8 Tips for Designing a More Intuitive Mobile App

Jun 7

Mobile apps can be a great way to make money or support your business. Through a mobile app, you can provide information, entertainment, or utility to your users, get them hooked, and eventually use them as a source of revenue.

However, regardless of whether your ultimate goal is profitability, higher user awareness, or something else entirely, you’ll need an intuitive mobile app to succeed.

Why Intuitive Apps Are Better

Why are intuitive apps superior?

Shorter learning cycles. With an intuitive app, your users will be able to learn and start using the platform faster. You won’t have to spend an hour reading guides and following tutorials to get the basic idea of how the app works. That means people will start using the app faster and enjoying it sooner.
Wider audience accessibility. Tech-savvy users might have no issue figuring out how a complicated app works, but some of your less experienced users will abandon the app if it’s too difficult to navigate. Intuitiveness increases the breadth of your audience.
Fewer issues and complaints. We also need to consider the fact that an intuitive app will lead to fewer issues and fewer user complaints. People will be able to figure out how to resolve their own problems, and they’ll have a much better opinion of the app overall.
Full discovery of features. If your app is hard to use or if it’s not intuitive, chances are, many of your core features will go unused or undiscovered. Intuitive apps make it obvious how to use the app best.

How to Design a More Intuitive App

Let’s take a look at what it takes to design a more intuitive mobile app:

Work with a professional team. Development firms like Dev.co exist to make your app as seamless and intuitive as possible. Firms have access to full teams with a wide range of different experts, and together they can provide better recommendations and help you execute your vision. You could also hire a development team of your own, though this is typically more expensive in the long run.
Keep it simple. Don’t add more features or more design elements than you truly need. If a screen is excessively cluttered with different buttons, icons, and other features, it’s going to be overwhelming. How is a user supposed to figure out which features matter most?
Design for multiple devices and OSs. When designing, you have to keep multiple devices and operating systems in mind (unless you’re developing exclusively for one platform). Generally, that means adopting a responsive design that can fit almost any size screen.
Make each button obvious. If you want users to engage with something, like tapping a button, you have to make it obviously engageable. It’s also a good idea to make its functionality obvious – like including a question mark on the icon for additional help.
Use strong colors. Strong colors draw the eye and can help you guide your users’ attentions. Use them to direct your users to where you want them to be.
Include multiple routes to the same destination. If a feature or piece of content is important, make sure there are multiple routes available to it. A user should be able to find it by looking in any one of several different areas.
Add search and self-help features. For the most part, modern users prefer self-service. If they encounter a problem or don’t know what to do, they want to be able to figure it out on their own. You can make it easier for them by including an intuitive search feature as well as easily navigable help content.
Employ animations. You can make your mobile app even more intuitive with the clever use of animations. Guide users to the right buttons or interactive elements with a pointing finger, a flashing light, or something else that catches the eye.

Testing Your Mobile App

You may follow these strategies and genuinely believe that your mobile app is intuitive, but your assumptions and best guesses aren’t enough to feel confident. If you want to verify that your mobile app is intuitive, you’ll need to test it in a live environment. Get a focus group or a team of beta testers together, preferably relying on people within your target audience, and have them test your app inside and out. Run diagnostics and collect feedback to determine whether your mobile app is sufficiently intuitive.

As you gain experience in mobile app development, it will be easier and easier to design an intuitive app from scratch. Pay attention to your app and your users and other intuitive apps in your space; there’s a lot to learn from the competition.