Project

OtoZen is an innovative technology for safe driving, operating via a hardware device connected to a mobile application. It helps users to turn any car into a smart, distraction-free vehicle. It is the all-in-one safe driving assistant that keeps drivers focused, organized, and connected to friends and family. Users can quickly pair the OtoZen device with their Apple or Android phones via Bluetooth and install the OtoZen Pod in split seconds, with no tools, wiring, or professional installation required.

In this project, tubik specialists were involved in auditing and improving UI and UX design for the mobile application, as well as creating custom graphics and a website that would strengthen the product’s web presence.

App Design

From the perspective of user experience design, the Otozen application was a complex project that included a diversity of manipulations with different data, some of which are changing in real-time mode and should be updated and distributed appropriately. Another concern was dealing with a lot of personal data security and privacy issues. So, the design process had to start with diving deep into the slightest details of functionality and user problems solved by the application. This is what the application looked like at the start of the process.

The client came to us with a prototype that had to be reviewed, discussed, and reconsidered. In general, the technology is built around the following primary directions:

• safe, distraction-free driving: texting-while-driving prevention, reduced audio distractors, high-speed alerts, feedback on driving safety level, autodial to call help for emergency
• well-used driving time and organized reminders: location/time-based reminders, audio calendar alerts, joining meetings hands-free, simplified expense reports with mileage tracking
• convenient connection and communication with other people, for example, family and friends: requesting live location and ETA of other drivers, getting easily updated with automated notifications, full control of privacy and visibility

So, having analyzed the diverse functionality and data the app had to process, considering the objectives behind the application, our team made a deep review of the pain points and blind spots in the existing prototype. That process of design audit was grounded on constant communication with clients to find out the slightest details that could have an effect on user experience and grew into tons of graphs, charts, tables, and schemes. That’s a good example demonstrating that a huge part of the user experience design process is not about visuals but about analyzing, structuring, connecting the dots, considering details, and building systems. Here’s a look at just a small part of the process.

A part of multiple systematic tables textually organizing different information about the product, questions and issues to discuss, and suggestions that could improve user experience, to support collaboration between the clients and the creative team and let them stay on the same page.

A glance at the process of analysis and structuring user interactions with the application and issues arising in the process

The process of building a particular piece of user scenario

So, the core tasks for the UX designer were to think over data organization, visualization, and navigation which would make complex flows of information and functions feel intuitive and straightforward and wouldn’t overwhelm users. Supporting that idea, the choice was made on a light and airy interface with contrasting but not overbright colors for critical visual elements and buttons and a highly-readable sans-serif font to make the screens scannable and easy to use on the go.

One of the significant points for the user experience design of the mobile application was effective onboarding and registration flow. The account creation process is divided into several simple steps, with a progress indicator keeping the user updated about the current stage.

My Trips section opens the feed and gives an opportunity to easily tune what the user wants to see. This application is a good example of how well-crafted icons support the usability and navigability of the mobile interface and help set instant visual connections with different types of information. The map screen shows the trip details. It also uses color marking for the various points, such as speeding or telephone usage, this way visualizing quickly how often the issue happened during a particular trip.

Opening the calendar, the user can see daily time stats in minutes. The drive score section opens the information on issues that influence driving safety.

The tab bar lets users switch between five core interactive zones: Alerts, My Trips, Buddies, Profile, and Notifications. To maximize the influence and make it clear for users, it combines elegant line icons and text labels to quickly inform what users will find in each tab.

And here’s a glance at the flow of interactions with the app.

The Alerts section organizes all types of incoming alerts and helps to switch between them smoothly.

Profile screen shows different data about settings and preferences, neatly organized in groups. Here users also can add, edit, and review their emergency contacts, vehicle details, and places.

One more important and valuable feature of the Otozen application is Buddies. This function allows users to connect, make their trips trackable, and notify their chosen buddy about the needed information, such as the current point on the route or arrival. It can be super helpful for various issues, for example, when the app user needs to know where the family member is but doesn’t want to distract them from driving with calls or messages.

One of the points the technology creators describe as the most essential and show deep care on is personal data security. So, in the Buddies functionality, this aspect had to be well-thought-out, and sharing/accepting access to tracking the other users’ trip, OtoZen users needed to be sure that they can control the level to which they open data to their buddy in the app. That resulted in another neatly organized set of settings in the application that had to be clear and straightforward.

The major challenge behind the application UX design was to get together all the multiple flows of information, notifications, alerts, macro and micro settings, and decide upon the most user-friendly way to organize them.

Web Design

One of the well-checked tools for building a solid mobile application brand and effective promotion is creating a landing page or website to present the benefits and connect users to the product in an efficient, informative, and captivating way. So, the website was another task for our team to allow the OtoZen product to cover this aspect of digital marketing and set another major channel of communication with its users, letting them catch the idea and uncovering the answers for all the questions that may arise. The general layout and website style echo basic color accents and the airy, light layout of the application. The information about the technology is divided into concise sections to be scannable and skimmable. The hero section presents the immediate visual connection to the technology via the prominent image demonstrating both the device and the app and giving the main idea about the product and its value for users via an informative tagline and short description. The call-to-action button in the hero section is instantly visible due to the color contrast. It works in pair with the ghost button, allowing visitors who want more information to watch the video.

For the last few years, original illustrations applied to user interfaces have been one of the most popular and solid UX design trends. Not only do original graphics contribute to the general brand image and enhance its recognizability and memorability, but also they set a solid emotional connection between the product and its user. What’s more, they add much to the usability and visual storytelling, especially when consistent photos cannot be obtained for all the necessary demonstration needs, especially in the cases of highly technological products. The Otozen website took advantage of the custom illustrations keeping a consistent style and effectively supporting information blocks. Also, many of the pictures feature people, adding a human element to the communication. A mobile adaptation of the website makes it look attractive and work effectively from any device.

“We are very pleased with the outcome. The app UI/UX is well received by our customers. There was a consistent app UI/UX theme that was maintained throughout the development, and having the same designer working with us helped us achieve this,” the client company’s CEO wrote in his review on Clutch, and what could be the better way to finish the design story?

New design case studies are coming soon. Stay tuned!

More Design Case Studies

Here’s a set of more case studies sharing the design solutions and approaches for some of the design projects done by the Tubik team.

Nibble Health. Identity and UX Design for Healthcare Fintech Service

HotelCard. Brand Identity for Hotel Offers Service

Physica Magazine. Web Design and Graphics for Scientific Blog

CSConnect. Website Design for Immersive Experience Marketing Platform

Ready Set Recover. Web Design and Illustrations for Surgery Recovery Platform

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

BlockStock. Brand Identity and Website for Minecraft Models Resource

Kaiten. Identity and Product Design for Food Marketplace

Nonconventional Show. Website Design for Podcast

Crezco. Brand Identity and UI/UX Design for Fintech Service

FarmSense. Identity and Web Design for Agricultural Technology

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic and video content by tubik

Сообщение Case Study: OtoZen. Designing Mobile Application for Safer Driving появились сначала на Design4Users.

Product

Uplyfe is an AI-powered health app that reacts to your behavior in nutrition and exercise and provides personalized recommendations. The app is designed to help users improve their health, as well as prevent or manage non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Founded by specialists with medical and healthcare backgrounds, the product shares the philosophy that a healthy lifestyle is the best medicine. The product team is based in Switzerland.

Research and Design Approach

Creating a brand image, the design team has to consider all the major ways the brand employs to communicate with its users and customers. Even an excellent logo design may not work effectively if it’s designed in a creative vacuum without a clear understanding of where and how the brand will use it, what environment it will be integrated into, and how it will be distributed. That’s why the first stage of design is all about deep research, asking tons of questions, and building up a great deal of communication between the brand team and the design team. This process is vital as not only do designers get a more comprehensive view, but also, brand holders start looking at their product from different perspectives and asking themselves new questions. You can read more about the design process for branding in one of the earlier articles:  together with the client, we discuss and define ‘the soul’ of a client’s brand. That helps us to create strong branding and identity, ‘the face,’ for products and companies. From the brand model to the design system, we build the identity that translates the product values.

The essential point to take into account about Uplyfe’s brand image was that, in a nutshell, it is not a product solving a narrow circle of specific health problems but a comprehensive eco-system of building a healthy life, adapting its recommendations to users’ goals and performance. What’s more, it’s based on a scientific approach but simple and accessible for the broad target audiences of different ages, from youngsters to the elderly. The app aims at being used by both people with NCDs and healthy people who want to improve their lives. As the team is based in Switzerland and that’s its core market at the moment, the research phase included the analysis of what kind of health services and apps are demanded and popular in this area.

To define the design approach, user personas were developed and analyzed as well as mood boards were created and discussed to determine the compelling visual design perspectives.

Based on that, our team created a complex brand design for Uplyfe.

Brand Graphics

Logo

The final logo design is a combination mark made up of a symbol and a typographic part presenting a brand name. The elegant and curvy symbol is balanced by the simple, solid, and highly readable font chosen for the text part. The color palette is based on a combination of pure colors that provide good contrast and work well both in digital and analog spaces.

As for the symbol, it employs a triangular shape. According to the psychology of shapes, a triangle is an energetic and dynamic shape always associated with motion and direction. The lines are placed so that human eyes automatically move to the triangle’s top or in the direction it is placed. An upright triangle brings feelings of stability and balance.

Also, the symbol intentionally doesn’t feature any visual triggers or prompts that are typical for the medical theme. The major goal in identity design for Uplyfe was to step aside direct associations with medical treatment, hospitals, and the like, as the application goes beyond that and is positioned as a helper in supporting a healthy lifestyle in general. What’s more, for many people with NCDs, their states of health are a matter of everyday life, like, for example, those who have diabetes, so the app would rather avoid day-by-day connection to that from the medical perspective and focus on helping users make their life better in those conditions. As well, a part of the target audience consists of people who have no specific health issues but would like to enhance their general physical conditions, so the logo directly connected to the medical theme could create confusion about the nature of the Uplyfe service and lead to losing a part of the audience. Instead of associations with medical treatment, the logo had to transfer the strong message of a bright, healthy, and well-balanced life.

To increase the logo’s flexibility for different visual design goals, the designer developed a set of variations, including a black-and-white version, monochrome variants on light and dark backgrounds, and options with a gradient background based on the corporate palette.

Digital touchpoints: app graphics, favicon, logo animation

But brand design goes much further than well-crafted and tested logo design. Together with the client, we defined the touchpoints and channels via which the brand communicates with its customers to create an appealing and balanced visual style covering them all. This way, the brand image looks and feels consistent, and brand recognizability increases.

First, let’s take a look at how branding was integrated into the digital product. Here’s the logo animation for the splash screen: it gives a clear visual connection with the brand from the first seconds and, at the same time, makes waiting bright and dynamic while the app is loading. Also, below, you can see how the branded app icon looks for the Uplyfe application.

And here’s a glance at the favicon for the app landing page. Favicon, also known as a URL icon or bookmark icon, is a particular type of symbol representing the product or brand in the URL line of the browser and in the bookmark tab. It allows users to get a quick visual connection with it while they are browsing. Although small and not prominent, this interface element is essential for effective web promotion; it contributes much to web usability and good recognizability of the brand’s visual identity.

The concept of the custom branded illustration was also developed to experiment with the general style of brand graphics that could be used for social networks, banners, and other marketing goals.

Going further, the extensive set of neat icons, both in corporate colors and in monochrome versions, was designed to support visual consistency for diverse branding and user experience goals behind the application and its pages in social networks.

Landing page design

One more important channel of app promotion is a landing page. For mobile applications, it is a web page created to set another touchpoint that informs users about the nature and benefits of the app, engages them to try it, and provides shortcuts to downloading it. Moreover, sticking to the brand style and color palette, the landing page strengthens the brand image’s web presence and recognizability.

Here are different design concepts for the landing page of the Uplyfe application.

Landing page employing dark background, prominent app demonstration screens, and bright color accents

Landing page design based on light, airy background and big custom illustration in brand style

Landing page design concepts with atmospheric background photo content setting the visual connection with the theme of healthy life. The photo also works as a gaze-directing directional cue: on the slide with yoga, the woman’s fingers direct users’ eyes to the CTA element in the header.

Social networks

Naturally, digital products are mainly promoted via digital channels of communication, so the next step of brand design for Uplyfe was considering its consistent identity in social networks.

Here’s how the Facebook page for the app looked. The concept features custom header images based on graphics combining abstract shapes and recognizable objects like a microscope, providing a quick visual connection with the brand style, the theme, and the goals of the service. Also, another illustration is shown as an example of theme graphics for posts.

Here’s how the same approach is adjusted for the Twitter page.

And here’s a look at the brand image concept on Instagram and Facebook for mobile. The system of icons works effectively as the covers for Instagram highlights. Also, the general style of brand graphics for Instagram posts is offered to make them consistent, attractive, and recognizable, sharing the brand mission and valuable information for the followers.

Printed stuff: business cards, posters, lightboxes, billboards

Talking about the more tangible side of branding, here’s how the business card design looked.

What’s more, the style, curvature, and shapes used in the process of design exploration for icons let the designer develop the design system for brand posters and other stuff or merch that could be involved in marketing.

Another direction to take into account was the design of outdoor advertising to spread the word about the application in various urban spaces, such as billboards with motivational taglines or lightbox ads informing about the app’s benefits.

This project demonstrates how the comprehensive design approach covers different aspects of the ways the brand uses to connect with its customers and how much more should be done to develop an attractive and informative brand identity than just logo design.

New design case studies are coming soon; keep up with the updates.

More Design Case Studies

Here’s a set of more case studies sharing the design solutions and approaches for some of the design projects done by the tubik team.

FarmSense. Brand Identity and Website Design for Agricultural Technology

Synthesized. Website Design for DataOps Platform

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

BlockStock. Brand Identity and Website for Minecraft Models Resource

Carricare. Identity and UX Design for Safe Delivery Service

ShipDaddy. Identity and Web Design for Shipping Service

Illuminating Radioactivity. Interactive Web Design for Education

Lumen. Website for Museum of Mountain Photography

GNO Blankets. Branding and Web Design for Ecommerce

Designer AI. Dashboard and Graphics for Fashion Service

Shpin’s Wine. Identity Design for Family-Run Winery

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic and video content by tubik

Сообщение Branding Case Study: Identity Design for Health Application появились сначала на Design4Users.

Fitness application design by tubik

Activity tracker by Sigma Software Design

Workout app design by Odama

Fitness app design by Musemind

Fitness and yoga application by Outcrowd

Fitness app concept by Anastasia Golovko

Workout application by Enver Studio

Workout planner app by ever

Fitness tracker application by One Week Wonders

Fitness tracker application by tubik

New design collections are coming soon; stay tuned!

For more inspiration, check the sets of other posts from our D4U Inspiration gallery, where we gather impressive creatives to share their art with you, for example:

• people illustration gallery
• a big of user-friendly mobile applications
• logo design collection for various business goals
• captivating 3D animation concepts
• creative web designs with 3D graphics
• web design examples on ecological issues
• inspiring mobile interactions design examples
• Procreate illustration tutorials

Сообщение UI Inspiration: App Design Concepts for Sports and Fitness появились сначала на Design4Users.

For videos that are accompanied by sound use sound volume control near the play bar to tune as you want

Audiobook app interactions by Khonok Lee (mind the sound in the video)

Fitness App interactions by tubik

Fanvest app prototype by PLATFORM

E-medicine application prototype by Outcrowd

Calendar app interactions by Khonok Lee

Personal Challenges app interactions by tubik

Music Player app interactions by Khonok Lee

QUAN app interactions design by PLATFORM

Finance tracker mobile interactions by tubik

Algorithm settings interactions for Investment App by Brave Wings

Fitness application prototype working in sync with smartwatch by PLATFORM

Banking app concept interactions by Khonok Lee (mind the sound in the video)

Mobile app interactions by Dimest (mind the sound in the video)

Quotes app interaction design by tubik

Neumorphic app prototype for the washing machine by Dimest (mind the sound in the video)

Savings app prototype by PLATFORM

Smart Home app concept interactions by Mammad Emin

More thematic design collections are coming soon for your inspiration, don’t miss them.

You may also like the big collections of e-commerce web design examples and ecommerce app designs, examples of web designs with 3D illustrations, neumorphic UI designs, web designs for events, user interfaces for finance management, creative logo designs, UI concepts for education, and other D4U Inspiration posts

Сообщение 17 Inspiring Examples of Mobile Interaction Design появились сначала на Design4Users.

Not only the number grows but also diversity, and that’s clearly seen from the variety of design projects. So, today we offer to review the most popular types of mobile applications, their functions, and benefits, in addition to the guide into types of websites and types of mobile screens we told about earlier. With plenty of examples by Tubik designers, of course.

There are two global perspectives to classify mobile apps: in the aspect of content they offer and the aspect of their technical realization. Let’s start with the content.

Content Perspective

Here we classify the applications according to the problems they solve and the functions they offer to users.

Utility Apps

This is the basic and perhaps the most widely used type of mobile applications. These apps let users solve a particular problem or accomplish a task, usually the one we face day in and day out. It’s all about basic problems which should be solved quickly – and this is what apps of this type do, saving our time and effort. Here you will find a variety of calculators from standard to financial and scientific ones, clock and alarm apps, flashlights, barcode scanners, tools for conversion and password management, screen locks, etc. They are little helpers of our everyday life.

Event App

Toonie Alarm

Homey App

Contact List App

Lifestyle Apps

These apps are connected to various spheres of our activities connected to lifestyle and life quality. Usually, they cover quite general themes, subjects, and services. These apps help users find and improve their homes and offices, take up hobbies, look good and feel good, etc. If your app is about real estate, fashion, parenting, or hobbies, that’s a category for it.

My Baby App

Watering Tracker App

Carfinder App

Navigation Apps

These mobile applications help users to find their way and plan their routes. These are driving and walking assistants, map applications, atlases, public transit maps and fuel finders, pilots and maritime assistance apps, and the like.

Dog Tracker App

Food and Drink Apps

These apps are all about tasty life as “there is no love sincerer than the love of food” according to George Bernard Shaw. Here you will find everything about eating and drinking, cooking, healthy food, eating out, and the like. So, diverse applications offering users recipes and menus, nutrition facts, reviews of meals, beverages, restaurants, and cafes, guides into cuisines of different countries, and all the stuff like that go to this category.

Restaurant App

Tasty Burger App

Vegan Recipes App

Drink Recipes App

Books Apps

Explanation won’t take long: these are apps for reading or listening to the stuff that was traditionally printed. Here this content becomes interactive and offers different functionality for user manipulations. Reader apps, interactive ebooks, and comics are found in this category.

ABUK, the mobile application for audiobook store

Education Apps

The mobile applications of this type are all about learning and teaching: the main objective behind them is to share knowledge in an interactive way. Here you’ll find the apps of different complexity and interactivity levels focused on educational purposes. They may be aimed at different target audiences that determine the approaches to graphics and general concepts of user interface design for every particular case. In this group, you’ll find stuff from basics like reading, writing, phonics, colors, alphabet, vocabulary training apps to specific narrow themes like nature and wildlife, geography and astronomy, languages, test preparation apps, school portals, and educational platforms.

Learn Chinese App

Nature Encyclopedia App

App for Moon Creative, an educational facility for children and teens studying design and animation.

Entertainment Apps

Who works well, has to rest well. Entertainment apps are usually aimed at adding fun to our life. These interactive applications are designed and developed to entertain users with audio, video, graphic, and other content. Here are TV and movie apps, ticketing apps, interfaces for art creation and fun clubs, etc.

Cinema App

Gallery App

Game Apps

One more group of apps which can serve both entertainment and education is games. Here you’ll get a variety of options, from highly useful intellectual or educational games to time-killers for waiting time. Game applications are perhaps the most diverse in visual styles and layout design.

Real Racing Mobile Game

Letter Bounce Game

Music Apps

For many users around the world, music is an integral part of life, so the domain of music apps offers a great variety of options to discover music, listen to it, record, or even compose music. These are not only music players and libraries, but also apps for music creation, education, watching videos and concerts, and even lyrics writing.

Business Apps

These mobile apps support people involved in business activities: they help to track and analyze data, provide functionality for collaboration, resource management, and planning. Here you’ll also find apps for hiring and job search, remote desktops, file sharing apps, and tools enhancing teamwork.

Finance Apps

The apps of this group are about money. They actually perform financial transactions and support the user about the company or personal financial stuff. So, here are financial management and budget apps, mobile banking applications, the ones about investment, insurance and stocks, taxes, and bill reminders.

Finance Management App

Finance App for collective finance management

Home Budget app for tracking and analysis of personal financial stuff

Bitex Stock Analysis App

Sports Apps

The apps of this category are related to sporting activities of all kinds such as professional, amateur, collegiate, or recreational ones. They may serve for teams, leagues and sporting events, feature info about athletes, track scores, provide instructions and sports news.

Personal Challenges App

Health and Fitness Apps

This type is aimed at the user’s healthy living. There can be apps that help to monitor health conditions, track and analyze this kind of data, lose or gain weight, manage stress, do fitness, have active rest, or relaxing recreation. Workout, running and cycling trackers, apps sharing programs for weight loss, pilates and yoga apps, pregnancy applications, and all this kind of useful helpers are found in this category.

Slumber App

Fitness Tracker App

Calorie Calculator App

Medical Apps

In comparison to the previous category, these apps are more professional in the aspect of healthcare and medical treatment. They are focused on medical education, management, and health reference for patients and doctors. So, here you’ll come across the apps informing about diseases and symptoms, helping to explore the anatomy and track health conditions deeper than the general health trackers, supporting medical records.

Magazines and Newspapers

The name says everything: this category usually features the apps that provide content we typically find in newspapers, magazines, or other periodicals. Usually, the content is automatically renewed and may cover a wide variety of topics. Also, these may be the apps providing the online version of print periodicals or the app may provide news and articles only online without any connection to a physically existing publication.

Blog App

News Apps

Very close to the previous category, these apps’ goal is to provide users with information about current events in diverse areas of interest from politics and entertainment to technology, business, science, and others. An app of this kind usually serves content in a newsreader or digest format, or it may be a digital-first media outlet with constant content updates. So, this category offers apps for TV and radio news, RSS readers, news programs, and outlets.

Photo and Video Apps

These apps help to create, manage, store, edit, and share photo and video content. Adding special effects, printing, creating custom greeting cards and social network posts, editing content with adding text, illustrations, masks, making collages, and so on – that’s what you find in this group.

Cuteen Photo Editor App

Productivity Apps

The apps here have an objective to organize specific processes and tasks to make them more efficient and save user’s time and effort. As well as utilities, they may be simple but very helpful on an everyday basis such as task managers and to-do lists, calendar and password managers, chart generators, apps for data viewing, emailing, note-taking, and cloud storage.

Task Manager App

Upper To-Do App

Task Tracker App

Cloud Storage App

Shopping (E-Commerce) Apps

More and more users are doing their shopping online, and a big proportion of them do it right from their smartphone or at least use an app as a way to get the data about the goods quickly and easily. Stats in this sphere are also impressive. According to Statista, In 2021, 72.9 percent of all retail e-commerce is expected to be generated via m-commerce, up from 58.9 percent in 2017. Emerging e-commerce markets in mobile-first economies are a large driver of this trend.

So, not surprisingly, the diversity of e-commerce applications is growing day by day with a variety of user interface design approaches and tricks. These apps support the full cycle of purchase or enhance the shopping experience at a physical point of sales, for example making a process of payment easier. Marketplaces, coupon apps, product review platforms are also found here.

Exotic Fruit Ecommerce App

Perfect Bouquet App

Vinyl Store App

Social Networking Apps

These mobile applications are all about communication. They connect people by means of different content such as text, photo, video, voice. These apps may be aimed at both personal and community connections. So, here you’ll see the apps for text and voice messaging, audio and video calls, photo and video sharing, blogs and communities, dating apps and social networks on special interests.

Dating App

Book Swap App, a social network for readers

Buon app, a social network for fans of cooking

Social networking application for photographers

Travel Apps

Everything devoted to traveling is found in this category: here are the apps that help users plan their journeys, book accommodation, find and buy tickets, and so on. These may be flight trackers, apps for hotel and car rentals, holiday planners and city guides, travel tips and rewards, clocks showing the time of different time zones, etc.

Travel Planner App

Lodging App

Museum App

Weather Apps

No need for long explanations: this type of apps informs users about weather conditions, from general forecasts to specific data about storms, tides, specific weather conditions in different locations, etc.

Weather App

Technical Perspective

In the aspect of technical realization, there are three global types of applications: native, hybrid, and web apps.

Native Apps

These applications are called that way because they are made exclusively for a particular mobile operating system so they are native for a device or platform such as iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Symbian. It means you can’t use this app on a different platform except for the one they are aimed for. The benefit of such apps is their high performance and high chances of positive user experience based on native device UI. They have access to different APIs and quickly reached from app stores. The pitfall is that if you want to reach your target audience from different platforms, you have to design and develop a native app for each so it may be rather expensive and time-consuming which in turn may increase the general product cost.

User interface designed for Android

User interface for Tasty Burger app designed for iOS

Hybrid App

These apps are built to be used across multiple platforms by means of web technologies such as HTML5, CSS, and Javascript. So, in basic terms, these are mostly web applications that look very close to native. They are quite fast in development which is a definite advantage: one code base is created for all platforms which makes the cost lower and updates easier. Basic APIs are also available for them, such as accelerometer or geolocation. However, compared to native apps, hybrid ones are worse in performance, speed, and general optimization. What’s more, there are some design requirements that can’t be accomplished for two or more platforms appropriately.

Web Apps

These are software applications that use a browser to run; they are mostly written in HTML5, CSS, and Javascript. Basically, they redirect a user to a URL, and “installation” is, in fact, creating a bookmark to the webpage. The biggest advantage is that in most cases they have minimal requirements as of the device memory and give users access from any device connected to the internet dut to saving personal databases on a server. As for the drawbacks, a bad internet connection leads to poor user experience and access to APIs is quite limited.

So, in any particular case, a client and a creative team make a decision on the type of the app based on budget, time, and numerous factors of target audience needs and behavior.

Useful Reading

If you want to learn more about the best practices of user experience and user interface design for mobile, here are handy articles on the topic.

How to Build a Strong Mobile App Brand

Mobile UI Design: 15 Basic Types of Screens

Mobile Design: 14 Stylish and User-Friendly App Design Concepts

7 Tips to Improve Mobile Interactions

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Mobile Application

Mobile Typography: 8 Practices For Powerful UI

UX Design: How to Use Animations in Mobile Apps

Copywriting for Mobile and Web Interfaces: Types of UI Copy

UI/UX Design Glossary. Interface Navigation

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic content by tubik

Сообщение Big Guide into Types of Mobile Applications появились сначала на Design4Users.

Calorie Calculator app

What Is Mobile App Branding?

As usual, let’s start with terminology. In one of our previous articles, we have already defined branding as a set of marketing and psychological techniques and steps to promote a product, service, persona, etc. setting a brand.

In its turn, a brand is an image created with a set of distinguishing features and promoting awareness and recognizability of the product or service on the market, it’s what people think and know about it.

So, mobile app branding is how users will perceive the app interacting with it: its visual image, its communication, and its reputation.

Slumber app

Questions to Consider

Building the brand for your app, first of all, you answer the questions traditional for building up any brand:

• Who is going to use your app and why are they going to use it?
• What is the USP of your app? What makes it unique compared to others?
• What is the look of your app? What is the main message it transfers with its visual symbols like logo, colors, illustrations, mascots, etc.?
• What feelings and emotions does your app wake in its users?
• What is the tone and voice of your app? Is it formal or informal? Does it communicate with a user as a friend, expert, mentor, or someone else?
• How will users get information about your app? What are the channels of communication between the app and the user?

The answers to these questions will allow for forming the general approach that influences all the sides of work on the app design, development, and promotion. Branding will have an impact on user experience logic and transition, colors and typography, graphics and animation, copy, and style. It will define which channels and methods of promotion will set the shortcuts from the app to a user. Therefore, to make mobile branding effective, you have to answer these questions before design and development start. In this case, all the effort will be put in one complex direction and the brand image will be integral and consistent.

For example, here’s the Cuteen app: here the mobile app brand is targeted at teenage girls which determined the solutions on naming, original graphics, and interaction patterns.

Mobile App Branding Strategies

After you’ve defined who is the target audience of the app, what problems it solves, and what message it sends to the world, it’s time to build a brand image step by step. Let’s check some strategies and features essential in this process. For sure, all of them should be based on user research and market exploration to find the original solutions.

Logo and App Icon

One of the core elements of branding is a logo which is a visual symbol representing the brand. There are different types of logos:

• Symbol: an image of a high symbolic potential associated with an app brand name, functionality, or area of usage
• Logotype (Wordmark): artistic lettering featuring the full name of the brand
• Lettermark: the first letter of the brand name presented in an artistic manner
• Combination mark: two techniques used simultaneously – symbol/lettermark and wordmark
• Emblem: it inscribes the wordmark or lettermark presenting the name of the brand into the symbolic image.

Logo animation and app icon for Uplyfe mobile application

Talking about mobile apps, the important thing to think about is the correlation of the logo with an app icon. An app icon is an interactive brand sign that presents the application on different platforms supporting the original identity. In most cases, it features the logo of the app designed according to the requirements for this kind of icon. As an app icon is placed on a very limited amount of space, big wordmark or complex emblem logos can’t be used effectively. So, app icons tend to feature symbols or lettermarks.

However, it also can apply something else, for example, a mascot or an abstract combination of corporate colors. Another approach may be used for the apps presenting well-known brands with already recognizable logos: in this case, designers will have to adapt the well-known logo image to the form of an app icon while inside the app they will use its full form, for example, on a splash screen. Here’s a splash screen for Toonie, featuring app mascot and a logo wordmark.

Keywords

One more good way to make the branding consistent is by making a set of keywords for it. They can be divided into several groups according to their role.

Descriptor keywords will identify and describe your brand, so all the participants of the creative process will understand what image the app has to get and what message it has to send. These keywords define the core features users should catch immediately from the looks and interactions. For example, in this set you may define the app as “funny, entertaining, bright”, or “helpful, simple, minimalist”, or “business, luxury, exclusive” and so on, and so forth.

Brand keywords present the set of words people will use to find your app. It’s not only the original name but also different variants of its extension as well as typos. For example, in the case of our Upper application, the list will include Upper, Upper App, Upper to-do app, Upper mobile app, Uper, UPPER, and so on. This list will be helpful for SEO issues and promotional campaigns if you plan any.

Brand-Plus keywords are the combinations of a brand name with qualifying words or phrases. For example, for our Toonie Alarm app, we have Toonie stickers, Toonie mascot, Toonie tutorial, Toonie special offer, Toonie for iOS, Toonie stickers for iMessenger, Toonie landing page, and the like. They form another collection helpful for both SEO and content creation.

Copy: Name, Slogan, Style

For sure, these points would better be agreed upon before the actual creative process of design and development. The thing is that naming in terms of strong competition is another big challenge and it has a huge impact on all the following solutions about design, marketing, and communication with users. Except for deciding on the name which you find reflecting the benefits of the brand and memorable, you will need to ensure about:

• availability of this name in AppStore and PlayMarket (if it’s not available, you’ll have to find the variants which may belong to your brand and brand-plus keywords or start from zero and find another name)
• a domain name for a website or landing page you will have for the app (in case, the app is an independent product rather than the supporter for an existing brand)
• presence of the app name on the Internet (there may be other non-app brands already using this name and hard to compete with).

Moreover, the name of the app will influence the general stylistic concept, choice of colors, ideas for a logo and mascots, design of app icons, and many other things. So, if you make a decision at the start, you will save many hours of redesign later. Still, this path is just a recommendation, not a cure-all: there are many good examples when apps are renamed right in the process of creation or even after the launch successfully, but in this case, you should be ready for additional working hours and some effort on remaking other assets.

One more point in this section is the slogan, a catchy brand tagline sending the message about core app benefits to the user. In branding for a mobile app, it may seem not crucial as sometimes there is no place within the app for much copy. However, try thinking beyond the app itself: you’ll definitely need a slogan for outer channels to promote the app. It may be used in social networks, promo videos, reviews, landing pages, emails, etc.

And another thing to think about is UX-writing and copywriting style for the app. Copy sets the tone and voice of communication and sets the type of relations with a user. So, it’s vital to reach an understanding of how the app will talk to the users and keep this style across all the channels within and out of the app. Some minor changes are acceptable for various channels but the general communication should feel consistent from one point to the other.

Graphics

Developing a strong app brand, it’s vital to give it the pinch of originality even if it sells something very basic and widely-spread. Custom graphics play the premier violin here. They will make the app unique attracting users’ attention. Don’t forget that aesthetic satisfaction is one of the strongest factors of desirability.

In this aspect, consider using the following graphic content:

• logo (described above)
• mascots (symbolic memorable characters communicating to a user on behalf of the app)
• custom illustrations (visual prompts on functions and processes, theme illustrations)
• branded interactive elements (loaders, splash screens, tutorials, etc.)
• photos (not only inside the app but also high-quality photos of the app for its promotion)

Loading animation with custom graphics for Event Planner app

Product Video

Video content is more and more popular today, in the era of YouTube and Snapchat. The branding for the mobile app is not an exception. A product or explainer video is a short animated presentation of app features and advantages, informs about special steps of interactions and shows its problem-solving potential. A creative and catchy video is a good way of attracting customers’ attention and the proven method of informing them quickly and brightly. A video activates several channels of perception — audio, visual, sound — simultaneously and usually does it in a way of telling a story. For example, here’s an explainer video we made for OffCents mobile app.

Personalization and Onboarding

User onboarding is the set of techniques and interactions whose objective is to comfort users and give the first concise introduction to the product. There may be textual prompts, tooltips, tutorials  – and all of them can carry the slight signs of branding in both copy and graphics. All these details shape the positive user experience and support brand loyalty with happy users.

Personalization is a users’ ability to customize some features and interactions according to the individual users’ needs. Among the examples, recently we shared a case study on Recipe App which enables users to set personal goals and exclude the unwanted types of food or ingredients to customize their list of recipes.

Another example is Upper App which enables users to choose among various skins to make the app looks correspond to their preferences.

Gamification

Gamification applies game mechanics into the non-game environment, in particular, mobile applications. Challenges, badges, leaderboards, bonuses are effective methods of user motivation. Applying graphics in brand stylistics, they support brand awareness and make the app interface easily recognized. Even more, such virtual or even real rewards encourage users to share their success with friends both online and offline – this way, they become another channel distributing information about the app and witnessing positive user experience.

Help and Support

No man can make a good coat with the bad cloth. Real branding is not only about attracting attention and making an incredible first impression. It’s about all the experience users will have. So, take care of how they will the support they need at any step of interaction, especially in the case of complex mobile products like social networks or e-commerce.

Landing Pages

Landing page is a tool of great importance for building the mobile app branding and online presence. It plays a crucial role if the case is mobile-only and the app doesn’t correlate with a website. In general, it is a web page designed with a focus on specific relatively narrow goal and a quick way of accomplishing a particular action. So, for a mobile app, the goal will be app installation and the landing page will concisely cover its benefits and functions. What’s more, you can create multiple landing pages for one app based on various segments of the target audience with geographic, gender, psychographic, demographic and behavioral targeting. It is an effective way to reach users and give them a quick presentation of the app which will tell them more than just screenshots on the AppStore. Here’s the example of a landing page designed for a dating mobile service.

Landing page for a dating app

Mobile banking app landing page

Landing page for Vertt, car sharing service app

Social Networks

One more channel supporting branding strategy for a mobile app is social networks. Promotional campaigns, reviews and public pages for the apps should not be seen only as a direct sales channel from which users will directly install the app. Social networks are first of all the big channels of brand awareness and brand recognizability so don’t neglect their influence.

Brand Ambassadors and Opinion Leaders

This strategy for mobile app branding is also based on socializing. There’s still no better advertising than the recommendation from people whom you trust. Social networks with their huge and diverse audience form the growing trend of marketing with opinion leaders (individuals or businesses that are able to influence public opinion in their area) and brand ambassadors (an influential person hired to present the brand and build its positive image and strong awareness). Choosing this direction, remember two things:

• opinion leaders mostly care about their audience and reputation so they won’t promote what they don’t like or don’t find good for their audience, even rejecting profitable offers
• opinion leaders and brand ambassadors will waste your money if the product is half-baked. You may get the big traffic from the campaign and attract many users but if they get something with numerous bugs or lorem ipsum here and there instead of real copy, it will have a bad influence on the brand image in general. Positive experience first. Presentation and promotion after it.

Tasty Burger app

So, it’s easy to see that making mobile app branding deals both with app UI/UX and outer channels of reaching users. Neglecting one of the directions you risk failing another. Greatly designed and developed app will die unknown if target users don’t get the information about it. Amazing and well-performed marketing campaigns will waste your money if the app is trash. Only together they will build up a strong app with a loyal audience.

Useful Reading

6 Creative Stages of Branding Design

Mobile App Design: Big Guide into Types of Mobile Applications

UX Design for E-Commerce: Principles and Strategies

Relations of Branding and UI Design

Business-Oriented Design. Explore the Target

Design for Business: User Friendly Way to Profits

Two Types of User Motivation: Design to Satisfy

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение How To Build a Strong Mobile App Brand появились сначала на Design4Users.

Project

The task was set to make a complete redesign of a live application Bitex oriented initially to the Chinese market. The application is an aggregator that collects data from world exchanges, processes it, builds the necessary charts and diagrams, and displays this information in a user-friendly and digestible way. The main goal of Bitex is to help the trader decide on investments.

The main shortcomings in the customer’s opinion were:

• non-compliance with iOS guides
• not successful design at the UX stage
• congestion with graphical elements and, as a consequence,
• high threshold for the user’s entry.

It looked like this:

The designer for the project was Sergey Kucherenko, and the experience obtained in the process was really an unforgettable challenge for all the team.

UX Design

Solid architecture is built on a well-done foundation. So, first of all, we decided to completely rework UX, starting from splitting data into logical blocks corresponding to the tabs and ending with the logic of plotting.

Already at this stage, we had to face the peculiarities of the visual perception of information by users from the countries of Asia. The fact is that many users from Asian countries believe that the more information is shown on the page, the better.

Some experts argue that this is due to the psychological characteristics of perception. Some say that these are cultural features that have remained since the low speed of Internet connection when users preferred to simply remember information, and later comprehend it.

Others explain it by the peculiarities of language and writing.

Check more on the issue of UX of Chinese websites in the articles here and here.

Whatever the reason, we constantly had to make compromises regarding the ratio of the number of images and text, as well as the density of text layout.

Also, an interesting feature was discovered in the subconscious perception of color coding. Here’s the simplest example: in Western resources about finance, the rise in the share price is indicated in green and the drop in red. Meanwhile, in Asian countries, everything is the opposite. Since investors planned to enter the Western market, we were forced to add a switch “color growth price” to solve this problem.

But the most interesting task at this stage was implementing a unique function that is a flexible filter that the user can fine-tune to achieve their goals. This filter consists of several simple characteristics and four characteristics that are specified by a range of values, whereby one characteristic can have any number of ranges that do not intersect with each other (from A to B, from C to D, etc.) Also, the range may not have a final point (from A to infinity). This issue was solved with the “Add Range” button and the “Maximum Value” formulations for the right slider of slider.

But the main feature of the filter was that the user has the ability to put a logical “AND” or a logical “OR” between all characteristics of the filter (these operations are also called conjunction and disjunction, which are used in Boolean algebra.) Boolean algebra is the basis of circuitry and system engineering: without it, cybernetics would not be possible. Boolean algebra operates with only two concepts: “True” and “False.” Basically, it works the following way: if there is “AND” between all the variables in the equation, a user will receive the result of “True” only if each variable is “True.” In this particular case, the user will receive a list of only those stocks that meet all the specified parameters.

Logical “OR” will result in “True” if at least one of the variables is “True.” In our case, the user will get a list of all the stocks that satisfy at least one specified parameter.

To summarize, if you filter the result only by “AND,” you see a very short list of results. If you sort by “OR”, the list of results will be long. In fact, both options can be useful, but the customer has set the task to implement on the basis of iOS the ability for the user to apply both of these logical functions for any parameters.

Mathematically, the solution had already been programmed by Dr. Khan (he came up with the idea of creating this application). To illustrate his idea, Dr. Khan used screenshots of his working prototype.

Our task was to implement the principle using standard iOS controls and patterns understandable to ordinary users of mobile applications.

The solution was to initially filter out all the characteristics of the “AND” (i.e., to narrow the search circle to the user as much as possible). And after that, it allows the user to choose to which parameter “OR” is applied if the original result did not satisfy the request.

UI Design

For the visual performance of the application, we received clear instructions from the client to use light shades of blue and create a clean and accurate appearance for the application. The design had to use the minimum possible number of additional colors and images.

Our team decided to present two opposite color themes (light and dark) to choose from. But the customer liked both equally, so the dark theme was designed to be used as a night mode. In total, we collected 120 screens (60 for each version).

The UI concept based on the light background

The UI concept based on dark background

Bright color accents allowed for building a strong visual hierarchy and attracted the user’s eye to the most important interactive elements on the screen. Also, the choice of fonts for the user interface was another object of thorough selection and analysis as the screens were loaded with different information and demanded a high level of readability.

After all the details and transitions were agreed upon and tested, the application was adapted for use on iPad and Android smartphones.

Useful Case Studies

If you are interested to see more practical case studies with creative flows for mobile UI design, here is the set of them from Tubik.

Case Study: Dashboard and Graphics for Service for Fashion Designers

Tasty Burger. UI Design for Food Ordering App

Slumber. Mobile UI Design for Healthy Sleeping

Pazi. UX and UI Design for Vehicle Safety Mobile App

CashMetrics. UX Design for Finance Management Service

Crezco. Brand Identity and UI/UX Design for Fintech Service

Otozen. Mobile App Design for Safe Driving

Perfect Recipes App. UX Design for Cooking and Shopping

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic content by tubik

Сообщение Case Study: Bitex. User Experience Design for Stock Analysis App появились сначала на Design4Users.

Digital technologies have come for a rescue. Nowadays, the cinema industry provides its customers with handy assistants – cinema apps. They are convenient helpers enabling people to find information about movies along with schedules and the seats available. Moreover, cinema apps are a tool that makes the process of booking and purchasing tickets much more comfortable than ever before. Today’s article describes UI screens and features that are common for cinema applications.

Profile screen

Nowadays every app aims at making the user experience more personalized and individual the reason why a profile is an essential part of any kind of application. As for cinema apps, profiles are tools which help users book and buy tickets within a few taps. What’s more, if a cinema contributes a loyalty program it’s easier to follow customers’ activities because everything is marked in the profile.

A profile should contain only necessary info otherwise the screen may look too complex. When a user creates their profile, a cinema app usually asks for the user’s name, email, location, and preferences in cinematography. Since ticket purchase is one of the major features, it may be good to add an option of credit card data. This way users will be able to make a convenient and fast purchase. In addition, by gathering and analyzing data about users’ tastes and location, an app can inform people about interesting movie premieres near them.

Home screen

Home screen is a base for any type of digital products that’s why it’s also known as the main page. It is a start point where users begin a journey within a product. The content of home screens varies depending on the type of app.

The main screen of cinema applications usually includes movie posters followed by captions with the name to show users what is on today. Films can be presented as a list or a feed so that users could quickly scan them and make their choice. The posters should be clickable and lead to the next screen with the schedule and movie info.

Also, the UI of a home page needs to provide the search field. People who have already chosen a film will be able to type a name and quickly find what they want. It may be a good idea to add some filters such as film genres to make the search process more pleasant.

Movie details screen

A poster and name can’t give a proper explanation of a movie plot. That’s why a cinema app needs to provide the movie details so that users would know what they choose.

UI design for a movie details screen is simple. It consists of a high-resolution poster, the name of a film, and a short text description. Mobile typography should be chosen properly so that the text would be legible and pleasant to users’ eyes.

In addition, some cinema apps show the rating of a movie. It can be IMDb ratings or assessments given by the users who already watched a film. This way people can see how popular a movie is and decide if they want to watch it.

One more additional feature is bookmarking. Users can fill their personal wish list or a list of favorites and go back to the selected movies later.

Player screen

It is known that video content is perceived better than copy that’s why it’s always a good idea to include movie trailers to the movie info.

The video player allows users to watch various trailers right in the app. A player can be a part of a movie details screen as well as an app can have a separate screen with the list of movie trailers. This feature is not a key for cinema apps still there are many of them which have already included it.

Schedule screen

A schedule is a vital part of the information which users receive from cinema apps. Designers should pay deep attention to its presentation as it needs to be compact and easy to find.

The schedule usually relates to one certain movie and shows the time when different film showings start. The time is often presented as a button so that users could tap or click it to continue their journey on booking or buying tickets.

Choosing seats

When the movie and the time are chosen, people need to see where they can sit. There are two types of UI for the seats choice screen – the list and visual representation of a cinema hall.

A list includes two main options to choose – a row and a number of a seat. The list is a light variant that doesn’t take much time to be created and the UI looks nice on various devices even with the small screens.

Today UI with the visual representation of a cinema hall gains more and more popularity. This type allows users to see exactly where the seats are located and make a proper choice. However, designers have to concentrate on the details while creating the visual representation of a cinema hall for UI. Seats should be big enough so that users could easily tap the right one from the first try. Moreover, it’s vital to make sure a visual cinema hall looks good on different screens.

Purchase screen

The opportunity to buy tickets earlier and choose the best seats is one of the biggest profits which users receive from cinema apps. Designers’ big task is to make the process of purchase comfortable and secure.

The checkout screen usually includes a form where a buyer fills in specific personal data such as a name and a number of the credit card. As we said above, if users of a cinema app have their personal profiles, personal information can be taken from there automatically.

In addition, it’s vital to make sure people feel that their personal data is secure. Marks of security can be presented via visual including callouts in a copy as well as some icons of the famous brands that gave their approval or maybe even some certificate signs if there are such.

Tickets

Tickets are the documents which confirm the payment and allow entering a cinema hall. Some apps send the digital tickets to the email so that users could download them on a smartphone or print them to show at the entrance. However, some cinema applications reduce the number of actions. When a user buys a ticket, it is automatically saved in their personal account and all they need to do is to activate an app right before going into the cinema hall.

Tickets can be presented via custom illustrations which adds originality to an app. Also, if a client wants something more minimalistic, tickets can be represented with simple QR codes.

Map screen

Only small towns have a single movie theatre in the area. There are several cinemas from one company around cities so the map feature seems important here. If users set their location while creating a personal profile, an app can automatically choose the nearest cinema.

Watching films at home can’t be compared with feelings of watching it on the big screen. It means that the cinema industry is unlikely to lose its popularity anytime soon. Digital technology should help to improve cinema services so that more people would become loyal visitors. Cinema apps are effective tools for both the cinema industry and its clients. Designers need to learn how to make these tools user-friendly and maybe even improve them with their creative solutions. Stay tuned!

Recommended reading

Mobile UI Design: 15 Basic Types of Screens

Mobile App Design: Big Guide into Types of Mobile Applications

UI for Movies. Collection of Cinema App Designs

Design for Sport: Creating User Interfaces for Fitness Apps

Music in the Hearts. UI Designs for Music Apps

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Mobile App Design: Elements of UI for Cinema Applications появились сначала на Design4Users.

Why Does Usability Matter?

Before we go to the essence of usability testing, let’s find out what usability means and why it is called a core part of effective UX. Nielsen Norman Group defines usability as a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The level of usability depends on five aspects: learnability, satisfaction, efficiency, memorability, and errors. Learnability stands for how easy users can attain tasks during the first usage and satisfaction is how pleasant the usage process is. Efficiency is determined by users’ ability to accomplish a task quickly while memorability depends on time which people need to re-establish their proficiency after a period of not using a product. And finally, designers track the number of errors users make and how easily they can learn from these mistakes.

When all these factors are considered, digital products provide a high level of usability which means people can easily and effectively use them. But why expert designers are so concerned about a single aspect of UX? Isn’t it more important what services and solutions apps and websites provide? Obviously, the features make a product valuable for people. However, if users can’t figure out how to use an application, it brings zero profit to them. Even the most beautiful interface can’t guarantee a success without a clean functionality system. That’s why one of the core stages of UX building is usability testing.

What’s Usability Testing?

Usability testing is a technique helping to evaluate a product by testing it on potential users. This way designers are able to see if a website or an app is usable enough as well as distinguish possible problems in UX. Usability testing is usually conducted at the UX building stage before a project goes to the development team. It allows changing inefficient solutions easier rather than in a complete product.

Moreover, usability testing is a good way to dive deeper into users’ needs and preferences by watching their reactions while they use a product. Designers can collect the essential information needed for the creation of an effective user-centered design. Also, the gathered information can be used not only for UX design but at the other stages of product development.

Types of Usability Testing Methods

To reach the high effectiveness of usability testing and gain the expected profit, designers apply various methods which can be categorized into three main groups: explorative, assessment, and comparative.

Explorative methods are used at the earliest stages of UX. Designers present wireframes of a product to users and watch their reactions. Explorative methods aim at discovering how people comprehend the concept of a product and how their mental processes work while they use a certain product.

Assessment methods are used in the later stages when a user can test the usability of goods via prototypes. Such methods help to evaluate the effectiveness of an app or a website as well as determine the level of users’ satisfaction with a product. Real-time experiments assist to track users’ reactions and errors they make. The collected information is used for eliminating usability problems that have been determined during tests.

Finally, comparative usability testing methods are involved when designers need to choose between several solutions. Users compare two or more variants of UX elements then share the opinion with a creative team. Experts consider all the pros and cons of each variant and select the most user-friendly one.

There is a great number of usability testing methods. All of them vary and can be used under different circumstances. The choice often depends on goals that a team sets and the budget of a project. We’ve distinguished some common methods of helping to test usability. Let’s see what they are.

Home Budget App

Hallway Testing

This method foresees testing a website or an app on random people, meaning designers can ask someone passing in a hallway or elsewhere. Hallway testing may seem a bit difficult because it requires finding people who would love to take part in such an experiment and then would be able to give constitutive feedback. The method is often used when the biggest part of work is done so that users could feel it like a complete product. Hallway Testing is one of the most common methods since it’s cheaper and faster than many others.

Remote Usability Testing

The name of the method speaks for itself. Such an approach allows involving people from different countries so that a creative team could see how their product is perceived in various cultures. There are two types of remote usability testing: synchronous or asynchronous.

Synchronous remote testing is handled via video conferencing as well as various sharing tools such as WebEx or GoToMeeting. The synchronic approach allows designers to watch how different people use a product in a real-time. Also, users can receive some support from a creator if needed. Still, synchronous remote testing has its drawbacks. Users should be asked to gather in a certain time and if they live in different time zone it may be problematic. That’s why a day and time should be arranged upfront and it may take some time to find the best option for everyone.

Asynchronous remote testing is a bit easier to handle. Designers usually set particular tasks that users need to accomplish and then all the information including clicks streams and users’ errors that occur while interacting with a product are gathered automatically. Also, designers may ask users to give small feedback about their experience. This way a creative team can track how people from different cultures react to the product using it in their own environment (e.g. at home).

Expert Reviews

This common method involves an evaluation from the experts with experience in usability testing. The approach gives the opportunity to receive wide and constituent feedback and spend less time for it. Experts usually apply testing tools but also they can test it like users. Also, there is another approach called automated expert reviews. It is conducted programs that define usability problems by the use of common patterns. Automated expert reviews are one of the fastest methods still it cannot test all the peculiarities connected with human factors.

Paper Prototype Testing

One of the essential stages of product creation is wireframing. It is a simplified and schematic visual representation of a layout for website pages or screens of an application interface. They are usually black and white illustrations, sometimes with bright marks or spots to outline specific areas or points, that give a clear vision of the project structure and connections between different parts.

The wireframes can be presented to users where they can perform certain tasks like in a real product by interacting with paper models. The method may seem unsophisticated still it’s a cheap and fast way to find out usability problems at the early stages.

Thinking Aloud

Thinking aloud is a usability testing method which aims at collecting feedback from users right in the usage process. Designers ask users to verbalize their thoughts and feelings which they have while using an app or website. A creative team can comprehend the attitude patterns of the potential users and apply the gathered info for future UX improvements.

Design4Users Website

Is Usability Testing Profitable?

We’ve described only several methods of usability testing but there are much more of them. Methods can be changed or combined depending on the goals. If you still doubt whether you need to conduct usability testing, let’s look at the list of tasks which it helps to accomplish and benefits it brings.

• Collecting the info helping to improve UX;
• Identifying problems and bugs which a creative team can’t notice;
• Ensuring user satisfaction with a product;
• Increased efficiency of products;
• Reduced cost of the development process;
• Fast problem elimination;
• A product with a high level of usability will definitely stand out of crowd.

They say better twice measured than once wrong. Just remember that it’s easier to fix problems at the early stages rather than rebuild a complete product.

Recommended reading

Usability Testing

Precious Errors: Testing iOS Mobile Applications.

Usability 101: Introduction to Usability 

The Brief Guide to Testing Mobile Interfaces

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Usability Testing in Design: Types and Benefits появились сначала на Design4Users.

Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose – it teaches you about life. (Billie Jean King)

Sports has become a part of our routine a long time ago. Even more, today a healthy lifestyle is a top trend that constantly grows its popularity across the world.

Fitness apps are the key helpers for people who strive to get fit. Their functionality gives a lot of opportunities and makes keeping fit easier. Understanding the significant impact of these applications on users’ everyday life, designers do their best to activate the problem-solving potential of fitness apps. Today’s article describes common screens and essential UI elements for fitness apps.

Sports App Interactions

Sign-in and Profile Screen

Fitness app is something like a pocket instructor telling you what to do and gives feedback on your achievements. To make it more comfortable and personalized, designers need to create an effective profile UI.

Before users obtain their profiles they usually go through the sign-in process. Fitness apps, as well as the other ones, can allow logging in via social networks still there are some aspects that users have to fill in to create a personalized profile. The applications usually require personal data including age, gender, weight, and height which helps to define users’ physical condition. Profile creation is often similar to filling in an application form. This way users can easily provide the needed information to make a profile more personalized.

The major objective of a fitness app is to help users in their self-improvement, the reason why profiles should contain not only the personal data but also the user’s achievements such as the number of burnt calories or personal records in sports. It’s important not to overload the profile screen with the unnecessary information otherwise user interface may look chaotic.

Home Screen

It’s a core element for any type of apps. Home screens serve as the main point where users start the journey within a product. Creating UI for home screen designers need to think of it as a center of navigation and make sure users will be able to operate it easily.

First of all, the home screen should provide access to the other parts of the app. Designers can choose various ways of the presentation from a sidebar with minimalistic icons to the clickable subheaders leading to the different sections of app content. The choice often depends on the number of features provided by the product as well as the platform which it is meant for.

Activity Screen

People who aim at getting fit always have to do various physical activities. Fitness apps provide users with the feature which helps to track how active they are during a day. To make a sufficient UI for activity screen, designers include different kinds of activities and sports. Traditionally, fitness apps provide tracking time spent on sports as well as measuring the distance which users cover during a day. The distance can be calculated in two ways: walking is measured by the number of steps and running is usually measured in miles (kilometers).

The information about users’ activity is often presented via diagrams of various forms. Such presentation contributes to the effective visual perception of the data which includes many numerals. Also, designers often apply custom icons representing each kind of activity. This way the screen looks clean and neat even if users have a really active life.

Fitness App

Heart Rate Screen

The heart is an engine which lets our body live and function, so it’s important to follow its condition daily. Many fitness apps can be connected to the various devices such as fitness wearables which allow measuring pulse. The applications usually transfer the data gathered with devices on a heart rate screen.

User interface representing the feature should be simple with the minimum of elements so that it could be easily operated. Since the process of pulse measuring takes some time it may be a good idea to supply the UI with sufficient animation which will show the loading process. For example, motion designers can animate an illustration of the heart showing it beats. Custom illustrations along with motion design can make UI look more proficient and make the process of the pulse measuring more interactive.

Sleep Tracking Screen

Nice sleep is a guarantee of the human health. Sportspeople know it better than anyone else and always try to control the time and quality of their sleep. Fitness apps show the gathered information during a night which includes the time and stages of sleep. There are four stages of sleep: the first and the second are called light sleep, the third is deep sleep and the fourth is rem sleep. The applications track these stages and in the morning users can see the statistics. The data on sleep is often shown as graphs.

Calories Screen

They say that fitness people are obsessed with calories. Well, there is truth in the words because if you want to get fit it’s vital to control what and how much you eat. As we said above, fitness applications show the information on the number of burnt calories based on the activity results. The calories data can be displayed on the activity screen as well as on the personal profile. However, it may be an effective solution to create a separate screen to provide users with the expanded information on the lost calories.

Sports App

Progress Screen

To stay motivated and continue self-improvement, it’s important to know that the hard work gives results. The progress screen shows the statistics about users achievements along with failures. Here the graphs will be the best choice. If people have the progress, they see that their results are getting better and the scales on the graphs go higher.

Schedule Screen

There can be many sports activities in different time and different places so the schedule seems to be essential in this situation. The screen of schedule is standardized, but to make it unique and original, designers can add some interesting icons representing various sports directions.

Goals Screen

Goals move us to achieve more and more, especially if we talk about fitness. People start doing sport because they have some goals like losing weight or shaping up. In fitness applications, users set maybe a bit less radical goals but easier to achieve on a regular basis. They often include walking a certain number of steps per day or week along with burning the fixed amount of calories.

The screen of goals can be presented as a sheet divided into categories: to do, doing, done. This way users will see how much they have managed to achieve and what they need to strive for. In addition, designers can settle the system of awards which will help users be even more motivated. We’ve already described awards as effective gamification tools which contribute increasing user engagement. You can find detailed info in our previous articles.

BeBright App

The sport requires persistence and fortitude and so does the creation of sufficient UI design. Learn the basics, add some inspiration and you can surprise yourself. Stay tuned!

Recommended Reading

If you want to learn more about common screens for various mobile apps, here is the list of helpful articles revealing tips on mobile UI design and its components.

Mobile UI Design: 15 Basic Types of Screens

Feel the Beat. UI Design for Music Streaming Services

Spectacular Design. Elements of Cinema App UI

Originally written for Tubik Blog
Check D4U collection of fitness app interfaces

Сообщение Design for Sport: Creating User Interfaces for Fitness Apps появились сначала на Design4Users.