How to Master Minimalistic yet Effective UI Designs for Apps?

An individual uses their phone for 3 hours and 15 minutes daily. Smartphones are becoming necessary, and mobile applications have become an integral part of your daily lives. 

But do you know that almost 99.5% of mobile applications fail and do not generate the expected revenue? 

This failure can be linked to a bad user experience, poor engagement,  lack of creativity, critical features, etc. However, these parameters can be improved by focusing on having effective UI designs. This would ensure a better service, which would further attract good traffic. 

If you plan to develop a good UI for your application, consider mastering the art of minimalism. Read the article below if you do not know much about minimalistic UI design. It will also share the ideal way to implement minimalistic UI designs.

What is Minimalistic UI Design?

Minimalism in UI design is a popular design approach. It involves removing excess elements of the app and arranging the remaining ones strategically. This makes the navigation inside the app easier. It also focuses on using space efficiently, correct color palettes, and emphasizing small objects in large spaces

Such measures result in a simple yet impactful design conveying a clear message. Thus, a minimalistic design approach improves the user experience. Moreover, it assists you in establishing brand quality while increasing usability.  

What are the Key elements of minimalistic UI Design?

A minimal design should prioritize what the users need from the application. Here are some of the elements of a minimalistic UI Design: 

1. More White Spaces

The white space is the empty area of your application. However, when used skillfully, this space can guide your users to crucial areas. They can help the user focus on one element at a time, further increasing the readability of your application. 

Ideally, these white spaces must be added between texts, images, etc., ensuring users do not get bored while reading. This would further add a feel of elegance and class to the application. 

2. Color palette 

A color palette is something that defines your brand. It develops a recognizable identity for your brand. Thus, you should carefully select the color palette because it will help your application become more engaging.

3. Application's Layout and Components

The layout and components form the foundation of your application. In fact, they impact your application's usability and overall user experience. Thus, the better organized these elements are, the less frustrating it will be for the user.  

4. Typography 

Choosing a font can also relate to your brand because it can be instantly identifiable by looking at the letters. Thus, your application must maintain good typography, which includes easy-to-read fonts and proper letter spacing. These factors further impact the readability and user-friendliness of your application.  

5. Feedback on User’s Action 

Your application should feature minimal or micro-animations on the user's actions, and as they complete any activity, they should receive feedback. This adds to developing an engaging user experience.

6. Texture and Flat Patterns

Flat patterns and textures enhance the design of your application while ensuring that they align with the overall tonality and feeling you are trying to convey to the audience. Flat patterns are usually more suitable for minimalistic design because they use fewer lines, shadows, and curves. You can also incorporate texture in between these flat patterns. You should avoid using 3D or glossy textures.

7. Simple Navigation 

A minimalistic design must have simple navigation to ensure that users can easily find what they want. Long and complicated navigation can discourage them from using the app. 

How to implement minimalistic UI Design? 

You can only get the right minimalistic UI design if you implement the steps properly. The steps are as follows: 

Step 1: Core Purpose and Target Audience 

The very first step should be identifying the core purpose of the application. You have to prioritize the main features based on different users’ needs from your application. Secondly, consider the target audience or for whom you are making this.

Step 2: Less is More

Minimalism is all about compellingly presenting fewer things. Thus, you must analyze each interface component and only include those crucial for the application. Also, remove any unneeded or distracting components.  

Step 3: Evaluate and Rework

Lastly, you must develop a prototype. This will allow you to evaluate the application's experience and collect its actual data. Such an evaluation of your work will help you find improvement areas and ensure your design is user-friendly.

What are the Challenges When Implementing Minimalistic UI Design?

Various ways of implementing minimalistic UI designs can be challenging. Some of them are listed as follows:

1. Simplification Leads to a Lack of Core Features

Minimalism in UI design does not refer to the removal of basic functionality. The designer becomes lost in oversimplification and creates a basic application with no critical functionalities. Additionally, excessive white space can simplify the application, but it hides the other core features. We can prioritize important functionalities and build the application to avoid this.

2. Avoiding Dullness and Boredom 

Most applications lack micro animations, which causes the client or user to become bored. Simpler color palettes and fonts can also cause boredom. To prevent this issue, the designer should include certain special user-friendly micro animations that allow the user to receive feedback on his/her actions.

3. Easy Access and Inclusiveness

Applications that are not created to the user's requirements frequently fail, while some fail due to their ignorance of the user experience. Many minimalistic applications do not consider the interests of users from various backgrounds. To overcome this issue, the designer should create a diverse application with features that take into account language variances, cultural backgrounds, and different screen mode choices.

What are the Relevant Tools for Minimalistic UI Design?

Several tools are accessible with the help of which a designer can produce a high-end prototype or wireframe. This can help the designer get the idea to develop an effective minimalistic UI design. Some of the relevant tools are listed below:

1. Adobe XD

Adobe has been on the market for about a decade and has earned an excellent record for quality and reliability. It streamlines the design process, enabling users to effortlessly create sleek and elegant interfaces. Some of its key features are:  

• With countless design tools available in Adobe XD, a designer has a lot of creative freedom. Some of the designing tools are mentioned below: 

1. Artboards and grids for creating Layouts
2. Draw unique Shapes or objects and utilize pre-made components.
3. work with various fonts, modify text styles, and align text components.

• One can also create micro animations between the different screens or sections by using Adobe XD’s animation tools.
• Working on the same projects with multiple designers at once is possible with cloud collaboration.   

2. Figma

Figma has a simple UI that allows users to carry out design projects effortlessly. It emerged as a popular design tool among highly competent professionals. Its key features are as follows:

• A diverse font style and paragraph arrangement. 
• Freedom to draw shapes according to the need.
• Easily implement micro-interactions for a more engaging and authentic user experience.    

3. Invision Studio

InVision provides designers with all the UI tools they need to create fully functional prototypes. This includes diverse elements and animations. It allows you to create great vector-based designs. Some of its famous features are: 

• Digital whiteboard for team collaboration on a certain project
• Easily use a library of design-specific plugins for more enhanced prototypes
• Studio optimizes efficiency and accessibility, assisting in creating prototypes or wireframes.

4. Axure

Axure is one of the leading tools in the market for creating minimalistic UI designs, as it has a user-engaging interface. Axure empowers UI designers with wireframing and prototyping tools. This allows an app to be prototyped and visually shown before any code is developed. Some of its features are: 

• A wide collection of widgets and pre-built components.
• Combining calculations and expressions to generate content.  
• Vibrant user input handling for complicated interactive prototypes.

5. Sketch 

Sketch is a popular tool among designers for its focus on simplicity and efficiency. This makes it ideal for crafting minimalistic UI designs. Moreover, its clean interface and powerful features streamline the design process. Some of its famous features include:

• Artboards and Layout Grids for better designs
• Typography control (control over font size, color, length, etc)
• A huge collection of plugins for data import, accessibility tests, and code development.

6. Framer X

Framer X provides plenty of UI design tools for creating working prototypes and testing for usability. It combines solid design capabilities with advanced interactivity and animation features. This makes it a versatile solution for generating interactive prototypes. Its features include:

• The Framer motion option provides unique advanced animation alternatives.
• Simplifies collaboration among designers via full design specifications and code production.
• Enables you to get deeper integration with codebases and the construction of highly personalized interfaces. 

Conclusion

Many mobile application users become annoyed because they cannot simply go to their interests and must deal with the application's complexity, and they uninstall the application, causing the application to fail to be profitable. A more straightforward and minimalist UI design improves user experience and interaction, allowing the application to grow and succeed. 

If you require help creating a modern, minimalistic mobile application, Cubet can help. Our mobile application development team offers services by understanding your business ecosystem and analyzing your market. This allows you to develop an adequate UI design for your application. Moreover, we have 200+ patrons who have had zero complaints with our IT solutions. So, take a step towards ensuring the user-friendliness of your application by contacting Cubet today!