The do’s and don'ts of designing the home screen of your mobile app

Home screens matter. Even when mobile apps were not around, businesses spent a lot of time working on the home page of their website. Just as a household does its best to keep the living room organized and clean, companies invest a lot of time and effort in improving their home page.

The arrival of mobile apps naturally makes home screens a crucial part of the mix. The process of mobile app design often begins with designers visualizing the home screen and moving on to other parts of the app later. This aim is to make the home screen the central hub of all activity on the mobile app.

AppMySite, known best for helping users convert WordPress to mobile app, also provides a lot of customization features to effectively design the home screen. The main challenge is understanding the best design practices when it comes to creating a home screen.

Here are some do’s and don’ts of designing the home screen of a mobile app.

Do - One-click discovery

Your first objective when designing a home screen should be to use it as a springboard to drive people to different parts of the app. This is only possible if you implement one-click discovery.

One-click discovery simply means that app visitors can find their desired screen on the home page itself.

A great example of this is Netflix. Anyone using Netflix would recognize the well-designed home screen layout that doesn’t just simplify discovery, but also encourages browsing on the part of the user.

Your app must also simplify user journey by guiding visitors to their desired page from the home screen itself. Let’s assume you are building a pharmacy app by going from WooCommerce to app with an app builder. One way to simplify the user journey and institute one-click discovery is showing the medicines a customer previously bought at the top of the screen.

Displaying products from old orders especially works for pharmacy apps because customers generally take the same medicine. You can thus create one-click discovery and improve the app experience of customers with this simple addition to the home screen.

Study your audience and figure out similar hacks to enhance app experience and create one-click discovery. A lot of this depends on how well you can predict what a customer is looking for.  

Don’t - Use different color scheme for home screen

Consistency is a major part of every successful app design. When you log-in to Facebook, you are consistently greeted with the same white and blue color scheme. Consistency in color scheme helps your audience relate a certain set of colors with your brand.

It is thus natural for businesses to carry forward this simple principle when designing the home screen of a mobile app.

However, companies often diverge from their general color scheme when designing their app’s home screen. This generally happens because companies want to make a special effort to make their home screen unique and appealing.

Even though the intent is right, the effort is misguided. The home screen should reflect the primary color scheme of the app. Consistency in color is crucial in creating a coherent app experience. Employing different color schemes on different app screens jars the experience of an average user.

One simple way to avoid this problem entirely is to first settle on a color scheme for your home screen. Once you select one, deploy the same theme to the app screens. This will help get you the unique color scheme you want for your home screen while maintaining design consistency throughout the app.

Do - Personalized recommendations

The main function of a home screen is to simplify discovery. Personalized recommendations help because they cater to the specific tastes and preferences of a user.

The Facebook feeds of users are tailored according to their behaviour on the platform and previous engagement data. The same is true for platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and so on.

Ecommerce behemoths like Amazon provide product recommendations based on how customers bought earlier. Even app stores personalize recommendations.

There is a reason every major platform is so heavily invested in personalization. Nothing simplifies the general app experience of your app users than personalization. It thus makes perfect sense to implement the same on the app home screen.

There are of course different ways to personalize recommendations. One of the simple ways is to show users the app screens they were on when they last used the app. Netflix does this all the time when it first shows visitors the content they were watching earlier.

The simple assumption is that the visitors would pick up from where they left off.

Ecommerce stores do the same when they show unbought cart items and recently viewed products to customers when they arrive on the home screen. This is done based on the assumption that customers are now ready to complete the purchase they seemed interested in earlier.

Don’t - Show pop-ups on arrival

Home screens are often the most-visited part of an app. This is not entirely a surprise as the home screen opens by default every time someone launches an app.

Companies often add promotional pop-ups to the home screen because it gets the most traffic. These pop-ups are aimed at driving people towards a specific goal. The goal can vary. Some apps want their users to leave a review on the app store. The pop-up is thus driven towards making users leave a review. Other pop-ups promote special offers and deals on the app.

Adding pop-ups is not a bad tactic by itself. It is a useful way to grab the attention of an app user during a session.

However, it is not a good idea to launch a pop-up immediately when a user arrives on an app. Your aim must be to ensure that every visitor coming on the app stays for a long period of time. Adding a pop-up right at the beginning disrupts app experience from the start.

Do - Use banner strategically

Home screens these days contain a banner to provide soothe users with a graphically appealing interface right at the top. These banners are the prime real estate of your mobile app as every visitor arriving will see it first.

It is thus important to understand the strategic importance of the banner. Many apps tend to add empty and vague branding on the banner. This is an uninspired use of the app banner section especially considering the attention every incoming visitor gives to it.

A strategic way to use the banner is to drive people to specific app screens that present the best monetization opportunities.

Let’s assume you have an ecommerce app. There is a good chance some of your products have higher margins than others. It thus makes sense to promote them on the banner. Other ideas to use the banner section include the promotion of sale campaigns, reward programs, subscription offers, and more.

In conclusion

It takes a lot of effort to create the perfect home screen. Even when using an app creator online like AppMySite that makes dashboard design simple, there is a definitive need to read up on home screen designs.

This piece covers the do’s and don’ts of designing the home screen of your mobile app. The points covered here are not exhaustive, but they will set readers on the right track.

A good home screen is the best way to grow user retention and app usage. Take your time to research and design the home screen to the best of your ability.

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Created on Jan 8th 2021 04:44. Viewed 455 times.

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