Revamping Your Mobile App: The Ultimate Guide to Successful App Redesign

Developers or businesses can decide to change the outlook of their mobile applications for several reasons. It could be that you’re branching out toward a new audience, your interface is dated, customer satisfaction is at an all-time low, or it could even just be that you’re curious about trying something new. Whatever the case may be, mobile app redesign is usually the best go-to in times when one is in need of change.

But what exactly is a mobile app redesign? What does it entail? You can’t just opt for it on a whim – what are the most reasonable and legitimate reasons that warrant a mobile app redesign? What evaluation tools do you need to embark on a redesign journey, what beginner steps ought to be taken, and what are the costs?

These are some of the questions we answer below. Keep reading to find out if a mobile redesign is a solution to your problem and the best way to go about it.

What is Mobile App Redesign?

Imagine your bedroom, with the white sheets and a dozen pillows, the mustard-yellow walls with the mirror and picture frames, the air-conditioning or rolling fan strapped to the ceiling; the sun pouring out of your window and over your reading desk and chair. Then you wake one morning, or, as time goes on, your room demands a change.

It could be because of anything. Maybe you want the picture frames on your desk and not hanging on the walls any longer. Maybe the pillows are half a dozen too many for you; maybe the sun should be streaming over your curtains and lighting them up, rather than pouring and shining over your reading desk.

This is basically what mobile app redesign encompasses. Changing the look and feel of your app. It could be as little as repositioning a simple button from down low to high up, changing up a few fonts, or mixing in some colors.

And it could be as large and significant as upgrading many key functions. The point is you’re dedicating time, labor, strategy, and cost to take your mobile application from the way it currently is to the better way you want it to be.

Reasons for Mobile App Redesign

Mobile application redesign is a pivotal, complex thing that one doesn’t just jump into. There are some important reasons that demand your app to be revamped. Additionally, there are many key factors to consider, such as cost, time, pros and cons, and your design team. However, mobile app redesign is definitely warranted in the following instances:

Branching Out to a New Audience

No two societies, communities, generations, or target audiences are the same. What works for people of one country wouldn’t necessarily work for people from another country. What you market and the way you market a product to millennials wouldn’t be the same way you’d market toward boomers or zoomers.

This same rule of thumb applies in the tech world, in mobile app development and redesign. For example, if your application is a travel or gaming application, the colors associated with fun or relaxation in Mexico might not be the same colors associated with those same feelings and activities in Canada.
If such is the case and you’re looking to branch into other countries, age groups, or a whole different target audience, then redesigning your mobile application could be best suited to maximize your product marketing.

Negative Customer Reviews

After downloading or using an app, all customers are granted the chance to comment on their experience using the application. Speed and efficiency, or the reverse. What they like about it, what they don’t. What doesn’t work, and what does? What is inconvenient and even unnecessary, and how much they enjoy using the app.

It could be as simple as too-bright colors or too cursive font, or more important how distant the notification bar was from where it was once positioned in the last upgrade. But if you find that your app is consistently garnering more negative than positive reviews, then it may be up for some redesigning.

Customer opinion is important. It’s directly linked to the level of customer satisfaction and plays a role in the kind of press your product is receiving, good or bad. And contrary to that age-old, mistaken premise, not all press is good press. Negative reviews definitely spell bad press.

It could send the wrong message, deter others from bothering to download or engage your app. In this case, your mobile application would benefit from an upgrade in the way of a redesign.

Old-fashioned Interface

The world has a collectively short attention span. Trends are always changing. What was in vogue last month could fade off next month. This isn’t just the case in fashion. It’s the case in every industry, including software technology and development.

Being in the technological field means constantly staying on top of the current trends. If your product, your mobile application, etc., is to be counted among the best and most efficient, then you have to be young-hearted, open-minded, and willing to constantly upscale.

Otherwise, your customers will grow weary of the stress and discomfort of navigating an outdated interface and discard your application altogether. Obviously, you don’t want this to happen. And to prevent it, frequent redesigns, here and there, however light and simple, could prove most beneficial in the long run.

Rebranding

Unlike reaching a new target audience, which is more outward, rebranding is more internal and more inward. Some may even say it is more delicate, too.

Rebranding is more than just changing up your logo or integrating a couple of extra additions to your services or application. Rebranding entails changing up your very brand identity, especially in a way that makes it stand out to your counterparts or competitors.

Brand story or brand identity is the key thing that is associated with a brand, company, service, product, etc. When people think of your mobile application, what do they think of?

For example, when you think of the fashion brand Nike, what do you think of? Ability, ambition, resilience, style.

What do you think of when you think of Snapchat? You think of fun, think of togetherness, self-expression, and living in the moment.

Perhaps you want to change your brand story. You want to change how your mobile app is perceived or interacted with. A mobile redesign is the first step you have to take toward achieving such a goal.

Complex Navigation

Navigating a mobile application involves two key factors: UI and UX. UI means user interface. It’s physical, outward, what the user sees and interacts with. It’s an external factor.

UX means user experience. This is not tangible, not something you can see or click on. It’s how the user feels as they interact with and gallop around your application.

It’s a more internal factor, far more inward. But both UI and UX are equally important in the development and continual advancement of your application.

And to achieve a successful UI/UX, your application must be swift, and seamless, and the tools easy to wield. Your design must also be easy on the eye.

When the reverse is the case, your customers are left wading through an application that feels heavy, clustered, bulky, or difficult to comb through. Obviously, this can very often lead to frustration and even abandoning the app altogether. If all signs tell you that your application is too complex to navigate, it might be time to redesign.

What to do Before Redesigning Your Mobile App

When designing or building a house, there are certain things that must be done to ensure that your project is on the right track. For example, you must secure your location and a suitable strip of land. You must have your contractors on the ready; the best bricklayers and project managers who will make your building stand strong.

You must have your architect, and not just any architect but one whose plan completely aligns with the one you have in mind. Similar pre-steps must be taken before embarking on a mobile app redesign. Some of them include the following:

Identifying the Problem

For every problem, there is a solution. But the first step toward solving a problem is naming it. That is, identifying what is wrong.

You cannot afford guesswork or afford to wing it. A neat and methodical approach must be taken.

Identifying the problem with your mobile app can be in way of providing customer survey forms, in-app, online, or via social media. This way, you’d be pinpointing the issue, hearing from the horse’s mouth. It’d be difficult to go wrong when you are hearing your customers’ pain points directly from them.

Detailing Your Solution

There is such a thing as providing the right solution to the wrong problem. Identifying the problem first is what helps to avoid this. Afterward, you must determine your best solution.

The solution to an outdated interface is integrating a more modern and in-style look. The solution to complicated navigation is simplification. But these are still broad terms of solutions.

To truly and successfully redesign your mobile app, you must detail every step of your solution. This will help with pinning down relevance, cutting down excesses, evaluating your assets, and remaining on the right point. You have to hash out your redesign concepts, and prototypes, fully outline milestones, and many more.

For example, some factors could contribute to your dated interface. It could be poor iconography, slow touch target, low-quality media, lacking text hierarchy, or an insufficient distinction between primary and secondary buttons.

All of these are more specific problems to the broader problem of a dated user interface. And with specific problems come specific solutions, such as upgrading the quality of pictures or media, expanding the distinction between primary and secondary buttons, etc.

Announce Your Redesign

You don’t want to take your users by surprise. Human beings love their comfort zones. Over time, users grow accustomed to the way that a mobile app looks, even if they’re not fond of one or two features or components.

Releasing your redesigned mobile app without forewarning or advance notice to your customers might ruin the result before it’s even released. This could put off some users or cause them to be determined to frown upon the changes no matter how advanced they are, just because they weren’t given the time to prepare for it.

To avoid this, ensure that you announce your redesign before releasing it. This could be in the form of a press release, email notification, or an in-app notification. This way, your mobile app customers know that one or two things are about to change, and they’re prepared for it and even looking forward to it.

Track Launch Response and Seek Feedback

After the launch of your mobile app redesign, you must pay attention to the customer response rate. In essence, this is how your users feel about it, how satisfied they are about it, and so on.

Seeking feedback is the only way to grow as a developer and to ensure your app is always up to date. Keep experimenting, and don’t forget to try new things.

Improve (and Keep Improving)

Developers are not perfect. Certainly, neither software technologies nor web apps. Not everyone will like your updates, changes, or redesigns. Everyone will not always be pleased, and some users are more easily dissatisfied than others.

But as long as you keep improving your updates, upscaling your designs, investing in your assets, and investing in interface development, you’re doing the right thing; this way, no matter what, your mobile app will always garner more positive than negative reviews.

Types of Mobile App Redesign

Below are the major types of mobile app redesign:

Features Redesign

A feature redesign is usually easy and timely. It can be as simple as changing the color, font, or size of your web app element. For example, if the account number displayed in your banking app is too small to be easily seen, then repositioning where it occurs for easier visibility or enlarging the font would be a good solution.

Component Redesign

A component redesign is a bit more large-scoped than a features redesign. This can involve adding or removing a key element in your mobile applications. For example, the addition of the shop button on Instagram business pages or the quote tweet component that was added to Twitter.

Complete Redesign

This is a complete overhaul of almost all features and elements of your web application. It could be done due to several reasons. It could be because your business is edging out into a whole new country or geographical landscape, or it could be because of a complicated interface or a complete rebranding of your company.

This almost always means stripping off your old design and inputting something totally different. And not just different. But fresh, modern, and definitely advanced compared to the former.

An example of this is Airbnb. They took their app from an outdated, blue aesthetic into a fresh logo and a fresh feel when navigating the app. They even invented a new color for their interface, which they called “rausch.”

Sometimes, a feature or component redesign is not what your mobile application needs or just won’t be enough to achieve exactly what you have in mind. Sometimes, what your business needs to upscale is a complete redesign.

Advantages of Redesigning Your Mobile App

Some advantages of redesigning your mobile app include the following:

1. Increase in Customer Satisfaction
2. Fosters Performance Improvement
3. Keeping up With Novel Trends and Industry Demands
4. Business Growth Optimization
5. Helps in Staying Above the Competition
6. Advancing User Experience and Usability
7. Better Brand Power
8. Enables a Wider Audience Reach

Cost of Mobile App Redesign – The downside of the app redesign

The cost of mobile app redesign is dependent on many factors. The scope of work highly determines the number of funds that will be channeled into your redesign project.

Another determining factor is the timeframe you choose to assign to your redesign project. How much time can you afford to dedicate to revamping your mobile application? A few weeks? A few months? This will also determine how much it’ll cost you.

Last but not least is the size of your redesign team. How many app developers do you plan to task with redesigning your application? Is it a redesign that will reflect only for Android users, or equally for Android and iOs users?

All of these factors play a key role in the total cost of your mobile app redesigning. A general rule of thumb is the more time, and the larger the scope of the redesign, the more costly your redesign is guaranteed to be.

You must also bear in mind that not all users will always be happy with your web app redesigns. You cannot please everyone.

With each update or redesign will always be customers who are displeased about one thing or another. But this shouldn’t deter you from continuing to achieve user satisfaction and constantly upscaling. It also shouldn’t cause you to go overboard with the cost.

Conclusion

Mobile app redesign can be beneficial in many ways, but it’s not just a superficial or surface-level act to pursue. There are many factors to consider before deciding to revamp your web application and many reasons why your business could be in need of a redesign. Rebranding, turning to a new target audience, and lack of customer satisfaction are some of the various reasons for mobile app redesign.

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Give them the attention they deserve. Ask the right questions, and implement the right and relevant redesigns. Pay attention to what they have to say about your web app before and after releasing your redesign. This way, everyone wins.

FAQs

When is the right time to redesign my mobile app?

There are many reasons why you might want to redesign your mobile app and many ways to know when your app demands an upgrade in the form of a redesign. It could be anything from an old, been-around-too-long aesthetic to taking an effective step to curb negative reviews.

It could also be because you’re looking to introduce your business to a notably younger generation, and it could even be that you have decided to rebrand your company altogether. In these instances, redesigning your mobile app is usually the best solution to undertake.

What should I consider when redesigning my mobile app?

Consider your cost. How much can you afford to spend on the redesign? Consider your end goal. What are your deal breakers?

What features are most enjoyed? What features can be lived without, and what can’t? What features do your mobile app users miss, and what do they wish gone altogether?

What do they like about your app, and what don’t they like? How do users perceive the app today, and what do you expect to change about said perception?

Consider time: how long do you think you and your team or business can dedicate to revamping the look of your application? Consider scope too. What kind of redesign are you opting for? Features, components, or a complete redesign? Will the redesign benefit Android or IOS users, or both?

How do I get user feedback about my app redesign?

You can get user feedback through in-app or online surveys, calls or emails. You can also get access to your customers’ opinions through app store reviews.

What is being said about the redesign? Is it necessary and relevant? Can it be bettered still? All these and more are what you stand to gain from seeking and paying heed to user feedback.

If you need highly qualified and proven mobile app developers at the right price for your project, contact us now!