If we need to believe statistics the domination of mobile apps for shaping our digital experience is continuing. Apple App Store is boasting nearly 2.2 million apps and Google play store boasting nearly 3 million apps till date; we practically have more apps than we can think of the number of purposes.
While there are so many apps that are continuously increasing in number and variety, a vast majority of them just add to the pile without making a dime. On the other hand, some apps continue to dominate the mobile screens of most users. This happens because of the difference in user experience. UI and UX design play an important role in the success of an app.
Considering all these, can you tell those factors that are likely to dominate mobile app design in the time to come? If you do not know, we can guide you through the key factors.
- Single feature apps will dominate enterprise apps
If you watch the latest trends that are unfolding among successful enterprise apps, you will notice a peculiar trend sweeping most companies mobile app strategy.
Instead of bundling too many relevant features into one app they are keen on offering several small apps with just a single feature. It is like Google group of apps comprising mono-featured apps like Gmail, Google Sheet, Google Talk, Google Docs, etc.
If a feature enjoys popularity among users, presenting it with a small single featured app makes sense.
2. Innovative UX Design
We all know great user experience is mostly about ease of use, quicker engagement, access to important features and data and visual clarity. Now, to ensure all these aspects following the best UX principles is perfectly fine. But even then, doing the right things may not be enough to make your app stand out from the rest.
You need to think of some innovative ways to engage the audience and offer them a memorable experience. New technologies like augmented reality or design principles like parallax scrolling are paving the way for new innovative UX.
3. Giving priority to Multitasking
A regular mobile screen real estate remains always overcrowded with too many apps and the average user now always switch between apps for different tasks.
Most mobile operating systems are aware of the importance of the multitasking in the age of increased mobile usage for all sorts of purposes. Naturally, every single app also should be fully equipped to allow multitasking without lagging time and slow loading speed.
4. Application Performance Management (APM)
Most app testing exercises are pained by two major constraints, namely, a wide variety of mobile devices and the nature of mobile devices changing continuously across screen sizes, features and other aspects.
This is why most mobile app developers are now banking upon a rich set of mobile metrics and monitoring tools that are collectively referred to Application Performance Management (APM). This new approach has largely helped to improve the testing process and quality assurance. Thanks to APM tools mobile apps can be given an assured boost in performance and output.
5. Simple and versatile design
Mobile device marketplace is populated with a variety of smartphone, wearable and tablet screen sizes. Moreover, some device platforms are also offering split-screen capabilities as the lucrative new visual treat for the users. Now, along with varying screen dimensions the split screen mode offered by many advanced devices created more variety that user interfaces of third-party apps have to address.
This is precisely why versatile and visually flexible simple UI design will rule most mobile apps in the coming years. While earlier this simplicity was brought by flat UI design, now the Google’s Material Design us taking this design principle further ahead by incorporating subtle depth to the earlier flat design.
6. App thinning will remain important
App thinning is a concept that was first introduced by Apple to help the user get quick access to the stripped-off app versions of apps. This solved the problem of loading app contents.
An app is loaded instantly with the very basic and bare minimum contents and interface elements and thereafter it continues to load new contents and features as the user progresses creating new contexts of use. Thus app thinning helps minimising the loading problem by decreasing the information overload while always offering contents on demand.
7. AI-powered Chatbots will play a more crucial role
AI-powered Chatbots that understands user intents and accordingly guides them through the app contents besides replying to their queries single-handedly made the user experience of many web apps effortless.
Today, an increasing number of apps including business apps and mobile commerce apps are using chatbots to remain engaged with customers and deliver them a better onboarding experience. Future mobile app designers will make Chatbots a crucial part of their customer-centric design approach.
8. Personalised user experience will be key
Another major thing that mobile app design of the coming years will bank upon is the personalised user experience.Besides offering the highly individual focused look and feel the feature set and the response pattern of the apps will also be personalised to a great extent.
As machine learning technology has penetration to dig into the user behaviour and use patterns, this will help designers devising highly individual focused personalised user experience for the users.
To conclude,
For the mobile app developers of the coming years, there will be simultaneous demands of coping with emerging technologies and of staying steady at the edge of a suffocatingly competitive market.
Author bio
Keval Padia is a CEO of Nimblechapps, the coolest mobile app development company based in India. He follows different tech blogs and current updates of the field lure him to express his views and thoughts on certain topics.
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