UI/UX Design Tips for Swift and Objective-C Apps

Developers are usually more focused on creating elegant code than an elegant design. While app functionality is critical, understanding the basic elements of user experience (UX) design allows them to create apps that are more useful and eye-catching to users. Integrating these principles into app development will help Swift and Objective-C developers create more engaging, user-friendly apps. 

Understand Who’s Using the App

The better developers understand their users, the better their apps will be.

Users of a highly technical app have different needs and expectations than users of a casual game app. Designers often use a formal process to collect information about users’ characteristics, needs, and behaviors through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observation. This research provides insight into factors like:

• Who the users are
• What they need
• What they value
• How they use your product
• Where they might encounter problems

Once developers clearly understand who will use their app, they can create user personas to represent the different user types that might use their product.

A persona typically includes:

• Demographic information
• Behaviors
• Needs
• Goals
• Pain points

Designing and developing with these personas in mind helps to focus decisions around user needs and experiences rather than personal preference or bias. This is particularly important when developers create apps for an audience that is significantly different from them. 

A user map will also help developers better understand their audience. A user journey map demonstrates how a person interacts with the app over time. It can help developers spot friction points in the user’s interaction to smooth them out for a better experience. 

Make Easy Navigation a Priority

If users can’t quickly figure out how to navigate an app, they’ll abandon it entirely. Few people are motivated enough to slog through several layers of an app to get where they need to go. To simplify navigation, limit the number of menu items and categorize content in a way that makes sense even for new users. 

Hiding navigation elements can make the design look cleaner, but it can also make it harder for users to navigate. Ensure the primary navigation is visible and accessible from every page of the app. 

Take Advantage of Native Components

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel for every app. Apple’s native components adhere to the operating system’s design language, such as Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines for iOS.

This consistency provides users with a familiar interface, making your app intuitive. Because these components are optimized for iOS, they tend to load and respond faster than custom-made or third-party components, improving app performance and providing a smoother user experience.

Native components also include built-in accessibility features, such as voiceover support, making apps more accessible to users with disabilities. When the operating system is updated, native components receive updates and improvements as well. With minimal effort from developers, leveraging native components in apps will improve functionality and design. 

Ask for Feedback 

The best people to point out problems or opportunities with an app are the people who use it. Whether developers want to improve an app’s performance or implement new features, listening to users is the most effective method. There are several ways developers can collect feedback from users, including: 

• Surveys and Questionnaires: These are great for gathering quantitative and qualitative feedback. They can be distributed through email, embedded in the app, or shared on social media.
• User Interviews: These allow for detailed discussions about what users like, dislike, and wish to see improved.
• Feedback Widgets: When embedded directly into an app, these make it easy for users to report issues or suggest improvements without leaving the app.
• Social Media and Forum Monitoring: This can provide unsolicited feedback that is honest and immediate.

Make It Interactive

Feedback informs users about the result of their interactions, ensuring that they understand the app’s responses to their input. The following types of interactive feedback make an app feel more natural and intuitive: 

• Visual Feedback: This is one of the most immediate ways to communicate with users. Visual cues, such as highlighting a button when pressed or showing a progress indicator during a loading process, inform users that the system has received their request and is working on it.
• Auditory Feedback: Sound notifications can complement visual feedback or serve as standalone indicators for events, especially in scenarios where visual attention might be divided. A distinctive sound for a new message can alert users even if they aren’t actively looking at the screen.
• Haptic Feedback: Haptic — or tactile — feedback involves creating a physical response to user interactions, such as vibrations when a button is pressed. It’s particularly effective in mobile devices, where touch is a primary mode of interaction, and users often have their phones in their hands. 
• Verbal or Text Feedback: Providing messages or prompts to users can help with error handling or guiding them through more complex interactions. A validation message when a user enters incorrect information in a form field helps them understand how to correct their mistake.

Optimize Performance and Security

UX goes beyond design to include how an app performs and if users feel safe trusting it with their data. Developers should ensure their app loads quickly, transitions smoothly between screens, and manages resources efficiently. Profiling an app using Instruments in Xcode can help identify and fix performance bottlenecks, memory leaks, and other issues that can negatively impact user experience.

Best practices such as asynchronous loading, simplifying layouts, and efficient data fetching techniques can also improve app performance. 

In addition to responsiveness, secure apps create a better user experience by reassuring users that their data will be protected. Implementing multi-factor authorization (MFA), app transport security (ATS), Keychain services, and code signing will harden the app and protect user data. PreEmptive offers a complete line of hardening solutions for all mobile, desktop, cloud, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Reach out today for a free trial.