App Screen Design: Guidelines, Measurements, and Best Practices
🎯 Design Guidelines
1. Design according to the platform
Designing according to the platform involves understanding and adhering to the specific design guidelines provided by the platform. This includes following platform-specific UI patterns, navigation conventions, iconography, and typography recommendations. By designing within the platform's guidelines, you ensure that your app screen feels native and familiar to users, providing a seamless experience.
Consideration can also be given to platform-specific features and capabilities. For example, iOS has features like 3D Touch and Force Touch, while Android has its own set of interaction patterns like long-pressing and swiping gestures. Leveraging these platform-specific features can enhance the user experience and make your app screen more engaging.
2. Simplicity design
Simplicity is key to creating an intuitive and user-friendly app screen. It involves minimizing complexity and streamlining the user flow. Here are some additional points to consider:
Use clear and concise language: Avoid technical jargon and use plain language that users can easily understand.
Prioritize important elements: Identify the core functionality or content of your app screen and ensure it is prominently displayed. Remove unnecessary elements that may distract or confuse users.
Reduce cognitive load: Break down complex tasks into smaller, manageable steps. Use progressive disclosure techniques to reveal information progressively, based on user interactions or needs.
Provide clear visual cues: Use visual hierarchy, color contrast, and appropriate iconography to guide users and highlight important elements or actions.
Use consistent and familiar UI patterns: Stick to established UI patterns and conventions to make it easier for users to navigate and interact with your app screen.
3. The visibility principle
Ensuring that all necessary options and materials for a given task are visible without overwhelming the user is essential for a good app screen design. Additional considerations include:
Organize content effectively: Group related elements together and use logical visual hierarchy to highlight important information.
Use appropriate white space: White space (or negative space) helps create visual breathing room and separates different UI elements. It improves readability and reduces clutter.
Employ progressive disclosure: Hide non-essential or secondary options initially, and reveal them when relevant or requested by the user. This prevents overwhelming the user with too many choices at once.
Use concise and descriptive labels: Clearly label buttons, icons, and other interactive elements to ensure users understand their purpose without confusion.
Minimize distractions: Avoid unnecessary or redundant information that may divert users' attention from their primary task. Focus on providing relevant and actionable content.
4. Content must readable to the user
Making content readable on small screens is crucial for mobile app screen design. Here are some additional considerations:
Use appropriate font sizes: Balance legibility with screen real estate by choosing font sizes that are easily readable without overwhelming the user interface. Consider different font sizes for headings, body text, and labels to establish visual hierarchy.
Ensure adequate contrast: Use contrasting colors between the text and background to enhance readability. Avoid low contrast combinations that may strain the user's eyes.
Optimize typography for different screen sizes: Test and adjust typography settings to ensure readability across a range of devices and screen resolutions.
Break text into digestible chunks: Long paragraphs can be challenging to read on mobile screens. Instead, break content into shorter paragraphs or use bullet points and headings to improve scanability.
Use appropriate line spacing: Adequate line spacing (leading) between lines of text improves legibility and prevents text from appearing cramped or crowded.
🎯 Important measurements of screen design
Colors
Font family and size measurements
Spacing measurements
🎯 Colors
Colors are a powerful tool in app screen design. Consider these additional points:
Use color psychology: Understand the emotional and psychological associations that different colors evoke. Choose colors that align with your app's branding, purpose, and target audience.
Ensure color accessibility: Consider users with visual impairments and ensure sufficient color contrast between text and background elements. This helps users with color blindness or low vision perceive and interact with the content effectively.
Test color combinations: Conduct usability tests to ensure that the chosen color palette doesn't cause any visual discomfort or confusion for users. Test different lighting conditions and device displays to ensure color consistency and legibility.
Important Colors
Background
Title Bar Color
Color Primary
Color Secondary
Accent Color
Text Color Primary
Text Color Secondary
🎯 Fonts
Fonts contribute to the overall aesthetics and readability of app screens. Here are some additional points to consider:
Font weights and styles: In addition to regular, bold, and italic styles, explore other variations within the chosen font family, such as light, medium, or semibold, to add visual interest and emphasize specific elements.
Consider cultural nuances: If your app is targeting a specific language or region, research font preferences and typographic conventions to ensure your font choice resonates well with the target audience.
Optimize font rendering: Test how fonts render on different devices and platforms to ensure consistent legibility and smooth rendering. Adjust font hinting or anti-aliasing settings if necessary to improve readability.
Important Sizes :Â
Title bar: The font size used for titles or headings in the app's title bar or header should be large enough to draw attention and convey hierarchy.
Heading H1: Primary headings should have a slightly smaller font size compared to the title but still maintain prominence.
Heading H2: Secondary headings can have a slightly smaller font size than H1 headings, distinguishing them as subheadings or section titles.
Body text: The font size for regular text content should be comfortable to read without straining the eyes. Consider the typical reading distance and adjust the font size accordingly.
Form text: Text within input fields or forms should have a slightly larger font size to ensure readability and ease of data entry.
Measurements
SP (Scale Independent Pixel): In Android, SP is a unit that scales with the user's preferred text size settings, making text adapt to different accessibility preferences. It ensures that text remains readable regardless of the user's chosen font size.
Point: In iOS, point sizes are defined as 1/72 of an inch and are used to specify font sizes. This measurement system ensures consistency in font rendering across different iOS devices.
🎯 Spacing
Effective spacing enhances the visual clarity and user experience of app screens. Consider these additional points:
Consistent spacing: Maintain consistent spacing between UI elements throughout the app screen to create visual harmony and balance.
Use padding and margins: Incorporate appropriate padding and margins around elements to provide breathing room and avoid overcrowding. This improves touch target sizes and reduces the risk of accidental taps.
Consider touch gestures: Account for touch gestures, such as swipe actions or pinch-to-zoom, when determining the spacing between elements. Ensure sufficient space for users to interact with the app comfortably.
Grid systems: Utilize grid systems to establish a consistent layout and spacing framework across different screen sizes and orientations. This helps maintain visual consistency and alignment.
Measurements:
DP (Density-independent Pixels): In Android, DP is a unit that scales with the screen's density, allowing elements to maintain consistent spacing regardless of the device's pixel density. It ensures a consistent visual experience across various Android devices.
Pixels: In iOS, pixels correspond to actual screen pixels and are used to define spacing measurements. Spacing in pixels helps achieve precise positioning of elements on the screen, considering the specific screen resolution and size.
