UX/UI design plays an essential role in the app’s functionality as it is the backbone of its overall functional and aesthetic presentation. UX/UI can bolster customer attraction and loyalty to the brand’s app due to the effective user experience, consistent usability, and compelling visual design. Hence, in our article, we discuss the essence and importance of the UX/UI design, the specificity of the app design concept, defining the design best practices, underlining a finishing touch of Agilie’s platform design cases. 

UX/UI Design: Essence and Why It Matters?

Let’s ponder over the popular word of UX/UI design and clarify what does it mean, what is its purpose, and key elements. 

UX Design

UX (user experience) is an entire process of designing the product from its practical building to direct integration, which includes branding, functionality, and usability. The purpose of UX is to provide the client with an intuitive and app-relevant experience. 

UX Core Principles:

UX design promotes the following principles that align with its aforementioned purpose: 

• Predictability. 

• Consistency. 

• Emphasis on the Number of Choices. 

• Progressive Disclosure.

• Focus on Easy Learning. 

Predictability

The principle of predictability implies a clearly defined outcome after the user’s interaction with the app’s elements. For instance, while using the banking app, the user can decide to check their financial activities per month. When touching the “History” button, they know they will see all the financial operations that they performed within the month (including the automatic payment for insurance, etc.). Summing up, predictability implies that when touching a specific button, the user knows the outcome, which simplifies the app’s overall usability. 

Consistency

The principle of consistency represents that the user’s interaction with the interface should remain similar throughout the whole application to prevent user confusion and improve the app’s usability. Consistency aims to displace similar visual elements and maintain similarity in functions. If, for instance, an e-commerce application applies the visual element of automated transitions, like the carousel, it has to maintain this transition via all the app-presented products to minimize cognitive load and make it clear in functionality. 

Emphasis on the Number of Choices

This UX design principle implies personalization in options by applying the use of filters to minimize their scope. Optimizing the choice number matters for the UX design as the saturation with choices can confuse the client, leading to the absence of a decision. The balanced number of choices can simplify the app’s usability and economize time while the user will make a specific choice per their app-relevant request. 

Progressive Disclosure 

The identified principle indicates the optimization of information. The effective UX design has to ensure that the app provides the client with user-centered design by prioritizing the essential information, de-emphasizing or avoiding the data not relevant to their request. 

Focus on Learning

The consistency in layout plays a central role in the UX design’s principle of easy learning. The interface functionality has to be easy for perception to make the content memorization as easy as possible, for the client to know how to interact with the application. 

Learning Moment: Explore the reasons why minimalism is winning attention in mobile apps.

UI Design

UI Design (user interaction) focuses mainly on the application’s aesthetics and visual representation. Its purpose represents visual communication the application provides the user with. The elements like buttons, cons, typography, color palette, and layout designate the tools UI presents to stimulate user impression about the app. UI matters because inconsistency with visual/voice aesthetics can motivate the user to prefer another platform. 

UI Principles

Now let’s discuss the key principles of UI design to better understand its practical essence in the application:

• Consistency.

• Familiarity.

• Feedback.

Consistency

This principle implies that the app has to be consistent in both functionality and visual aesthetics. The application should maintain the selected color palette containing buttons and icons interlinked via the app to create a sense of holism. This will reduce the cognitive load on the user and stimulate the platform’s liveability. 

Familiarity

This principle encourages the developers to apply the same visual elements like icons and colors the client is familiar with. The rapid transition to quite another style with no notification might discourage them from using the platform. 

Feedback

Feedback is a must for effective UI design. This principle implies that the app has to inform the client of their input. This might be changed in a button color or a sound to inform the client of the effective completion of the operation or if the error occurs. 

A Design Concept for an App

Prior to developing the overall application, the development team can build its design concept. The design concept represents the overall vision or idea that will determine and represent the application’s further visual aesthetics, client interaction, and user experience. Additionally, the presented concept serves a visualization of the app’s look, operational specificity, and the focus on its primary purpose and target audience. 

The purposes of the design concept for apps are:

• Clarity of Vision.

• Profound User Experience.

• Enhanced Development Efficiency.

Clarity of Vision

The presented purpose implies that the development team develops the design concept to have a blueprint on what the app will look like, interact, and what intuitive feelings it will invoke among the clients. Additionally, clarity of vision implies whether the design concept aligns with the original product goals. 

Profound User Experience

The design concept enables the developmental team to plan the overall inter-app interactions, layout, and navigation in order to understand and reinforce further client engagement. 

Enhanced Development Efficiency

The development team integrates the design principles when developing the design concept for the app. This approach helps developers understand the exact scope of work and features they have to integrate and to minimize rework. 

UX/UI Design Trends in 2024

The discussion about user experience and user interface principles and design concept purpose can shed light on the understanding of the contemporary trends in UX/UI design. Alignment with mainstream UX/UI development initiatives can help businesses diversify their application, stay ahead on the market, and intensify clients’ retention. 

Let’s discuss the following top 5 UX/UI design trends: 

1. Micro-Interactions

The trend of micro-interactions aims to improve user experience by sprinkling applications with the interactive “motion” vibe. The micro-interaction elements, like slight icon movements, animations, etc., reinforce customer engagement due to the intensification of the overall interest and satisfaction with the app’s interface interaction. Finally, this trend gains popularity as the “static” UI discourages clients’ interest in using the platform, regardless of the tech correctness of its operations. Developed by Google, Material Design maintains consistency of the icons’ flow, showing the logical transition design practice. 

2. Dark Mode 

The dark mode is mainstream in contemporary UX/UI design. The reason for the dev teams’ adherence to this trend is the combination of aesthetic appeal and effective user interaction. The advantage of dark mode is time preservation. Black or dark hues do not reflect the light, unlike white and off-white-colored layouts, making the application effective in motion and during sunny weather. Additionally, the identified color palette reflects the minimalist design approach to handling inter-app operations, as the application does not saturate the user with design elements by preserving the “classy” layout, emphasizing elegance in interface interaction. 

3. Motion Effects 

Although motion effects are not new to the market, they still capture users’ attention, considering the emotional response they evoke. The motion elements like sections/text transitions and animations can stimulate the client’s guidance and focus and intensify the aesthetics of the overall visual flow. Watching animations or sliding sections stimulates the user’s focus, making them pay attention to the feelings during the motion and its appropriateness and intensifying the content of the section. The transitions improve the overall flow due to refraining from statics, making the overall navigating experience pleasing and engaging. 

4. Hand-Drawn Illustrations

Visualization is at its peak among contemporary digital design patterns. Hand-written illustrations for web design, like flat design, 3D models, animations, etc., can improve visual storytelling that will align with the application’s goal in conveying its core message. The identified trend keeps the users engaged and stimulates their attention to the details of the drawn images, which affects their mood and enhances app brand recognition. 

5. Bolder Visual Choices

One of the key subpoints of the bolder visual choices worth mentioning is the gradient layout of the application. Experimenting with the integration of bright colors can stimulate the user's imagination, making the platform feel different as compared to the minimalist dark mode. Gradients in layout emphasize creativity and immerse in tech efficiency and intuitive navigation. 

Feel intrigued by the versatility of UX/UI design trends? Just read our article to stay ahead of the curve. 

Agilie’s Touch on UX/UI Trends and Design Concepts

Usually, we tend to take the applications for granted as by uploading it, we have the full package of the required tech functions that enable us perform the necessary actions. But little we pay attention to the companies that develop those inter-app operations and make them attractive to the users. 

Let’s discuss Agilie’s emphasis on UX/UI design.

With 14+ years of experience, Agilie has recommended itself as a reliable provider of the result-driven and technically-sophisticated solutions for multiple domains like fintech, real estate, healthcare, e-commerce, etc. 

When talking about UX/UI design, Agilie keeps up with the latest trends and design standards to ensure the application’s intuitive navigation and sprinkles it with a sense of modernism aesthetics to ensure users have the best intuitive experience. 

Learn more about Agilie UI/UX Design Services. 

Agilie Design Concepts and UX/UI Trends

Now it’s time to shed light on Agilie’s aesthetic touch on crafting the applications’ UX/UI design.

1. Dark Mode for the Neobanking App

The overall fintech market is evolving, so are we! Agilie crafts a brand-new application concept design in a dark mode so that the users have a sophisticated opportunity to check their crypto and fiat assets. Sprinkled with the motion effects of transition, this design concept integrates a built-in interaction, enabling the clients to perform an immediate exchange to the cryptocurrency cards. 

Source: Agilie Team. (n.d.). Neobanking Mobile App Interactions. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/24895173-Neobanking-App-Interactions.

2. Hand-drawn Illustrations for the Onboarding Food Delivery App

Although the contemporary market shows a vast pool of UX/UI design app concepts for consumers, little is done to bolster the activity of service workers. Agilie fills this gap by crafting an onboarding food delivery app concept for the employees in this working environment.

Emphasis on hand-drawn illustrations simplifies the flow of information by minimizing the psycho-emotional load among the new employees. By refraining from the “static” flow of information, the onboarding food delivery app concept ensures progressive disclosure, as it emphasizes only essential information where the animated images accelerate the employees’ learning of the application’s functions and information it presents. 

Source: Agilie Team. (n.d.). Onboarding Food Delivery App. Dribble. https://dribbble.com/shots/21546484-Onboarding-Food-Delivery-App.

Conclusion

UX/UI design matters for the overall product disposition on the market as the effectiveness of user experience and interface-embedded elements will define whether the clients to use it or not. The basic message of the UX/UI design is to provide the client with intuitive interaction while fulfilling their needs through a seamless experience. The alignment with trends will help businesses improve clients’ attraction and maintain their loyalty to the applications by stimulating the overall preference in app selection.

Wanna give your app a vibrant vibe? Contact us to craft a unique design concept to your app.