In the mobile app development landscape, every interaction is crucial as it unveils user engagement and satisfaction scores. Every business longs to develop a responsive, innovative and user-friendly application that grabs the user’s eyeballs.
There are 2.43 million apps on the Google Play store. This number showcases the large number of app ideas that exist and the millions that are yet to come. However, the app retention rates are really low. Over 90% of users give up on an application before it reaches the 30-day mark according to Business of Apps.
When someone clicks on the uninstall button, your hard work goes in vain. You can ensure minimal uninstalls and great engagement when you collaborate with skilled and experienced Android programmers.
However, that’s not enough. You also need to implement the responsive and usable design best practices for captivating outcomes. This article will explore the design best practices for user-friendly Android applications.
Best Practices to Build Responsive Designs
At the core of an interactive design are best practices that are defined for the end users. These practices will ensure smooth and intuitive movements that enhance experiences.
#1 Responsive Designs
Android is a fragmented and open-source operating system with multiple security needs and diverse requirements. Creating designs that fit the multitudes of devices and their sizes is tedious.
However, you cannot overlook consistency and design uniformity while creating the Android app screens and layouts. To ensure seamlessness in the interface design, you can use layout managers and flexible XML layouts.
These features would automatically adjust the app screens to the device screen sizes. ConstraintLayout is a layout manager in Android Studio that allows you to leverage relative positioning and efficient space utilization for responsive designs.
You can also use the resource folders to meet the diverse screen densities. These include ldpi, mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi and xxhdpi. When you incorporate screen densities, your app is automatically optimized for diverse devices and consistent viewing. You can also use scalable vectors for the best image quality across screens.
#2 Optimize Application Performance
Optimizing the Android application for performance is crucial to increasing user engagement and reducing abandonments. If people can access the application, move around without friction and enjoy the app, they will stay longer. An experienced Android app development company can optimize the Android application to ensure smooth navigation and enhance user experience.
You can implement lazy loading on the website for images. This would reduce the effort on the application to initiate the loading. You can also use background threads or AsyncTask to reduce the time taken to perform tedious and time-consuming operations.
This would ensure quick responses and faster query generation. Leverage Android Profiler to determine and address performance bottlenecks. It can also help manage the development lifecycle and consider fragmentation for optimized memory utilization.
#3 Design Effective Navigation
Navigation is an integral part of your application design. You must seek a user-friendly and intuitive navigation layout that provides fluid movement.
You must adhere to material design principles while planning the navigation for the app. It will help deliver consistency. You can also use the Navigation Component from the Jetpack library to implement a unified system.
This jetpack component can enable a coherent user movement. You should also implement bottom navigation bars for easy access to various app elements. You can use the back button to navigate back and forth into a page.
Make sure to design a logical and free flow mapping user’s behavior for increased engagement on the app.
#4 Implement Accessible Design
Users have diverse needs and multiple issues. No two user and their app movements are the same. You must ensure these apps are accessible to all the users. You must take into consideration their disabilities. This will help implement the functionality to make the app accessible.
For instance, a simple speech-to-text converter can help people with visual impairments to send messages and emails. Using the right colors can ensure people with color blindness can access the app.
You can even use voice commands and other gesture controls for people with motor disabilities to use the application. It is important to adhere to the accessibility standards and protocols when designing the application.
You must integrate screen readers and ensure complete navigation support for these inputs. You must test the app for accessibility before launching it in the store.
While designing for accessibility, ensure your app fulfills the legal and ethical considerations.
#5 Define Consistent Interface
The user interface is a crucial part of the user’s interaction journey. They connect with your app via the interface. You must ensure complete consistency and cohesiveness while designing the app interface.
You can use standard Android-based UI elements to get started. You must adhere to the platform’s design guidelines for uniformity.
You can incorporate the responsive touch targets to make the interface interactive. You should ensure proper sizes for the touch input so that there’s no interaction friction. Consistency in design contributes to establishing a strong brand identity.
#6 Implement Offline Functionality
You must ensure seamless functioning of the application in offline mode. It can enrich your user’s experience and create immense satisfaction while they use your application.
You must incorporate local caching and storage for immediate content access in the absence of the Internet. Room and WorkManager are excellent caching tools that ensure the offline availability of your applications.
You must also include indicators to show your app is being used in offline mode. You can also add error messages to enhance the user’s experience.
By adding these features for offline usage, you can improve your app’s reliability and stability.
Conclusion
When creating a dynamic and user-friendly application you must take a holistic and planned approach. Implementing offline access, designing for accessibility and fluid navigations are crucial for user-friendly solutions. You must ensure complete testing and performance optimization for quick loading to reduce abandonments.
These best practices can augment the user’s experience and help differentiate your business in the competitive Google Play Store realm. Incorporating these practices also showcases how committed your business and the development partner are toward technological enhancements and usable design solutions.