If you’re looking for some of the best practices to ensure cross-platform app design consistency, then you’ve come to the right place. This blog will cover all the aspects of maintaining consistency and how to build a fully functional application.
App development is a vast field and comes with many challenges to face. One of the challenges is to keep the UI design sustainable on all the platforms. That is why designers need to perform multiple techniques and methods to ensure that apps are working perfectly fine.
Why Consistency Is Important in UI Design?
UI design is the most important element of any application as it grabs the user’s attention. The more seamless and clean the UI design the less frustrated the users get. 7 out of 10 apps get deleted because of their bad UI design.
So, again consistency is key, keep the UI design uniform and let the user control the accessibility and have full control over the app.
But first, let’s put light on the difference between the three app platforms.
A. How Are Cross-Platform Apps Different From Native and Hybrid Apps?
Businesses always demand an app that can work even on the old versions of Android and iOS. A large number of users have old smartphone models, so no user should be left out.
Only a designer can have the best knowledge of all three, so let’s see how they are different from each other.
Cross-platform VS Native VS Hybrid Apps
Each of them holds significance in app development, however, you can differentiate between them based on these parameters.
- Performance
- Customization
- App Data Security
- Overall Cost
- Market Competition
| Factors | Cross-Platform | Native | Hybrid Apps |
| Performance | Depends on the framework | No limitation when it comes to speed | High development speed |
| Customization | Can be customized according to user experience | Has better UI capabilities because it can be customized | Hybrid apps can be customized |
| Cost | Best for low-cost and limited-budget | High-cost | Cost-effective |
| App data security | Able to protect the user data | Comes with built-in security features | Provides security to an extent with encryption |
| Market competition | Doesn’t take much time to build | Quite time-consuming | Same as CP saves time, and has reusable code |
B. These 10 Expert Practices Will Maintain Consistency
These tactics are straight from a professional Android app development company. However, to ensure consistency it can be applied on other platforms as well.
i – Screen Size Adaptability
Start off with the screen size, as the devices are of different sizes and resolutions. Apps should be tested back-to-back on all the devices to ensure the screen size fits all the devices.
ii – Multiple Device Test
Experts suggest that when apps are all set to be launched, they need to be tested by the quality assurance manager. As a result, this will keep the app free from bugs and errors that keep meddling the user’s way.
iii – Keep it clutter-free
Mobile app UI design should be decluttered in the sense that when users find so many options and tap on one screen it fills the screen. This is another thing that designers should focus on to keep consistency.
iv – Work On Readability for Visual Consistency
Visual readability is the most essential of all, the whole app design will fail if it doesn’t attract the users. This includes; themes, fonts, color palettes, imagery, and icons. All of these are focused on ensuring the users don’t find any trouble with the outlay of the app.
v – Keep In Mind The Finger Taps
The more time the user spends on the finger taps the more annoyed they become. Finger taps should be friendly and fast, slow loading taps are frustrating and consume time.
vi – Intuitive App Navigation
App navigations are like finding a way on a map, but expert designers suggest that taps and options should be not hidden under layers of pages.
vii – Platform Rules Should Be Followed
All three platforms have some rules to keep in mind, so as per experts, each app’s standard should be maintained pre- and post-launch of the application.
viii – Readability
When designing cross-platform apps, if there is one factor that triggers the whole app user experience, it is Readability. As apps are developed for all screen sizes and resolutions, content should be readable without pressuring the user’s eye. Also, the content should be brief and not long paragraphs.
ix – Review UI Pattern For Internal Consistency
For internal consistency, all the app pages should be followed by a review to ensure that the app has a consistent pattern of UI allowing users to retain their memory and enhance their learning.
x – Research the platform For External Consistency
Lastly, no app can be developed on any of the platforms if it is not well-researched. All the apps have their standards set. So, in order to keep the elements consistent, research is the key. So, spend time on the practices followed by the professionals in many top app development companies.
C. Some Of The Best Frameworks For Cross-Platform Apps
These 3 frameworks are used widely by the developers of iOS and Android app development.
i – Ionic
Developers create unique and attractive UI designs with Ionic. They can even alter the code structure which helps them to make modifications in the app design anytime.
ii – Flutter
Flutter is another framework that is considered impressive for building apps for cross-platform applications.
Moreover, this framework doesn’t require continuous updating so that implies that it will help in maintaining a consistent UI design. Also, it can work on all sorts of new interfaces.
iii – React Native
No apps can be developed without having React Native on their hands. All the bugs and errors are fixed easily with it. Besides, the reason why React Native is given much consideration is because it requires one code for all which saves developers a lot of time.
Conclusion
These were some of the best expert tactics to ensure the UI design consistency of the apps.