When creating your mobile application you have to keep in mind that several things have to be thought. There are some basics that you need to consider if you want to keep your mobile application fresh and useful for the most of the users.

Also, you have to consider that several rules like the ones in the Apple App store can make your app not pass, so you should pay attention to the details and make your design perfect.

1. KISS Keep It Simple St***p

Yes that’s the main rule, keep your app simple. If something can be done in one tap, don’t make your users do three taps. Keep everything as simple as possible and that will benefit your users.

Complex interfaces are proven to confuse users and to lead to more uninstall. The simpler you do your app, the better it will be.

And remember, perfection is not when you can’t add more stuff, but when you can’t remove more.

2. Use familiar UI controls

I know it sounds thrilling to create your own custom UI elements. But my suggestion is always to go for the ones that users already know. That will help to easily navigate throught your app instead of needing to figure out what each control or button does.

Again, keep it simple and clear. You will see in number 4.

3. Design for the tiny

Nowadays, phone screens are getting bigger and bigger. But still at the date of writing I consider most of the devices out there to have a tiny screen. So design with that in mind.

• Create interfaces that follow the human interface guidelines (in the case of Apple)
• Don’t add small button or really close to each other
• Make the elements in the screen big enough. If your dad can see it without glasses, that’s perfect!
• If possible, ask your developers to make the design adaptable to the font size settings that the user might have in the mobile device.

4. First clarity, then design

Don’t let yourself go crazy with design. First you need to consider Clarity. If an application is not clear to use it will frustrate your users.

I’ve seen cases like the image that goes with this text where designers go crazy with designs that are completely unusable, they leave the users in a deep space where they have no idea on what to do. You shouldn’t do that. EVER.

5. Get to know your audience first

Is not the same designing for children, than for adults. The same applies for women or men or for different religions. Creating an app thinking about how you would use the app, but later being used by children will lead to a bad user experience for them.

Get some people like the audience you are targetting for and run some prototypes of your designs with them, then adapt.