With millions of mobile devices, increasingly being capable of running demanding tasks, mobile apps are becoming more functional. And with so many functionalities, it becomes important to place access to every feature just a couple of taps away in the app's User Interface. Keeping this in mind, we app developers often refer to other similar apps or online sites showcasing several design templates for the said theme. While some of them stand out to the eye, most of the times they can be overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, looking for design inspirations in other places isn't wrong, but most of the times the designs we find are incomplete which hurts the very purpose of a good UI - to make the actions feel smooth and accessible to the user.
This is the issue with some of the designs that we find online. They are often incomplete and show just the arrangement of app's user interface elements that look good together to the viewer. While mostly neglecting the real constraints of the platform which can change the way how the design looks. Agreed that if tried almost all types of gestures or designs can be implemented on all platforms even if it requires a little too much expertise, but then it won't fit the platform's design guidelines. Moreover, if I am even successfully able to implement the design, what about other screens? Either I'll have to look up again for templates or see some other implementation in it, but doing so well make my app's user experience inconsistent.
What's wrong?
Say that I want to make a cool looking yet minimal music player which no one has seen before, but being a developer by profession and not a UI designer, I am bound to look online for some design inspirations. While doing this, I came across a good looking UI mock-up of the music player, which shows a classical record-like looking album art with a nice arrangement of other icons and controls, all perfectly placed and curated. I finalized the design and started working on the it, and then all of a sudden, I am blank! Why do you ask? Well that's because the design that I found online was not of music player instead was just of the "Currently playing" screen, but what about the previous screens? For example, when the user opens the app for the first time and needs to select music to play, what will that app's user interface look like? This is the issue with some of the designs that we find online. They are often incomplete and show just the arrangement of app's user interface elements that look good together to the viewer. While mostly neglecting the real constraints of the platform which can change the way how the design looks. Agreed that if tried almost all types of gestures or designs can be implemented on all platforms even if it requires a little too much expertise, but then it won't fit the platform's design guidelines. Moreover, if I am even successfully able to implement the design, what about other screens? Either I'll have to look up again for templates or see some other implementation in it, but doing so well make my app's user experience inconsistent.
