Simplicity of Great Apps

The SIMPLICITY OF GREAT APPS In their first year of design, 2/3 of apps receive fewer than 1,000 downloads. One of the biggest mistakes app developers commonly make when building a new app is overdesign. Although many app developers try to cram as many features into their apps as possible to connect with users and differentiate, the most successful apps on the market are those which have moved towards a simple, minimalist, and flat design. THE FACTS AND FIGURES BEHIND THE MOST POPULAR APPS 2013 2010 5,000,000,000 21,000,000,000 Predictions suggest that 21 billion apps will be downloaded in 2013 5 billion apps were downloaded in 2010 Imonth By 2015, mobile apps will outnumber PC projects 4 to 1 The average smartphone user spends 667 minutes a month using apps 60,000,000 Social networking is the most popular category with 60 million users 40,000,000 40 million people use map apps Android and iPhone users have an 80%* average of 15 apps Blackberry users have an average of 8 apps Over 80% of apps developed in 2012 have integrated social networking capabilities THE MINIMALIST APPROACH TO APPS $25,000,000,000 The apps industry will be worth $25 billion this year 6 ? ? ? ? Weather Mail Photos 60% of apps this year will be designed by Apple, who are touted to have the simplest of user interfaces in their apps The biggest trend in app design currently is the return of flat, simple, and typographical designs Zune Scalability Some say this started with Microsoft's launch of the Zune in 2007 Zune One of the most important reasons for this type of design is scalability 2007 HOW THE MINIMALIST APPROACH IS BEING ADOPTED The use of grids in design in Working with a broader color palette to avoid a purely functional looking interface order to establish visual order through alignment and spacing Pick up dry cleaning Buy milk Typography is key - sans serif is favored for its cleaner look, and fonts of different sizes Go to gym Interactive elements are indicated with contrast or Get a haircut careful placement and densities are paired to establish visual order Check emails Call mom Sharp contrast, tinting, or borders are used to visually separate levels of interaction The interface needs to feel intuitive THE MOST SUCCESSFUL YET SIMPLE APPS ON THE MARKET One of 2012's most Clear launched at a heavily-anticipated apps was simply a to-do-list application price of only $0.99 at the Apple Store The app has no buttons, making it remarkably simple and its navigation unlike conventional apps Clear, however, represented a giant leap forward in app design because of its use of swiping, pinching and dragging CLEAR The app also makes you simplify by reducing your items to 30 characters Pick up dry cleaning at Charlie's. A weather app designed for Solar launched at iPhone and launched in 2012 the price of $0.99 Solar displays the location, time, date, and temperature. The design has elements inspired by Clear 73° Items are displayed on a colored gradient background which represents the weather conditions As appropriate, there may be animations to demonstrate certain weather conditions SOLAR The app is incredibly simple, using mostly the color gradient to depict what the weather is like Launched by Wavelength Media in 2013 The app supports US Dollars, Pounds and Euros Rather than using your calculator, this app helps work out how much you should tip You can set your options to generous, fair or stingy. You enter details such as your satisfaction with your waiter, the number of diners (up to 5) and the bill total WHAT SHOULD I TIP? $75 $14 The app will tell you how much each diner has to pay, including tip OVERLOADING APPS CAN LEAD TO PROBLEMS GPS MOTIONX BUMP Motionx GPS D:59 Developed by Fullpower Technologies Inc., this GPS app Launched in 2009, the app made it really simple for users to share information simply by bumping phones together art Save suffers from overblown visuals 6.9 The design is meant to look different, but the elements are too complicated and overwhelming Quickly, it racked up 75 million downloads 20.5 Because the design elements go against convention, the app is not intuitive for the user Bump 2.0 came with a new "springboard" type homepage displaying six different options for users which resulted in confusion by overcomplicating the user interface The overdesign was quickly rectified with the release of Bump 3.0, which stripped away many of the formerly integral features Conclusion When designing apps, it might be easy to want to include as many features as possible as a way to connect with more users. However, successful app developers have found that too many features tend to confuse and annoy users. In order to build a truly successful app that people will want to download and use, developers need to embrace trends in clean, simple, and minimalist design. SOURCES Nationmultimedia.com | smashingmagazine.com | abduzeedo.com | techcrunch.com | imore.com | makeuseof.com | appadvice.com itunes.apple.com blog.shoutem.com | clicksoftware.com I mobile.smashingmagazine.com | betanews.com | news.cnet.com | mashable.com | venturebeat.com APP DATA ROOM