When developing a web application, you can use visuals to help build out the details. Wireframes, which are basically rough sketches, can help you see what your app’s user interface will look like. With the help of visuals, your teams will be able to work together better on the development of their app and make mock-ups to show to use focus groups, senior management, and other stakeholders.
To be able to plan your app visually, there are a few things you will need to consider. In this article, we will show you how to plan your app visually the way a full-service web app development agency does.
Table of Contents
Determine the app’s goals and purposes.
For your team to be able to design and build the app, they need to know what its specific goals and objectives are. This information establishes the app’s scope and allows for further project planning.
Most goals and objectives mention functionality, even if the exact features haven’t been decided yet.
The mission and vision of your organization for the app serve as a starting point. You can then begin prototyping and developing the next phase of your planning.
- Role of the app: Is there a central problem or difficulty that the app seeks to address?
- Know your competition: How are users currently resolving the issue that your app addresses?
- Design process factors: What are your design and planning process priorities?
You can use research on your audience, user preferences, and other important information when planning an app. You can sketch essential features and design elements based on what your users require. Use demographic data, qualitative surveys, and any other anecdotal or quantitative data to figure out what your app will do.
Find out more about your potential users to find out who they are, what they want, and how they will use your application.
- User demographics: What characteristics do your users possess? Where do they work and reside? What is their work description?
- User personas: You can create descriptions and analyses of typical user groups based on your research. These can be used as a guide for user-centered project planning.
Plan the app’s UI/UX.
By mapping customer journeys in your application’s user interface, you can find potential pros and cons of the design and figure out what users would like. Developers can see at a glance how their code fits into the whole project. This keeps them from forgetting what specific needs their code must meet.
How will the flow of the process work?
As the number of steps in a process flow goes up, a project can get more complicated without a good visual overview. Streamline your process flow so that the only steps involved are very specific and represent the core features you need as you develop it. Thereafter, it is always possible to add additional functionality.
What is the ideal user experience?
While planning your user journey, consider what your users want to achieve, how they want to achieve it, and when. Consider what you want users to accomplish during each phase of app usage.
- How will users register for accounts and access their accounts? How will users sign in? Are users required to register elsewhere, such as via a website or with the assistance of an IT administrator providing individual account access?
- App use: What is the user experience for new and returning users, users, businesses, and power users? Exist offline and online modes?
- App integrations: With what can the app be used? How do the integrations work?
- Problem-solving: How does the app solve user problems, and how does this affect the user’s journey?
- User alternatives and options: What options are accessible to users? What do you wish to steer users towards or away from?
Visually walking through a user journey with a chart or process flow lets you go back to each part and make sure it’s on the right track.
Visualize the design and layout of your app.
Making a wireframe of the layout of your app can help you design the app’s user interface. At the start of this design phase, precise styling is not the primary focus. It is more important to consider how the interface supports the functionality of your app. Once you’ve set up the right layout, you can then highlight design elements and details. For example, there is no need to draw your logo into the wireframe; simply write “logo” where the logo will eventually go.
Your wireframes can be used by designers and developers to plan their code and prototype designs.
During this part of the planning process, it’s best to narrow the project’s scope and set clear priorities. Anything that isn’t a top priority could be left out of your preliminary design or written down in case you want to add it later.
Finally, execute your design.
Before beginning work on the design, review what you’ve already accomplished and consult with your team. If you haven’t already, now is the time to create a project plan that specifies how your team will complete the work and how stakeholders will be involved.
Dates may depend on the release of a product, the availability of the team, or the progress of other projects. Plan for testing in a timely manner.
Document your design
After you have completed your design, you can use UML, which stands for “Unified Modeling Language,” to create visual documentation that illustrates how the various components of the diagram are connected to one another.
The way in which your design is represented in this module-based approach is that each object is related to other things.
This lets you show the different parts of your design in ways that are easier to understand and more relevant.
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