MicroStrategy points out that many apps
do not achieve their intended aims, often due to poor readability. The
company offers some useful advice on app design.
“We’ve noticed that very often app designers end up with a design that spoils the readability of their application,”
Andrea Schiller, Associate Product Manager at
MicroStrategy
told L’Atelier, explaining: “so we wanted to get back to the basic
features of an application.” In fact, users experience more reading and
understanding difficulties with apps – whether developed by startups or
major firms – than one might imagine. During a session entitled ‘
Apply brilliant yet simple design rules that makes your app magical’, during the
MicroStrategy World 2013 event,
held on 8-11 July in Barcelona, Andrea Schiller set out some basic
rules for designing an app so that it is likely to be crowned with
success.
Simplicity too often neglected
Mobile app users nowadays have higher expectations of the app’s
design. In order to respond to their new demands, MicroStrategy first
and foremost recommends drawing up an application strategy. Designers
need to take into account some basic aspects: what sort of application
is it (leisure or utility), what kind of device will it run on and
lastly, what kind of user is the app intended for. Designers should not
dismiss the relevance of the hardware their apps are going to run on, as
many studies have shown that users of different devices – tablets,
smartphones, etc – do not use them in the same way. An app designed for
leisure activities ought first and foremost to be immersive and should
have advanced browser capability, whereas a utility app should take the
user straight to the point and provide the information in the simplest
possible way. Last but not least, the designer should bear in mind
different user preferences and approaches. There is a whole range of
ways of using apps – just glancing at it, analysing the information,
sharing and collaboration, not forgetting the kind of app that is
designed to work on a wifi network with little or no access to the
Internet. All these factors must be taken into account from the very
start of the project.
Design tips
Simplicity also remains the watchword when it comes to visual
display. Andrea Schiller recommends using a simple font such as Ariel or
Helvetica, and in addition advises designers to stay within a certain
size range to avoid detracting from readability. They should of course
not forget that in the western world people read a display from left to
right and from top to bottom. The information presented should therefore
follow the same approach, with the most important facts coming at the
top. Designers should nevertheless bear in mind that some languages are
written from right to left, i.e. backwards from a western viewpoint.
Finally, stressed Andrea Schiller, the choice of colour scheme should be
both simple and in harmony with the written text. The colour tones
should not be too intrusive, with neither too much nor too little
contrast as such excesses can make it almost impossible for the user to
read and understand the information displayed by the app.
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