The first step, of course, is to go over the contest rules and requirements. From there it gets a little more complex.

Go Over the Project Brief

First and foremost, whether you’re participating in a contest on Designhill or deviantART, go over the project brief. The host o the contest is obligated to provide all participants with as much detail as possible with regard to what they want to see, so if you haven’t received a detailed brief don’t hesitate to contact the client or host and ask a few questions.

According to Method & Class, a website design brief should contain the following information:

• Introduction: this includes information about the company, including industry, products, size and reach.
• Previous versions: if the client already has a website, they should provide a link or a screencap of the site with details on what they like and don’t like about it. This should include color and styling, as well as details on when the site was built and who is responsible for current upkeep.
• Browser compatibility requirements: this only applies if the design is also a matter of development, which is often the case when it comes to contests. Clients should provide a maximum of five web browsers they want the site to display properly on, including version and operating system.
• The aims of the new website: from traffic to sales leads, you need know what the new site has to do in order to make the client happy. If it’s part of a rebranding effort, this section should also include what about the previous branding style needs to change.
• Preferences: asking a client to link to some competitors’ websites might seem a bit strange to some, but this is the best way to know what kind of design style they prefer that’s compatible with their industry.
• Look and feel: including color, major design elements and even typefaces, the brief should provide detailed information on what elements the new website should integrate that the old one is lacking.
• Budget: while this may seem like the most important aspect of a design brief from your end, it should always come second to understanding the client’s needs. However, if the final prize for the contest barely scrapes your going rate for a basic website, with the client requesting full flash intros and splash pages, it may be best to seek out another competition.
• Continuation requirements: more common in contracted work than design contests, the brief should also include whether you’ll be expected to continue maintenance of the site over time, and the budget allocated for this work if applicable. If the brief doesn’t mention this at all, ask the client who they intend to have upkeep the new site—you may just land some steady residual work in the process.

Mockups First

Whether it’s a website design contest at Designhill or a web development competition hosted by Apple themselves, never move forward with complex design before submitting a mockup. Make sure that you’re capable of the design and development as needed, of course; a beautiful mockup might win you the contest, but you’ll end up defaulting if you can’t make it reality after the competition comes to a close.

Even the simplest design mockup should never be a plain static image, however. As shown in Hubspot’s fantastic design manager user’s guide, planning a site design requires some additional material to be truly professional and cohesive. Always assemble a color key, including hex codes, to present with the main page mockup. List out your typefaces, with proper example sentences; using “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” is preferred, but “grumpy wizards make toxic brew for the evil queen and Jack” is another clever example. Avoid so-called “lipsum” text in this section.

Be sure that your mockup shows the difference between an inactive, active and hovered link, navigation and search features, and any animated or pop-out elements you intend to use. Don’t let your mockup drop down menus cover up any important design elements; instead, include multiple mockup panes, showing content at different stages of use.

May the Best Design Win

As a designer, you’ve already heard your fair share of design tips, but that doesn’t mean you should just tune them out as you get started on your most recent contest entry. Creative Bloq in particular offers some excellent tips for web designers, from using garish outlines in development to locate and change specific CSS rules to naming your layers wisely in your mockup in order to more easily make modifications as the client requests. Never outright flatten your design, avoid image compression when submitting mockups, and try to be as concise as possible in detailing your color, typeface and other design choices.

Now get out there and get started—may the best design win!

To get some design inspiration you can download this flat ui design kit.

Trend#1- Cloud driven app development

With the popularity of cloud technology scaling new heights, it would become vital for you to focus on building app that can be easily integrated and synchronized on multiple gadgets including smartphones, smart tablets etc. While developing such apps, you need to ensure complete consistency in terms of app functionality and content.

Trend#2- Micro-moments- A brand new approach to developing engaging mobile apps

Unlike the traditional techniques of ensuring mobile user engagement, you will be required to shift your focus towards ‘micro-moments’ approach. Here, you’ll be ensuring that the apps are providing a brilliant means for connecting users via mini interactions. Mobile app development focus would get shifted to widgets, notifications and interactions across multiple devices.

Trend#3- Native apps will witness a downfall

In 2015, the mobile app development industry will be flooded with innovative platforms that would result in the downfall of native applications. Talking specifically about the business world, app designers would get alerted about the hazards of native apps and the benefits of mobile apps.

Trend#4-In-app advertising and purchasing will witness a hike

Popular research studies reveal that in-app advertising across multiple mobile devices will reach $7.1 billion by the year 2015. A wide plethora of mobile advertisement networks will go beyond boundaries for experimenting with different ad formats. App monetization would be primarily based on advertising and in-app purchases. Therefore, as a developer you’ll be expected to create apps that can easily synchronize with advertisements.

Trend#5- A greater focus on app development using HTML5

Although HTML5 and its development tools have already received appreciation from globally located app developers, the trend will continue to witness a rise in 2015. The decrease in popularity of native apps will make way for an increased emphasis on creation of hybrid applications using HTML5 technology. One of the most vital advantages attached to HTML5 app development is that the hybrid mobile app created using this technology work perfectly on multiple mobile platforms.

Trend#6- Targeted mobile apps will be on a high demand among individuals and firms

Whether you are developing apps for Android or Apple, in 2015 you’ll be expected to create final products that target a specific group of users. While developing mobile apps, you’ll be asked to focus more on the niche product(s) or service(s) that your client is delivering. Since app stores are getting loaded with apps that are designed to meet varying purposes, you need to look into delivering one that is well in accordance with the end users’ expectations.

Trend#7- An increased need for equipping apps with data collection methods

With the Internet of Things and Wearable market growing by huge bounds and leaps in 2015, you’ll be required to devote your time and efforts into incorporating innovative data collection methods in your apps. With a wider emphasis on big app data and app performance tracking and analysis; you’ll need to develop apps, ensuring the end users are able to leverage actionable items and useful insights.

Trend#8- User Experience will become the number one priority

2015 will see user experience as the foremost priority of mobile app developers. Considering the ever-increasing count of tablets, smartphones and wearable devices, you’ll have to pay attention to every minute detail attached to offering a great user experience. You can gain access to accurate analytics data for creating better and commendable user experiences.

Wrapping it all up

If you are the one who’s all pepped up for everything that’s coming in New Year, then the above mentioned mobile app development trends would have definitely offered you a new reason for celebration. As an app developer, you can dig deep into these trends and deliver outstanding apps in the coming year.

Author Signature: Addison Cohen is an iOS app developer working with Appsted Ltd which offers custom iOS app development company. He loves sharing tech information and ideas on application programming.

However, there are some that are earning a huge revenue and enjoying their success whereas there are some that are doing nothing but only adding to the total number of apps available in the app store. What is the major difference between such apps?

There are several factors that contribute to an app success, and intuitive UI is the major key factor. If an app is well designed with an interactive and innovative UI, the users will automatically love to run the app and share it with their near and dear ones. Hence, whether you are creating an app for enhancing your business values or simply want to create an enterprise app for improved productivity, an intriguing and minimalist UI can make it stand ahead of its competitors. The paramount of the UI must be the key requirements of the target audience.

After understanding the significance of better user experience (UX), it is advisable to thoroughly follow the below mentioned app designing guidelines to ensure an intuitive and enticing design.

1. Don’t forget the Rule of Thumb: The way users hold and access their mobile devices plays an imperative role in attaining a great UX. While designing the UI, it is recommended to consider the way the majority of users grip and access their phone. It is important to keep in mind that the most of your target audience will be right handed. Moreover, try to incorporate the maximum UI elements at the bottom, because the elements at the top will be harder to reach.

What’s more: make the elements accessible in a circular flow rather than a linear flow, as the circular motion facilitates more convenience. This will help augment navigation ease and brilliant UX.

2. Maintain the consistency: There are a very few users who like surprises in the UI of an app, whereas the most of the mobile users often get annoyed with the hidden surprises. Thus, it is better to maintain the consistency in the flow of the app content and ensure a smooth and overwhelming user experience. And, integrate superior functionalities while ensuring their convenient execution.

3. High resolution graphics: Since, apps are the cornerstone of the Smartphones and high resolution graphics is the major selling point for Smartphones, integrating high resolution graphics in an app can do wonders. It will not only help you get over the outdated fuzzy appeal, but will also help you capture user’s attention and create a trendy visual appeal. Hence, whether you are integrating images or any other visual content in your app, try to use its high resolution version for highly captivating UI.

4. Appropriate and Common Icons: Icons are a significant part of a UI, most importantly when we are talking about the mobile UI. They can help you include comprehend info with just a small symbol, and we know how much the screen space matters, especially for mobile apps. However, to reap the complete benefits of icons, it is essential to ensure that you are integrating commonly known icons in your app, like the logo of Facebook, Google, Whatsapp, and more for sharing, triangle to play a file, cross symbol to close a running file, etc. And, make them easily accessible by defining an appropriate size to it.

5. Manage the thin line: It is obvious that your target audience base will include both novice users as well as expert mobile users. Thus, creating an app to stand up to the expectations of the huge potential user base appears to be a cumbersome task. However, with an intuitive design, the novice user’s experience can be enhanced and the intriguing UI will help deliver a satisfactory experience to the experienced users.

6. “Umbrella structure” for ultimate navigation: For ensuring a great UX, it is recommended to create a UI design that ensures convenient navigation throughout the application. The “Umbrella Structure” for an app refers to the UI design that epitomize the entire app in such a beautiful fashion that a user can find the required info only by referring the app at a glance. This includes the integration of well-optimized icons, content and minimal options.

Bottom Line:

The aforementioned UI designing guidelines for developing a highly-functional and innovative application can definitely help you deliver a successful application. With intuitive, intriguing and intelligent UI, the user experience will surely accentuate and ensures user engagement for maximum time. Reap the benefits of the flourishing mobile technology and create a desirable application by following the current design trends and the above mentioned tips for surefire results.

Author Signature: Lucie Kruger is an eminent Senior Content Editor and IT consultant for Mobiers Ltd, which is the leading mobile application development company. She provides concrete information on latest technologies like iOS, android mobile apps development.

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Docverter lets you get going immediately without having to set up your own document conversion tools. Docverter wraps several open source projects to make your documents come out perfect every time.

Built-on CSS3 and HTML5 semantics to allow you to start capitalizing on a next generation standard. Centurion is scalable and it’s easy to learn syntax makes building a prototype simple.

This is not a font generation service and you can’t generate Icon Fonts here. Just choose your favorite Icon Fonts and use them on your website. It’s really that simple!

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