical space with higher resolution. iOS Developers will take advantage of better space utility offered by iPhone X. To deliver full-screen experience, they can create edge-to-edge content with enhanced visibility.

Developers should consider Human Interface guidelines to check how to use white spaces and margins for apps to support iPhone X interface. iPhone X Developers should pay attention to the following points:

The content should be placed in the central position and in symmetry. Also, the content should not be lost at the corners and should support landscape as well as portrait
iPhone X has a tall status bar unlike previous iPhone models, which requires iOS developers to make the placement dynamic
Auto Layout will work better with iPhone X UI. Hence, make sure you follow interface design guidelines while designing for iOS apps
Ensure that the status bar does not go hidden when using the app as it keeps users informed on various bits
It is not advisable to use dark shades (such as black) at the top and bottom of the screen in its rounded corners or home indicators or sensor areas
Make the bottom space free from adding any control keys as users use the space to swipe the gestures. It will be worthless to custom gestures there

Design essentials for High resolution Display

The new iPhone X has a display that offers high-quality experience to end users with its high resolution. It has 1125×2436 pixels, which means designers will have to take extra care while designing artwork for iPhone X. They need to consider these points for compatible design:

Focus on content appearance and minimize its further retouching while interacting with its interface. They can use 8px-by-8px grid structure that helps make the content crisp and sharp for all sizes
For complicated artwork where intricacy (shading, highlights, textures) matters, PNG files seem more suitable. JPG can be preferable for photo images
Make use of PDF when it comes to designing flat vector artwork and glyphs with high resolution
For PNG graphics, 8-bit colour palette would be a better choice instead of full 24-bit palette
Like done in all graphics to achieve balance between size and quality, iPhone X designers also need to optimize JPEG images to establish poise between suitability and visibility. Opt for different compression settings for each image

Unique Face ID authentication

For enhanced security and protection, iPhone X provides Face ID authentication. Users can take to this feature when opening the device or making a transaction using Apple Pay.

Focus on the following aspects:

Face ID authentication is a luxury feature that can be used only on special occasions such as for personalized experience, of content, data synchronizing, privileged access, etc.
Make sure, as an iPhone X designer, you keep user’s sign in process smooth, fast and simple to deliver delightful user experience
Offer secure and stronger authentication process that iPhone X users can rely on especially while integrating Apple Pay or other power features with authentication process

Make The Reality More Immersive and Engaging

To make user experience even more immersive, rich and thrilling, iPhone X offers AR. Apple has blessed iOS developers with Augmented Reality Kit. Using AR technology, users can leverage their surroundings and lay it over the virtual objects to develop a special picture and enhance their visual experience.

This innovation will bring new opportunities and challenges for designers to create AR-enabled apps and game interfaces.

With advanced technology like AR brought open for iOS developers, there is no limit to what they can do when it comes to building innovative, powerful apps for iPhone X.

The Improved System Font

Yes, Apple has also touched this area and introduced a new in-house system font called ‘San Francisco.’ SF font family will be used for iOS and OS X. For Apple Watch, it becomes SF Compact with slightly different design.

To design with new font, Apple recommends:

Using SF Pro Text for text of 19 points or smaller
Using SF Pro Display for text of 20 points or larger

The best thing – about Apple’s new iPhone X font family is that its OS is intelligent enough to adapt to designer’s choices for SF font. For instance, if you prefer San Francisco font for buttons, headings and labels, the OS system will automatically set in the most suitable variant for you.

The phenomenal 3D Touch

iPhone X has amazing 3D touch function that redefines touch-based interactions and presents users with additional app-specific options. The feature functions based on varied pressure levels applied by users when they touch the screen.

Apps respond to human touch pressure and display a menu with additional action content or play animation. When the Camera icon is pressed, you will be seeing high-value, special options like Selfie, portrait, and other settings.

The 3D touch interaction involves no special gestures from users, resulting in an intuitive experience.

For 3D Touch designers should take care of the following points:

Think of frequently chosen tasks and actions and weave them in app options. You can go up to as many as 4 quick actions
Make the option titles clear and convincing. They should appear familiar and easy to understand
Quick actions should not be for notifications or to provide ease of navigation
Keep the quick action icon relevant and identifiable, something that users are used to
Use simple system icons instead of emoji to make it less complex and heavy

Conclusion

It is Apple’s special trait, to inspire curiosity with stimulating technology. Apple’s iPhone X is definitely a significant opportunity for iOS app developers as it contains numerous surprise elements for users. This also means a new bar of challenges for designers and developers alike. With significant changes in its screen display and UI aspects, designers can see a chance to show their creativity while building brilliant user experience for iPhone X.

How To Make Your App Attractive?

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

Mobile app development has become a blazing reality in recent times especially for companies that dream about achieving greater goals. Due to its burgeoning demand in modern times, having a mobile app means a solid boost to business growth. However, not every user will download and use your app. With mobile app development touching the saturation point, app stores are now cramped with plethora of apps, creating a tough competition.

It is a valid argument that marketing your mobile app impacts its success, but does your mobile have ability to attract instant attention? Your app must stand out and look attractive to users. If the app has aesthetic appeal, users will come swarming in to try your app. The following discussion uncovers the secrets of making your app more attractive.

To start with, every UI/UX designer must ask these crucial questions to ensure their app design reflects creativity and beauty.

Does the app design appear aesthetically pleasing?
Is it created with user-friendly colours?
Does UI feel intuitive when tried?
Does it offer fluid navigation to users?
What about the consistency of design elements?
Does it load and open fast?
Does it provide smooth transition?
What makes it different from rival apps in the app store?
How impressive was the user experience?
Does it function properly across all the devices?
Is your app highly recommendable for wider group of users?

To address all these questions confidently and make the app design look really good, here is what you can do:

1. Titillate Your Users:

Users are in your app to have an extraordinary experience, a kind of journey no other app can offer. You must, as a mobile app developer, understand what users prefer, where exactly the design trends are going and what would trigger their interest. Scour the app market and study some of the best successful apps and learn what you can do to emulate them.

Try to make a list of everything that you find amazing in their apps, including images, typography, colours, icons and navigation techniques, etc. Then make your own strategy as to how you can come up with a brilliant design that has it all. If you have spent good years in mobile app design job, you should have pretty-faced ideas to titillate users with great features and finest functionality. Understand the nerve of today’s rapidly evolving users and what could motivate them to consider your app. The best of designs are prepared mostly in the initial state of conceptual creative planning. Once you finalize your design, don’t attempt to change it now and then.

2. Easy-To-Use Design Model:

Despite the fact that more than half the world is down to using smartphones and various apps, you can still not think that everyone of them is savvy. There are still good amount of people who find using certain features of mobile and apps considerably tedious to use. This is why having a design that provides the ease of use is essential.

Things about mobile app development and its design are changing every day, and so are its features and facilities. Every app differs from another app in terms of gaining access to data or navigation. So there will always be certain people who are not as deft as others might be. Hence, it is a good approach to keep app design model easy-to-use and simple.

3. Offline Functioning Of App Design:

Many informative apps work offline with a strategy of providing more exclusive data when users come online. Nowadays, users tend to choose those apps that allow them to explore it even when their device is not connected to internet. Such apps whose usability remains intact during offline mode are best loved by users.

Offering the consistent users experience online and offline also makes your app emerge attractive among users. Evernote, Google docs, Onenote and many other apps allow users to work on their information even when they are not connected to any nearby Wi-Fi. If you are an entrepreneur or a part of an app design team, you should consider integrating this practice in your next development strategy.

4. Let Users Connect With Its Simplicity:

After you are ready with the UI of the app design, share the rough draft of it with some of your friends or families who are not technically skilled. They are, in this case, more like end users. Give them complete freedom to explore and judge various elements of your app design and see how it goes. If they call it intuitive experience, you can say you have placed your efforts in the right direction.

In order for users to connect with your app, you need to practice keeping things simple. From buttons to menu tabs and call-to-actions, every part of it matters and requires your sober attention.

5. The Grid Logic:

Grids in app works like an organizer and delivers consistent user experience at the moment of exploring different pages of the app. When you switch from one page to another, grids make sure users never lose consistency and visual connection while they engage and shuffle through its pages.

It is advisable for mobile app designers and developers to prepare the sketches of grids for graphic design. This way the user experience will be more organized, visually proper and unified across the entire all the app pages.

6. Magical Effects of Colour

Mobile app design process is incomplete without a thought of colours and their perfect suitable combination for the app. Your choice of colours is vital as it can decide the fate of your app and add magical effects to it. The choice of colours, however, depends on the genre of your app and user base. For productivity apps, light colours make it easy to read long texts. Bright contrast colours appeal most to gaming apps and entertainment whereas darker shades work best for media.

Colours can also be used for highlighting the different parts of the app. For instance, if users hover over an item in a main menu bar at the top, they can see its colour change and glow darker – which indicates they have selected the option.

Colours not only make the app attractive, but it also helps create seamless experience for users.

7. High Resolution from Points and Pixels

While designing, one point one should shift their focus on is space division of display. Points and pixels are the deciders of how the final image of an app is going to appear to users as they play with its interiors on their screen. Points and pixels together determine the overall resolution.

A designer should think of pixels which are the smallest dots on space on the screen, hardly visible yet important. The good density of these pixels creates a finest image. To achieve high resolution and clarity, more number of pixels should be placed in a display. Points are units of space that contain certain amount of pixels, making up a display.

Thus, a mobile app designer should control points throughout the entire design process to deliver high-resolution viewing experience for users. Higher the resolution, more attractive will be your app interiors.

8. Give a Shape to a Beautiful Icon

The app icon is something that creates the first impression on users’ mind. The icon is the first aspect of your app that viewers will realize. Apple uses golden ration grid system in the app store to accommodate the unique elements of the icon’s design in a way that looks gorgeous and fascinating. The main purpose behind creating an attractive app icon is to draw maximum attention from the viewers and inspire them to download the app.

Mobile app designer has ample control over how they would like their app icon to look. There is a technical system that helps them create icons that catch myriad eyes.

9. Champion Responsiveness

People have all different kinds of devices where they expect your app to function consistently. This means that your app must offer proper responsiveness and optimal viewing experience on various screen resolutions of mobiles, tablets, etc. Responsive design of an app ensures the users will have equally delightful experience irrespective of the device they choose. A mobile app development company who has years of experience in building excellent mobile apps would know the importance of making their apps responsive and perfectly optimized to all sizes of screens.

10. Get Just One Thing Right

In an effort to make the app famous and attractive, certain mobile app developers often fall for the wrong design approach. They tend to cram many options and features into one single app which may result into good amount of confusion and complications when used on a small touch screen.

While designing any app, one must remember to focus on the core purpose of the app. They should bear the idea of touching primary requirements of users and integrating features that users will definitely connect well with. Many options can divert users from the desirable user experience. Hence, to make the app attractive, serve them what they would indulge in.

Conclusion:

A great app idea will not do much good until it turns into a great app design, and a great design is every mobile app company’s dream. For cross platform mobile app developers, app design is a primary challenge as it has to be accepted by Google Playstore as well as Apple store. As for Apple, it never approves of a design that looks mediocre through their review process.

If your app development plan also involves generating revenue, the design becomes amply important. Apple is quite punctilious and rigorous about the design standards of every app that gets published in iOS store. Their reviewers insist on having a high-quality design interface that helps users interact with its content.

However, whether it is for Android or iOS, mobile app designer should focus on above guideline to make the best out of their work.

How to Design an App for the Better User Experience?

Posted on November 29, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

As more and more apps are finding their way in app stores, getting your mobile app design loved by users is most crucial. Users want to see brilliant design elements in your app. However, no mobile app design is complete without consideration of best user experience.

While designing mobile app architecture, you are also at times designing the future user experience.

This clearly indicates that an app must deliver user-friendly experience in the first place. Poor user experience means a lot of disappointment and frustration coming your way. Designing an app for better UX is a key to getting competitive, noticed and viable in the crowded app market.

So here are 10 great tips to design an app for delightful user experience:

1. Simplicity and Minimalism

A UX design that offers simplicity and minimal steps for users to fulfil their purpose is an ideal structure of a successful mobile app. Simple content with clear graphic explanation is what users want especially when the app is focused on multiple tasks.

Too much flash and glamour can distract users and send them away. Extra colour and glitters can even discourage app users to take desirable actions. Apart from that, unnecessary images and shine can even affect the speed at which app loads.

Minimal design approach and its simple presentation can keep users’ focus in the right place and lead them to the final action in fewer steps. It also helps your app load faster so that users won’t think of switching to other rival apps.

2. Preferential UX design

Recently, the new trend has picked the nerve of mobile app design. Unlike conventional interface, many apps have designs that are tailored to appear according to users’ personal taste, likes and tendencies. With such extraordinary design shift, the old approach of one-size-fits-all is getting older now.

This kind of intelligent app design may be termed as adaptive UX design or preferential UI. It takes advantage of users’ personal information to deliver customized experience.

This unusual UX design is commonly found in Travel apps or Real Estate search apps. The design of such mobile apps accommodates all the correct information before users even demand. This is possible because of app’s ability to learn users’ preferences and interests based on previous search history and location settings.

3. Silent Magic of White Space

The empty space found between in-app elements of a page layout is ignored and seen as being negative. Many of us like to believe that whit space through the app content is useless and pointless, and that it needs to be eliminated.

This is a serious practical mistake a designer would ever do. On the contrary, white space (infamously known as negative space in the world of mobile app design) helps bring positive results.

We often underestimate the magical power of negative white space. However, you can use negative space to create more interest and draw more attention.

Seemingly considered as a passive element, this white space is actually an active hero that silently enhances the ease of reading, priority of interesting content and betters and visuals of the layout. It even makes it possible to notice the highlights of the content, resulting in the simplicity of viewing.

4. Great Visuals, Better Influence

Human eyes are the first place where images are primarily processed and briefly approved. In fact, we have a common proclivity to choose something that has ample aesthetic value. Mobile apps are one of such things as mobile app designers will highly concede.

Despite being virtual, mobile app design intrigues users as if it is tangible goods. Users download an app because of its usability and design splendour. Text-centric apps are not welcome, but apps with remarkable visual elements are.

Having an appealing mobile app often results into higher user engagement, better influence and pleasant user experience.

5. Keep a Sharp Eye on Market

Before you design or redesign your mobile app, make sure you dedicate an eye to the relevant market. Find out what is brewing in the market and what trends people tend to embrace most. This will set you on the heavy quest for scooping up the hot trends making signatures on the face of mobile app design.

The foremost thing to bear in mind before you think of user experience is the understanding of your own prime audience. The trends you learn from the app market are representative of customer’s behaviour, tastes and preferences.

Develop use cases that help you go still closer to your audience and help you design a user-focused interface for your app. The more interactive the interface is, the better will be the user experience.

6. Minimize the Burden for Users

Any veteran mobile app designer could not deny the importance of having a clean, clutter-free user interface. Every page you design for the mobile app must contain straight-to-the-point content and single call-to-action option. Users believe in limited attention span wanting their options quickly.

While designing an app, the best approach is to get users what they really want with minimal efforts.

This principle is highly appreciated for purpose-oriented apps. For instance, if it is a hair salon appointment app, it should process users’ preferable timings, style preferences and match it with availability of services to suggest the best solution.

In some cases, the app also detects the user’s location through GPS to tell the distance between their home and salon. The whole process should be kept simple and light, with minimum time-consuming content.

7. Effortless Navigation

Navigation holds immense importance especially if the app is aimed for ecommerce, social media or finance industry. Since much of user experience depends on the navigational ease, your app must comfort users while they flow or switch from one page to another.

If you are a Mobile app designer, you must know that users want the navigation to be simple, accessible and self-evident. Ideal navigation system of an app is the one that liberates them from using great efforts to understand it. So make it easy to discover despite the fact that mobile screen offers small screen.

Tab bars designed with suitable names of for each page can be a best solution to effortless navigation. It offers one tab selection to navigate across different pages.

8. Clever Push Notifications

In 21^st century, due to pushy marketers, people tend to avoid countless messages coming from every corner of the consumer market. Mobile users avoid getting distracted by bombardment of push notifications on their digital devices.

Nobody is interested in your other products, discounts or information of your partner companies when all they want is to get straight down to the action.

In most cases, such exasperating push notifications can encourage users to quit your app forever.

So make a practice of sending only selected custom messages to users. Don’t ruin their busy hours by sending irrelevant messages. Instead, send messages of value on a certain intervals that won’t plague them.

Instead of giving them a rush in a short while, try to channel your messages in multiple slots like email, push notifications, in-app messages, etc. This will save both your reputation and brand.

Conclusion

While designing a mobile app, designers must remember the purpose of the app and how users are going to interact with its various elements and features. You can include these tips in your next mobile app design strategy to build a compelling mobile app. You must ensure that your app has the reason for users to use it and requires minimal time and effort to understand it. Whatever you do with your design, make sure your app retains its usability and has potential to deliver intuitive user experience.

Why Complex Designs May Hurt Mobile App Development

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Super Admin Testreveal

Right from inception of an idea to making it into what can be vaguely called as a properly functioning app, the whole mobile app development process is not painless and straightforward. Be it windows, android or iPhone app development, the toil and determination that needs to be put is very much demanding.

Many things need to be foreseen, so as to avoid risks that may come up due to negligence or time constraints. Unattended minor difficulties during the initial phases can become your serious concerns during the end phase of development.

The major drawback is that the developers don’t decide how the apps should be designed all by themselves. It is a group decision where client preferences are given prime importance.

An idea that is too complex for code development

The initial task carried out after conceptualizing an application is creating its design. This is usually done in graphics editors such as Photoshop or prototyping platforms such as Marvel. Usually, an impressive design is created for demonstration purposes and then it is agreed upon by both parties viz., the mobile app development company and the client.

Read also:5 Reasons Why Mobile Game Development Companies Fail to Win the Global Market

The real peril surfaces when the design is converted into codes. The model created can pose many problems in getting materialized. For e.g.; the representation can include too much animation that will demand a lot more of the development time and considerable increase in the project budget.

Designers design with a market-oriented approach. It is mainly aimed at convincing the customer, without any consideration towards the coding process. The ways and methods used for creating designs and implementing code for the same design are totally different. What looks easy for designing may not be so for coding.

Distinction between a prototype and an actual app

A prototype of the app is necessary, mainly due to its contribution during the mobile app development process. It serves as a model of what the app should look and function like, as a final product.

Although, creating the prototype model has its own advantages, the snags too are many. The most unfavorable thing is that once the actual product is completed, there is no significance for the prototype of the app, and it should be literally just thrown away. This is serious for a mobile app development company, since the development of the prototype in itself is a time consuming and costly process.

Circumstances come too often, in which coding can’t be done due to the complexity of the designs. Once there is any need for improvement or reconstruction in the design, the time and effort of the designer in building the former prototypes is wasted.

The large gap between using real data and assumed data

The user inputs that are used during the app design and implementation period are always unsophisticated numbers, names and other such data. This prevents from getting a clear idea about the app behavior and responses, when they get into the hands of users once the app is launched.

But the real picture is much more consequential. Most of the behavioral pitfalls will actually be evident only at the time of beta testing or most probably after that. What this means is that, your app needs updating even after releasing it to the public. This can shoot the overall development cost accompanied with considerable loss of time and effort for the same project.

What is desirable?

There are a lot of persons involved in the conception and design phase of app creation – the designers, developers, clients, managers and marketers to name a few. Not everybody has got coding knowledge. Most are not even aware of the app development processes.

So the important step that a mobile app development company should take would be ensuring that everyone does have a basic understanding of the actual process. There should be collaborative effort to analyze the possibilities and impossibilities under the given resources.