Animations for UX Design

Do you think good visuals and an appealing user interface is enough to keep people hooked to your app?

Think again!

With smartphones establishing their existence in the pocket of almost every individual, the number of mobile applications has been steadily increasing. Such a situation has made it very difficult for mobile apps to stand out with something unique on offer.

This is where animations have upped the game for many applications. Without enough animations, even the best interfaces will only lead to confusion among users and instil a feeling where they are choosing things directly without any context. Nicely done animations prove crucial to enhance the user experience of your design and deliver the users a satisfying, smooth and delightful overall experience.

Animations can use and combine the sound and haptic features in mobile applications, enabling the general experience to be much more close to reality with a considerable reduction in the cognitive load as well. The pressure is less because animations make it easier to recognize every connection and context pretty quickly when using an app.

Principles of Creating Animated Interfaces

Here are some of the principles which are unavoidable when you create animated interfaces. Regardless of the tools, techniques, and framework you use, these principles will come in handy.

1) Attention and Focus:
The most significant objective of any animation in your app is to give a context and also direct the focus of a user to critical elements for a more fluid experience. The screens which seem without any connection can be seamlessly merged to assist the user in navigating while using your website or app.

To get the maximum impact from the animations on your app, you need to learn the art of restraint. Admittedly, it is a tempting prospect to exhibit a lot of animation on every single screen on your app. If you get carried away then the core motive of including animation gets lost in the process.

2) Order and Hierarchy with sequences:
If you are pondering to animate every element in your user interface, your thought process may incline in the wrong direction. While the right set of animation will focus the attention of a user inevitably, too much of it on a single page will also divert the attention.

However, if you still want to animate multiple elements on a single screen, you should always use a small delay in between them. Ensure that the ease and duration of animations are consistent. The entire process of this timing and delay in animation is known as the choreography principle of Material Motion.

3) The right kind of speed:
The speed of the animation in an app is generally controlled by modifying the duration of the animation. It is the duration of animations which either makes or breaks a great user experience.

Follow the general rule and try to incorporate animations which have a duration of 0.3-1 second. The animations lesser than 0.3 seconds feel as if they don’t even exist because you can easily miss the transition.

Also if a user can notice them, such speed can easily confuse the app user. Even animations that are longer than 1 second do not have too many fans. Animations can feel very slow and prove as a barrier to smooth interaction between the users and the interface.

The most significant advantage of using snappy and quick animations is that your app feels faster and more responsive. If the animations lag a lot, your app will feel slow and broken, which is going to make the overall experience of using the app an unpleasant one.

The speed we are talking about is not just limited to the duration of the animation but also applies to the lag which happens between the first swipe gesture and animation which follows next.

Understand the Physics involved:

Nothing in this world starts or stops instantly. It always takes a considerable amount of time for things to speed up or slow down. Forces like friction, remember?

An ideal animation is natural in its behavior, which also helps to ease the cognitive load on a user in understanding and using the application. Other than the duration of animations, you should also familiarize yourself with the different kinds of easing that is used in the design:

1) Linear:

This is the animation which is brought to use without any easing. It is also the most unnatural, so limit its use to only when very necessary.

2) Ease-in:

Ease-in is an accelerated easing. The animation here begins gradually and ends quickly.

3) Ease-out:

Now it is the opposite of easing in. It is decelerated easing. The animation starts very quickly and slows down a bit at the end. This is the best option as the quick start lends a sense of responsiveness in the app and provides a natural slowness in the end.

4) Spring:

Spring is an animation which ends on a bouncing note. It is used in a large number of modern mobile applications due to its responsiveness and vibrancy. Once you close on the right kind of animations which are needed in your app, you will be able to extend the natural world into the devices of people, which is always better than a strange and abstract experience.

Conclusion:

Based on the above discussion, you would have clearly understood how animations are a crucial part to create a great user experience without too much last-minute thinking.

Keep animation and the interaction in your mind right from the beginning so that the focus on overall experience remains constant during the entire process of product designing.

The principles discussed are timeless. If you are getting familiar with animations or are fully aware of them as well, these are some points which you need to always keep in your mind while creating new designs and applications.

Elevating user experience to new levels should always be your priority as a designer.

Speaking of a designer, are you looking for one? At GoodWorks Design, our creative team is acing the UX with animations. If you have a design idea and need help with execution, talk to us!.

Top mobile app trends to watch out in 2021

Decades have passed since mobile phones made their way to our lives. From click to touch, they have only been evolving year-on-year to give the best possible experience to the consumers. Likewise, mobile apps have introduced creativity and changed the way people live, work, shop, play, connect, and relax. The year 2020 came in to completely change our lifestyles and taught us to embrace multiple technological developments. These changes had a positive effect on the mobile app development industry; which eventually led to the growth of small, moderate, and large companies.

In research by Statista it is predicted that by 2021 the number of mobile users worldwide will grow by 3.8 billion. Therefore, it can be concluded that enterprises and businesses will easily meet their goals with the mobile app optimised with advanced technologies.

In this article, we discuss which technologies are expected to be deployed in 2021 and beyond. To make the best use of the mobile app in 2021, below are the top 3 possibilities to discover the leading trends in mobile app development:

Top 3 mobile app development trends in 2021

Data, AI, and ML will continue to lead

Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) have completely redeveloped the face of mobile app development in the last few years. The use of these leading technologies in mobile app development has exponentially accelerated the growth of businesses and companies across the globe. A perfect combination of AI and ML backed with data can save companies a lot of money, grab user attention, and increase revenue. A basic example of AI incorporation: Today, many organisations tend to incorporate AI chatbots into their mobile applications – the use of this is increasing daily.

Apps optimised for wearables 

Over that last few years, portable and wearable technology has seen a great expansion in the market and expected to grow further in the coming year. Smartwatches, health monitors, and training straps are the most trending wearables. It is noted that wearable technology has grown by 15% in the last four years. Therefore, developing applications that better link to portables and wearables through smartphones using IoT is the need of the hour.

Mobile applications with a touch of reality – AR and VR

An Augmented Reality (AR) app is a software application that blends the real-world environment with interactive visual, audio or other content. Businesses and companies can better engage their customers and increase their revenue by using VR and AR technologies in their mobile applications as they provide an unforgettable experience to the users. Globally, these innovations are used for smartphone users to create improved customer interface that can help marketers boost profits. Therefore, the use of AR and VR is expanding every day across the industries – from healthcare to games to travel to education to sports.

GoodWorkLabs, leading mobile app development company

GoodWorkLabs is one of the leading mobile app development company in India, the USA, and Europe. We have a proven end-to-end experience of developing successful mobile applications for many of the world’s leading brands and companies. Should you be looking for a mobile app developer, then connect with us at +91- 9863077000 or [email protected] for a free 1-hour consultation of how we can help you.

Great design, best user experience, and overwhelming sales

2020 is the year of digital transformation. Many companies and businesses in the past few months have embraced technology and made the best use of it to survive and sustain. One such overwhelming trend is the boom of e-commerce sector more than ever. To stay safe, people today want to least interact with others, avoid going to crowded supermarkets, and are looking to get everything at their door-step. Therefore, it would not be unfair to say that this is the era of e-commerce, and this sector can take the maximum advantage of the times.

With most services and products being purchased online through an e-commerce mobile application, it is important for all the emerging and existing e-commerce players to focus more on the user experience(UX) and user interface(UI). E-commerce mobile applications with great UX and UI design leave a remarkable impression on users and increase business.

With multiple categories and offerings, shopping online may get confusing and frustrating for users at times. Therefore, the mobile application should be designed such that visitors can navigate easily and comfortably on their own. The aim of the e-commerce player should be to provide a seamless experience by having a user-friendly, fast, and well-organised interface. It is the best practice to keep your users happy and engaged.

Here are a few crucial business objectives that are a direct result of your e-commerce app’s UX UI design:

Leveraging Brand Loyalty 

People generally come to your e-commerce application in search of a product, and if you help them buy the desired product easily and quickly, there are cent percent chances of them visiting your application again. Also, according to industry standards, e-commerce players make 60-70% of the revenue by selling products repeatedly to their existing customers. Therefore, the e-commerce application should offer consistent value to your users and motivate them to keep coming back for more. It is essential to know that you must change the design of your application only when necessary, frequently changing the app design will confuse your existing customers and leave them frustrated.

Branding, Promotion, and Brand re-call

E-commerce mobile applications are developed with a vision to effectively promote new products, services, and offers to customers. To do this, it is essential that the application has a conversational UX UI design so that the promotions can be executed easily. The main aim of having a standard UX UI is to grab customer’s attention and keep them hooked forever. With the standardised design, you create a brand-recall factor and your customers would know your application thoroughly soon after initial usage.

Increasing ROI

Businesses which have a clear idea about their customers’ needs and how they help them achieve their goals are the ones that succeed in this highly competitive world. Having the best UX UI design is the foundation of your e-commerce business – your aim should be to help customers find and buy their desired products quickly and easily. If this is done right, you are sure to achieve your business goals successfully.

With a humongous competition in the industry, it is very important to value each and every customer. Customers look at the application and make their decision within 10-15 seconds, and least to say – if your app’s UX UI is not well designed, they may not stay any longer. It is the user interface and experience that makes sure your customer is happy to make a purchase.

GoodWorkLabs, a leader in e-commerce UX UI design space 

GoodWorkLabs is one of the leading UX UI design development company in India, the USA, and Europe. We have a proven experience of designing UX UI for many of the world’s leading e-commerce and retail brands like – CommonFloor.com, Myntra, ST Dupont, etc. Should you be looking for a UX UI design partner, then connect with us at +91- 9863077000 or [email protected] for a free 1-hour consultation of how we can help you.

The idea of living a healthy and fit life has widely been accepted by people in the last few years. HIIT, yoga, personal training, and diet plans have become buzzing activities amongst the boomers, millennials, and gen z. Also, recently when the world was locked-down during the COVID pandemic, many people have successfully invested their time and energy in health and fitness activities than ever before. During this time, social media had a movement of #WorkoutFromHome. This has lead to the growth of in-demand fitness applications that help people to workout from the comfort of their homes.

The modern trend of blending fitness and technology is growing very rapidly. Today, smartphones, wearables, and fitness mobile applications have become an integral part of our fitness regimes. The easy accessibility of fitness mobile applications is making people better, healthier, and fitter. They are here to stay and disrupt the traditional fitness industry.

In this article, our experts highlight the top features that help in developing successful fitness applications.

Before we start listing the features, let us acknowledge that there are a variety of fitness applications:

• Home Workout Apps
• Nutrition and Diet Apps
• Activity Tracking Apps
• Fitness Training Apps – HIIT and Yoga
• Meditation Apps

Top Features of Fitness Apps:

Easy Sign-up and Profile Creation 

Creating personal accounts using the phone number or email id or social media account is very important as this allows users to save and maintain their records even if they, later on, change the devices. A complex and lengthy registration process will only make user disinterested, ask for only important, yet minimal information. The easiest way for profile creation is by providing an option to sign-up using their social media account.

Tracking Daily Regimes and Activities 

A person performing fitness activities using fitness application is always goal-oriented. They want to know and understand their progress and how far are they from their goal(s). A simple fitness tracker, help users gauge the number of calories they have burnt, hours they have slept, number of steps they have walked, amount of calories they have ingested, the weight they have gained/lost, BMI, etc. Therefore, a fitness application without this track-able feature is of zero use to anyone.

Social Media Integration 

Fitness related content is one of the most shared content on the social media platform. People love sharing their fitness routines, trackers, and fitness achievements on their social media handles. This helps them build a network of like-minded people. Therefore, enabling the user to share their fitness updates on the linked social media channels is of utmost importance today.

Gamification 

It is always necessary to keep your users hooked and engaged. While they are using your application for tracking and following the best fitness routines, you should also help them earn some instant gratification to make them feel valued. Fitness applications must-have features like – enabling user to compete, win rewards, upgrade to badges, and scale their progress bars.

Integration with Wearable Devices 

Syncing mobile application with various fitness wearables is the most important feature. This helps users seamlessly perform their fitness routine and track their progress in a much detailed manner. These wearable devices can detect the physiological factors (blood pressure, pulse, heart rate, etc) and store the information in the mobile application. Also, they help you compare the data of weekly, monthly, and yearly reports. All these captured information can help the virtual trainer to monitor the user more effectively.

It is the combination of the discussed and other features with friendly UX/UI that enables the fitness application to grow and succeed. A happy user will recommend the application to peers and like-minded groups which can further add to the success of your fitness application.

If you are looking to develop a fitness application or improve your current application, then GoodWorkLabs is the tech partner you need. GoodWorkLabs is the leading mobile app development company in India, the USA, and Europe. We come with hands-on experience in building end-to-end mobile applications. We look forward to providing you a one hour free consulting, reach out to us at +91- 9863077000 or [email protected].

The education system has gone through 360-degree revolutionary changes in that last few years. With more and more proliferation of smartphones to every nook and corner of the world, online education has become an acceptable norm today. Also, post the COVID-19 pandemic effect, almost all the schools and colleges have changed their teaching methodologies and have successfully incorporated online education. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that the pandemic has further leveraged the growth of online learning or e-learning platforms across the world.

With digital learning becoming the order and norm of the day, there is a tremendous growth opportunity for EdTech players. From school education apps like Byjus to Vedantu, and professional learning apps like UpGrad to Edureka all have seen an exponential growth post-CVOID-19 phase. With the rising demand for education applications or e-learning mobile applications, the competition to leverage and sustain has also increased. Therefore, to grow during times like these, EdTech applications will have to incorporate some relevant and fascinating technology with engaging content.

Let us look at some of the technologies that aspiring EdTech start-ups can incorporate in their e-learning apps:

The right use of AR and VR technologies

Now that the children are learning from home their practical exposure to the theories have taken a back step. Though there are tremendous online videos to understand the practicality of the subject, it is not very effective. For students to understand a practical concept in-depth the ideal way is for them to perform an experiment and learn from their experience. AR and VR technology can help them get closer to reality and provide an immersive experience while they are seated in the safety and comfort of their homes. The right use of these technologies can help students learn geography, perform chemical reactions, watch a plat grow – all of this and more while they are learning from home.

Using AI to help kids learn and grow at their speed

The learning and grasping power of every student is different. Few learn a concept in the day and few take a week to understand them. In a traditional set-up, teachers get a chance of interacting with students in-person and understanding their learning speed. This helps them understand which students require more of her time and help to learn a concept. As the student and teacher interaction has now got digitised, it is difficult for teachers to have a closer understanding of the student’s learning behaviour and patterns. This is when the use of artificial intelligence (AI) can help teachers understand which students require more of her help and time in the respective modules. EdTech apps can host an algorithm to analyse student’s learning pattern by throwing questions at the end of each module, analysing the number of replays, etc. The data so collected, can help teachers break down the concept into smaller understandable fragments. This personalised feature can do wonders for education apps, and this should be on top of every EdTech app’s checklist.

Live learning 

While most of the EdTech applications have this feature, it is very important if you are planning to develop an EdTech mobile app. This feature can not be overlooked, as this provides the most immersive, personalised, and real-time experience for every student. Live interaction with teachers can help students learn concepts faster, clear their doubts quicker, and ask more candid questions. Irrespective if an application is dedicated to a student or professional user, this feature can make or break your EdTech app experience.

Whether you are a school, college, institute, university, or an EdTech start-up – we would like to tell you that this is the best and right time to invest in the development of an e-learning app. These apps are very much in demand today and are growing exponentially as we discuss. This is the time when you can take advantage of the current situation and pick a pie for yourself.

Should you be looking forward to developing an EdTech or e-learning mobile application, GoodWorkLabs should be the best tech partner for you. GoodWorkLabs has a proven experience in developing immersive Edtech apps for Sesame Street and EkStep Foundation. Our work for Ekstep Genie App is a milestone. The app was recognised by the International Design Center in Berlin and was further nominated for the IDC UX design awards. You may connect with us at +91- 9863077000 or [email protected] for a free 1-hour consultation of how we can help you.

With changing times, customer behaviour, product demand, and business operations also change. As a reflection of this change, businesses have to constantly evolve in order to sustain and survive the pressing times. For this, they need to continuously attract the customer, as the business today is backed on the power of customer engagement.

Real Estate is one such industry which faces a lot of business damage if the customer is not engaged rightly. It is one such dynamic industry which is rapidly changing every day. From site updates to project inclusions, everything changes in no time. As the customers today want everything available at their fingertips, it is necessary to embed new technologies in this business area.

Augmented Reality (VR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are the most trending digital technologies that provide an immersive experience to the user at the comfort of their home. In the real estate sector, they have transformed the way properties are designed, bought, sold, and maintained. It is estimated that about 90% of the real estate agencies worldwide have started using these technologies to provide the best service experience to their customers.

Here is a list of few experiences that AR and VR can deliver for the real estate industry:

Property Tour

In a typical property buying scenario, a customer will visit many different properties before deciding upon which one to buy. This entire process of visiting properties in-person is a very taxing, time-consuming, and energy-draining process; and more so if the properties are located far from where the customer lives.

Using VR technology can solve the above problems by allowing clients to virtually visit the properties and short-list the ones that they would want to visit in-person. They can experience a 3D walk-though of multiple properties in a day while seated at their homes. This immersive virtual experience is just as similar to the real one for customers to make informed decisions. Real estate developers and agents can use this technology to build interactive and guided property tours.

Virtual Staging 

Building a model house with chic home decor is an age-old marketing tactic to sell a property. This has been practised to increase the sales-conversion as customers like to see a step-up before buying. However, setting a model house with luxurious home decor for each of the properties can be an expensive task. This is where AR and VR technology can be of help.

By using these technologies, the real estate developer can showcase how the property looks like with staging(home decor). The technology can help them build designs of furniture and other essentials to provide a more detailed experience to the customer. This will help the real estate companies close the deal with lesser efforts and reduced lead cost.

Architectural Representation

Selling an under-constructed property is the biggest challenge for almost all the real estate developers in the world. Customers will have to make decisions seeing the 3D models, model flat, property plans, and some rendered property visuals. None of these provides an experiential view of the project. A customer can see, but not feel the project that they are investing in. Virtual reality can effectively help you solve this challenge. The technology can help the potential customer to visualise the interior, exterior, and surrounding areas of the project which isn’t built yet. This way customers get a better understanding of the property that they are investing in.

AR and VR have started spelling their magic in the real estate world. However, it is usually the large developers and agents that are investing in this technology. There is a lot of unexplored potential in this technology and more real estate developers and agents are yet to taste the success of it.

GoodWorkLabs is one of the leading AR and VR app development agency in India, the USA, and Europe. We come with hands-on experience in building an end-to-end AR and VR application that provides an immersive experience to the users and great ROI to the businesses. Should you be looking forward to creating an AR and VR application, please do reach out to us at +91- 9863077000 or [email protected] for a free 1-hour consultation of how we can help you.

It was another great opportunity for our MD, Vishwas Mudagal to share his turn-around story at Nasdaq’s Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020. Donning many hats, he has always been fascinated about turning every failure into an opportunity and a success mantra. During the webinar, he spoke about his life instances which inspired him to write ‘Losing My Religion’. There was a time in his life when he was knocked down by challenges, but his ‘introspective’ nature helped him sail through the storms become the CEO of a Canadian MNC overnight. He believes that miracles happen if you introspect.

“Failures come in your life to make you better, they bring forth new opportunities to disrupt yourself. It pushes you out of your comfort zone, it makes you think practically. It is important for every individual to know how to turn failure into an opportunity and a success mantra. So, next time you fail, don’t worry. Just congratulate yourself for the failure, learn from your mistakes and reboot!”

– Vishwas Mudagal, MD, GoodWorkLabs

Living in a digital world, enabling a positive and immersive user experience using technology is the key objective of every digital business. Today, the everyday lifestyle of people has evolved the businesses to be user-friendly, customer-centric, and enable a lesser turn-around-time. Helping businesses do these with ease, AI has come as a boon to almost all the business industries and sectors.

Helping consumer make informed decisions and buying goods at their convenience, the e-commerce industry has completely disrupted the way we shop today. It is one of the industries that use AI to the fullest potential. The implementation of AI technology in the e-commerce sector is a very strategic step towards business development and increasing revenues. By wisely using AI, e-commerce businesses are creating an immersive experience for its users across the globe. With constant use of latest technologies, e-commerce today has changed the global retail landscape.

AI technology is backed by data, and analysing data ain’t that simple. While it may not be a simple technology to use, but if implemented rightly, it can reap you the best benefits. The mission of any AI tool is to quickly provide accurate and scientific data to help businesses and its users make informed decisions.

In this blog post our experts share three most widely used AI technologies than can help e-commerce players change the retail landscape:

Chatbots and virtual assistance

What better way than to be available for your customers 24*7? Yes, AI can help you with that. Built using trending AI technologies, digital assistants can help you provide 24*7 support to your online customers. This enables a better customer experience as the customer queries are answered real-time. Chatbots also have the capability to:

• Address customer needs with in-depth insights
• Interpret voice commands
• Provide highly personalised answers to the queries

Intelligent product recommendations 

Every e-commerce business in the world is fighting for higher user attention and revenue. Using AI can help them keep their users engaged and shop more from their platforms. The best use of AI in e-commerce is enabling personalised recommendations for online shoppers. It is noted that the conversion rates increase exponentially when an AI bot recommends a product. These AI bots use big data technologies to make recommendations by analysing the user’s purchase history and buying patterns. With the right use of this technology, e-commerce players can:

• Increase customer loyalty and retention
• Increase sales and generate better revenue
• Provide highly personalised shopping experience

Smart inventory management 

An e-commerce player can only survive if their inventories are tracked and managed at real-time. Inventory management aims to procure and maintain the right level of inventory that can strategically fulfil market demands. AI can help e-commerce businesses maintain the inventory at real-times, suggest recommendations, and order supplies. This AI-enabled smart inventory management can help e-commerce players to:

• Anticipate market demands on a real-time basis
• Compare trends of previous year/half/quarter
• Highlight demand-supply issues

These were some benefits of using AI in e-commerce. The accuracy and agility of AI bots had enabled AI-based technology to rule the digital world. As an e-commerce player are you willing to nurture AI for your business? Experienced in developing AI-based e-commerce applications, GoodWorkLabs can help you build an effective and efficient e-commerce platform or mobile application. Reach out to us at +91- 9863077000 or [email protected] for a free 1-hour consultation of how we can help you.