Mobile App Design

Sush Mobile develops digital solutions for start-ups, business and enterprise organisations.

Let’s get real:
good design is good for business

If you think about your favourite brands, the ones that are top of their game and you interact with on a regular basis, we’d bet they all have one thing in common: great design.

There’s no denying it, design plays a crucial part in how a brand is perceived and has a huge impact on a business’s bottom line.

Investing in both visuals and user experience (UX) can prevent possible usability issues and reduce overall costs, increase conversions and SEO, improve brand reputation and customer loyalty, and help you grow your user base.

Creating a mobile app from the ground up is a chance to tell your story on your terms and form long lasting, mutual relationships with customers. It’s that simple.

Getting started:
the fundamentals of good design

In order to successfully design your app you’ve got to deeply understand your product before you set out on the build journey.

Ask yourself:

What do people desire?
What can we build?
What will sustain a business?

When you’re able to find the balance between these key areas you’ve hit the sweet spot.

In our experience, good design is achieved from knowing the best ways to implement each feature so it makes sense from a user perspective, from knowing the technologies available and what they are capable of, and from having the ability to create something that works with people rather than against them.

Essentially, you’ve got to know the need you’re fulfilling and how you’re going to fulfil it.

Empathy

Approaching design as an exercise in empathy puts the developer in the shoes of the user to create a product that genuinely serves their needs.

To empathise is to deeply understand your user. This means going beyond statistics and bullet points about your target market to get closer to what motivates and exacerbates them.

This isn’t about asking what app your user wants, it’s about gaining insight into their everyday lives and considering what product or service will actually make their life better.

Research

Research is an important phase of any design project. Information can be gathered from various sources, including data and analytics services and online or in-person interviews with potential users.

This is an opportunity to do away with inevitable assumptions and gain a clear overview of what you’re trying to achieve and why.

This is also a chance to pivot your initial proposal if you come to see flaws in your original plan or you realise a different approach is better aligned with you and your customers.

Investing adequate time and resources to the research phase can help your project to be robust and successful.

User Experience

In our opinion, user experience (UX) encompasses visual design, interaction design, quality assurance (QA), and engineering. Apps that achieve good design are apps that achieve a collaborative relationship between these core groups.

Interaction design and visual design contribute more toward the user interface of the app, while QA and engineering help to build trust and ingrain cognitive elements into the experience.

Designers alone cannot create great experiences. It requires high quality design and engineering, and all members of the product team to be working in harmony.

Operating Systems

Each operating platform is its own world, with its own culture, language and customs. A good mobile app design requires developers who understand these different worlds and can lead you through them.

Before starting out, consider whether your app is best suited for cross-platform or native app development, as this will have an impact on the duration, cost and outcome of the build.

We’ve seen how the subtle differences matter, and while there’s a place for cross-platform development, building native apps helps you to better control details such as colour payoff and how UX behaves and responds.

Design Truth

How do you create a memorable experience for your users?
You establish a single source of design truth for the whole team to work from.

This includes creating a UI kit and design system including elements such as fonts, symbols, colour palette and guidelines to achieve a consistent look and feel.

It also includes a navigation framework that ensures users move through your app in a way that’s meaningful and intuitive. Establishing your design source is a chance to ask yourself what impression you want your user to be left with.

What personal touches and surprise details can take your app to the next level?

Rubber hits the road:  
bringing it all together

Building wireframes and prototypes

A wireframe or prototype allows you to build a ‘mockup’ for your final product to scope and test your app before you launch it to the world.

By testing your UX design, including features, designs, navigation and more, you’re able to gauge what will work, what needs to change and how much it will cost in both time and money.

Creating meaningful experiences through motion

Functional animation is a means of clarifying transitions, while interactive elements are a chance to add meaning and delight into the app. For example, including a unique note in the error message can stick in the user’s mind.

Regardless of your approach, these elements should be kept familiar and predictable throughout the app to create an overall lasting experience.

Getting your content right

An amazing mobile app design needs great content.
With any website or app, your content and tone should be considered during the prototyping stage to make sure your design choices align with your copy choices and vice versa.

More than that, you want your copy to be both accessible and informative. Your ultimate aim here is to create a cohesive, memorable and intuitive experience.

Testing usability

User testing focuses on how easy it is to use your app in real time by people who haven’t seen or experienced it before.

Now’s your chance to burst the development bubble and get fresh eyes over what you’re building. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to miss an obvious flaw until usability testing comes in.

Not only can user testing show up any potential roadblocks, but it can also identify any obvious improvements.

Minimising cognitive load

When an app does its job well, users forget they’re using an app - no longer is it a piece of technology but a useful and intuitive service.

Minimising cognitive load refers to simplifying the interface and maximising clarity so users are only making necessary decisions and are guided through the app in an effortless way.

Personalising content and pushing value

Your app acts as an extension of your business and the value you offer. Bringing your own personal touch and brand experience into the app helps to enhance the user experience and develop customer loyalty.

This can be done in a multitude of ways, including through the language you use, your design elements, and tie-ins with broader messaging.

Decluttering

We know how it can be to become attached to every design element in your app, but when push comes to shove you’ve got to be objective and keep only what’s really necessary.

Decluttering your interface keeps your app clean and crisp, so every button, image and icon serves a purpose and your users get exactly what they need without any unnecessary distractions.

Taking advantage of device capabilities

A sure fire way to make your app more useful is by utilising device capabilities.

When it comes to a smartphone this includes tactile sensations, the camera, scanner, location awareness and biometric authentication.

Through using additional capabilities available to you, you can make your app a more powerful and memorable experience.

Initiate the discussion now.

Get in touch with a designer from Sush Labs

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App Modernisation

Optimise your app for performance and efficiency on mobile, web and desktop with one streamlined codebase.

With over 16 years of experience developing native apps for both iOS and Android, Sush Labs, stands out in the field of mobile app development. Our use of Flutter, a powerful framework, allows us to create high-performance, natively compiled applications for mobile, web and desktop from a single codebase. Sush Labs is your trusted partner in ensuring your mobile applications are not only up-to-date but also future-proof.

STRIDE™  Design Workshop

Our STRIDE workshop is designed to help define your product roadmap and create a detailed design prototype. This process ensures that your project aligns with your business goals from the outset, providing clarity and direction for your development journey.

End-to-End Service

Sush Labs offers a comprehensive range of services to guide your mobile project from concept to launch. We also offer ongoing support to help maintain and optimise your app post-launch.

Flexible Engagement Models

At Sush Labs, we understand that every business has unique needs, which is why we offer two flexible models for establishing a working team: Squad in the loop and Squad in the box. These approaches allow you to engage with our team in the way that best suits your organisational structure, goals and project requirements.

Engagement Models

Squad in the Loop

In this model, Sush Labs takes full responsibility for achieving specific business outcomes, working closely with your internal leaders and product teams. It’s an outsourcing model where our team handles the high-level app development and project delivery, leaving your internal teams free to focus on strategic decisions and oversight. This approach is ideal for businesses looking to outsource development while maintaining control over project direction.

Squad in the Box

The Squad in the box model augments your internal product team, where our developers work alongside yours to co-deliver on specific deliverables. This approach allows us to scale your team quickly with specialised expertise, providing the flexibility to meet deadlines or tackle complex features while transferring knowledge to your in-house staff.

Benefits of an Augmented Development Team

• Scalability: Scale your team quickly to meet project demands.
• Specialised Skills: Fill gaps with expert knowledge.
• Readiness: Collaborate with a team ready to meet deadlines.
• Collaboration: Enhance collaboration between teams.
• Reduced Risk: Mitigate talent shortage and deadline risks.
• Good Pace: Maintain steady progress, even on complex projects.

Technical Capabilities

Tech Stack

We leverage a diverse tech stack to build robust mobile solutions. Whether it’s platform-specific, cross-platform, or mobile web technologies. We select the right tools for your project.

Agile & Automation

We believe in the power of Agile methodologies to drive efficient development cycles, ensuring that your project adapts to changing needs while maintaining a focus on quality. Automated testing is integral to our process, allowing us to catch and resolve issues early, reducing time to market and improving deployment reliability.

Scalable Solutions Developed with Trusted Brands

The NZ Blood watch app notifies donors when their blood was used to save a life. NZ Blood logo.

Transforming the Donor Journey

Sush Labs modernised NZ Blood’s app to offer a personalised and accessible donor experience. The platform supports appointment scheduling, health tips and donation history tracking, all while integrating with complex backend systems. Real-time updates and proactive reminders enhance donor engagement and make blood donation more convenient, boosting retention and supporting NZ Blood’s essential services.

colourful 3D shapes laid out on a surface. Debut Bank logo.

Next-Gen Digital Banking

Designed as a secure, fully digital banking platform, Debut redefines mobile banking with advanced, user-friendly features and real-time insights. From biometric onboarding to intelligent transaction categorisation, Debut’s app enables customers to monitor their finances with ease, while Sush Labs’ backend ensures 24/7 security and efficient data management, setting a new standard in digital banking.

A man wearing a hard hat makes notes on a mobile tablet device. Plant Assessor logo.

Safe & Scalable Machinery Compliance

Sush Labs re-platformed Plant Assessor’s app, moving it to Flutter for a consistent cross-platform experience and Azure for a cloud-native backend. The revamped app delivers faster performance, enhanced offline capabilities and a user-friendly interface, making it easier for operators to complete safety checks and ensure compliance across diverse environments. This scalable, modernised solution supports future growth and simplifies machinery management across industries.

colourful 3D shapes laid out on a surface. Debut bank logo.

Next-Gen Digital Banking

Designed as a secure, fully digital banking platform, Debut redefines mobile banking with advanced, user-friendly features and real-time insights. From biometric onboarding to intelligent transaction categorisation, Debut’s app enables customers to monitor their finances with ease, while Sush Labs’ backend ensures 24/7 security and efficient data management, setting a new standard in digital banking.

Ready to modernise your mobile app?

Get in touch with us today to explore how we can help.

There’s a clear business case for modernising mobile apps. By leveraging Flutter, we enhance speed, efficiency and cost-effectiveness, reducing time to market while modernising legacy systems. Our flexible engagement models and focus on innovation ensure your apps stay competitive and aligned with strategic goals.

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