5 of the Best App Designs We’ve Ever Seen

Smartphones have come a long way in a very short period of time. Gone are the days when phone manufacturers sought to make the smallest model with the coolest flip. The early iPhone days changed our demand. Instead of tiny phones we wore on our hip, we wanted bigger screens, brighter colors and unique functions. Today, our phones are constantly becoming larger, more immersive and more powerful. Screen sizes have expanded greatly, while the surrounding bezels have become smaller - and the best app designs are built to take advantage of these elements. How much have things changed? Consider this. The whole iPhone 5s, which was released five-and-a-half years ago, can fit inside the screen of today’s iPhone XS.
[ebook-form] Creating the best app design no longer just means choosing awesome colors and making a great layout. App developers, entrepreneurs and designers of today must constantly consider how smartphone users interact with their devices. The world of app software is competitive, and if you’re going to be successful, knowing how to design an app is imperative. Creating the best app design no longer just means choosing awesome colors and making a great layout. App developers, entrepreneurs and designers of today must constantly consider how smartphone users interact with their devices. The world of app software is competitive, and if you’re going to be successful, knowing how to design an app is imperative.

Before we showcase our favorite app designs ever, let’s examine a few ways that design has progressed, just in the last year.

Swipeable UI: Two years ago, Apple introduced a complete gesture-based user interface with the iPhone X and iOS 11. In 2019, Google is expected to do the same with thr Android Q and the upcoming Pixel smartphone. This means that phone users will now expect their apps to be swipeable - and as an app entrepreneur or designer, you will want to make sure that your apps support all popular swipe-based gestures.
Easy Onboarding Process: Over the years, onboarding and registration on apps have become extremely efficient. Users are able to avoid long forms and sign up instantly with their social media accounts. Within the app, designers are also putting more effort into giving the right clues and prompts to guide users through different actions. Since app abandonment is high, designers know that they must make the experience as intuitive and user-friendly as possible.
Innovative Microinteractions: When users interact with apps, they expect some type of feedback. For example, if something is loading, we expect there to be some type of loading circle or loading bar to indicate the app’s progress. Microinteractions are becoming more creative while still accomplishing the objectives of highlighting changes, displaying progress/status, enhancing call-to-action prompts, and more.

These elements were found almost unanimously across all of our favorite app designs. Without further ado, here are the five best app designs that we have come across!

1. Spotify

It’s no surprise that Spotify has gained popularity so quickly. From the moment you open the app, you can feel that they take music streaming seriously. The app is designed to capture your attention from the first usage and to encourage you to explore its playlists and search through an unlimited catalog of music. There are many streaming apps out there, but what makes Spotify so special? Well, they have really awesome playlists. They also built the app on a really awesome design that makes it easy for the user to connect with. In terms of design, there are three things Spotify took advantage of that made us consider them as one of the best app designs:

They used incredible typography.

They implemented custom images.

They used vibrant colors

Typography: Simple by design, Spotify took advantage of clean font choices that are easy on the eyes, rounded on the corners, bolded and perfectly spaced. Their choice of typography makes it easy to read and decipher for all users. A consistent font choice is carried across the application. And just because I know you’re curious - the font choice that Spotify used in their app design is called ‘Proxima Nova’.
High Quality Artwork: Spotify uses amazing album art to really captivate users. Each playlist/album has its own unique illustration that conveys the ‘feeling’ of the album or playlist. Combined with strong titles, Spotify makes it tough for users not to click on a playlist to see what songs it contains.
Color Vibrancy: The main thing that sets Spotify apart is it’s brand personality or its “flavor,” which is felt throughout the entire app. Across the app’s screens, Spotify used soft, vibrant color hues that subtly lie in the background. Combining subtleness with vibrancy, they created a design that sets the mood even before the audio begins to play. For example, open a song like, “Happier” by Bastille and the top of the app gets filled with a warm, fuzzy yellow hue that immediately lifts your mood; setting the stage for the song.

The Spotify streaming service uses this same design (with different optimizations) on its desktop site, mobile apps and across every other platform. As of today, 200+ million active members are streaming music on Spotify. With a fantastic design, Spotify’s apps have done exceedingly well in both the Apple and Google Play Stores. In the Google Play Store, it has a 4.6 rating based on 15 million reviews. In the Apple App Store it boasts a 4.8 rating based on 6.6 million reviews.

2. Medium

Medium has now become the defacto blogging platform for writers, both seasoned and aspiring alike. Much of its success can be attributed to its incredible mobile app, which offers a minimalistic and text-friendly UI that makes reading articles simple. What is it about Medium’s app design that makes it so amazing for both consuming and creating written text content? There were three things that caught our eye:

The amount of whitespace used.

The lack of distracting elements.

The perfect font selection.

Generous Amount of Whitespace: Both reading and writing are activities that require tremendous amounts of brainpower and attention. Too much color can be a distraction, limiting one’s attention and reducing their focus. Medium took this into consideration with their minimalistic design. Most of the app is surrounded by a generous amount of white space which makes the app easy on the eyes.
No Unnecessary Elements: Medium knows it’s purpose and it shows in its design. Its primary objective is to make it easy for people to discover and read amazing content. With this in mind, the app’s main feed consists of only two things - some text and the header image. The user process is simple - just scroll, and when you find an article you like, click it. There are no excessive steps, no misplaced icons, and no additional actions to distract you from achieving your mission.
Subtle Font Style: For an app like Medium, font style makes all the difference in the world. Medium provides the perfect font-type; one that is superior for reading and writing content. Medium’s text is well spaced and separated by heaviness of color. Headings, for instance, are large and black while general text is smaller and a lighter grey tone. This gives a familiar reading experience, similar to the experience of reading a book or a newspaper.

Over its lifetime, the Medium App has undergone many changes in terms of features and monetization models, but their design philosophy has remained consistent. As of now, it holds a 4.7 rating based on 80k+ reviews in the Google App Store; and a 4.8 rating based on 33.1k reviews in the Apple App Store.

3. Headspace

Whether you’re five-years-old or 50, there’s one thing we all love - cute mascots. When you combine them with big, bold, easy-to-see elements and a wonderfully vibrant user experience, you end up on our Best App Designs list! Headspace’s app design does exactly what it says - it puts you in the right headspace. Along with its mascots and beautiful illustrations, Headspace uses a ton of microinteractions to engage with users. The app provides insightful videos before a session, helping set the mood for meditation. Every element from the session thumbnails to is text is prominent and visually appealing. That being said, there are three things that we find especially attractive about Headspace’s mobile app design:

They use REALLY cool animations.

Headspace - using characters in app design

They use color strategically.

They use completely custom app elements.

Wonderful Animations: Headspace has created a new standard for mascots and illustrations in the app design space. As soon as you open the app, you are greeted with an animated illustration of one of their many characters. Once logged in, you’re exposed to all of their characters as they pop in and out of different screens. Furthermore, every session has its own unique thumbnail illustration, which makes it instantly clear what the session is about. With the help of several unique characters, Headspace’s design makes you feel as if you are taking the first step on a beautiful journey.
Strategic Use of Color: Colors (or the lack of in the case of Medium) play a vital role in the app experience. For Headspace, the tone of the app is set with a palatte of warm and relaxed colors. From a psychology perspective, warm colors help to relax the mind, while bright colors present a more energetic energy.
Custom Elements: There’s not an element on the entire Headspace app that isn’t custom. Every design element was created exclusively for the Headspace app. There are no generic icons, fonts or images. Every button, illustration and layout design was made specifically to express Headspace’s mission. Although it is completely custom, the user experience is still familiar, making navigation extremely simple.

They have a great design, but how does the Headspace app fare in the real world? For starters, the app has been downloaded 11 million times and brings in an annual revenue of $50 million. It’s been used by the likes of Emma Watson and Richard Branson, and has been featured by the world’s top media outlets.

4. Snapseed

Snapseed is one of the best-performing, yet underrated, photo editing apps ever. Released by Google well over 5 years ago, Snapseed’s app design still stands the test of time - and has many loyal users. Although Snapseed rarely gets mentioned in mainstream publications, it has been downloaded 50 million times and is revered by photo enthusiasts around the world. What makes Snapseed special? For us it’s two things especially:

A super easy on-boarding experience

Gesture-based UI.

Let’s take a look at what makes people keep coming back to use Snapseed as their default photo editing app.

Easy Onboarding: Most photo editing apps are complex and confusing. Snapseed, on the other hand, makes things as simple as possible. The first screen you’ll come across is a minimal page with a huge “+” button and a prompt saying, “Tap anywhere to open a photo”. After tapping, you are taken to the gallery where you can choose the specific image you want to edit. Once the image has opened, three menus are presented: Looks, Tools, and Export. Within these three tabs, you will find every tool needed to edit your image. Surprisingly, because of its amazing categorization, the app never feels overwhelming, even with dozens of tools to sort through.
Gesture-Based UI: With many photo editing apps, you’re forced to rely on thin bars and small buttons to achieve certain actions. These features are often terribly responsive and can become frustrating to users. In Snapseed, however, the whole screen is swipeable - enabling simpler usage and taking advantage of the device’s gesture-based abilities.

No, there’s aren’t any out-of-this-world design elements or custom characters with this one - but it works, and it works well. After adding dozens of awesome tools in a very simple app design, how has Snapseed performed? While not that popular on the Apple App Store, Snapseed still holds a 4.5 rating based on 123 ratings. But on the Google Play Store, it has been downloaded over 100 million times - and holds a 4.5 rating based on 900k reviews.

5. Trello

Another one of our all-time favorite app designs is Trello. With productivity apps on the rise, Trello has faced immense competition - but they have still managed to stay on top. But why did we choose this app as one of the best app designs? For us, it came down to it’s UI, which is strikingly different from other productivity apps. Trello doesn’t just allow you to list out tasks, but to interact and collaborate with others through an efficient and effective task board. There are three major things we love about Trello:

They let users see the big picture.

They included great swipe features.

Their design is responsive and engaging.

To understand why Trello is such a great app, here’s a brief breakdown of its app’s best design highlights:

Showcasing the Big Picture: Trello doesn’t just make it easy to follow your own tasks, but it allows you to see the tasks of the entire team, if desired. This means, everyone on the project can see the bigger picture, as well as their specific portion of that picture. This is accomplished through a “card-based” system, which allows users to swipe through columns and boards - where tasks are added. On Trello, anyone can quickly create a new card and get started with a task.
Swipe Features: Trello uses swipe features to make navigation easy. You can quickly move through each board by swiping side to side, or move through each column by swiping up and down. The app allows you to quickly move cards from one column to another, and introduces a level of simplicity that other productivity apps lack.
Engaged Functionality: Large and easy to drag cards, a colorful blue UI and highly visible buttons makes Trello a pleasure to use. These factors, combined with the easy navigation of the app aligns with their “productivity” mission by making the task-management process extremely streamlined, as well. Due to it’s design, Trello is able to quickly engage users and is scalable even across extremely large teams.

Did Trello succeed with its design choices?

Well, since its inception, it has been acquired by Altassan (the creators behind Jira and Bitbucket). By 2017, it has hit 25 million sign ups and is now worth over $400 million. As of today, Trello is one of the most popular productivity apps on the market.
Including both their desktop and mobile apps, Trello has over 35 million global users. It has a respectable 4.5 rating based on 80k+ reviews on Google Play Store and a 4.7 rating based in 3.7k reviews in the Apple App Store.

Creating The Best App Designs

The purpose of this article is simple - we want to help you design, build and launch amazingly successful apps and we know that looking at what’s out there is the best way to inspire new innovation. By implementing some of the techniques that successful apps have used, you can enhance your app design and make your software more friendly to users and customers.

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No matter what stage of the app development process you’re in, we can help. Need further guidance on creating an awesome cutting-edge app design? Contact us today and schedule a consultation with one of our top-class app designers. Is there an awesome app design that we should have added to our list? Tell us about it in the comments!

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