Is Good App Design Necessarily Expensive?

This is something that all of us have heard at least once. Sometimes it does make sense, but there are times when it just sounds patronizing.

In fact, if you’ve been busy looking for someone to design your mobile app, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard this statement in that typical patronizing tone from a dozen developers and designers.

Well, the reason you keep hearing it in that patronizing tone is that it’s true. Good app design isn’t going to come cheap and we’re here to tell you why.

Mobile App Design Doesn’t Just Happen

Every penny that you spend towards the designing of a mobile app is an investment. There’s a lot that goes into coming up with an effective app design, which you may not realize. For instance, designers and developers need to factor in aspects such as user experience and relevance.

What that means is that they need to make sure your mobile app is easy to use and also in tune with the times. Designers have to research and identify trends that haven’t even occurred yet to determine whether your app will be relevant 3 or 4 years from now. That’s the level of thought and attention that goes into coming up with good design.

Plus, good app design, more often than not, comes from skilled, professional designers who’ve undergone a significant amount of training and have acquired years of expertise. They are not Average Joes who just picked up designing skills during their free time.

There’s also a lot of planning that goes into designing a mobile app. It’s just like designing anything else. You need a blueprint to guide you. In the case of an mobile app, designers call it a concept. The concept is what determines what kind of structure your mobile app will have or how the user experience will be. The concept is the foundation of an app. There are objective and goals for each app and a concept helps achieve them.

Then, let’s not forget the sheer number of man-hours that go into designing mobile apps. App design companies have entire teams of designers working every day to produce high-quality mobile apps. Typically, these designers spend an estimated 16 weeks to come up with an operational mobile app.

That’s the time it takes to come up with something regular. If you want more, you’re going to have to wait much longer and the designers are going to have to spend more time. This could very well include a series of sleepless nights and skipped meals.

There are steps that need to be taken such as internal planning, formatting, tweaking, and testing etc. All this must be approved even before the actual designing part of the process starts. Needless to say, all those man-hours are going to be factored into the pricing as well.

As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into designing a professional mobile app and that’s why it’s bound to be expensive. Now, this cold, hard fact may not exactly put a smile on your face. But, here’s the good news – an expensive mobile app design is still not as expensive as the losses you might face as a result of choosing “cheap” app design. Let us explain.

The Pitfalls of Bad or Cheap App Design

Before we get into the actual discussion, we’d like to tell you that not all good design is expensive. Sometimes, it is possible to come up with some good stuff for just a few dollars. However, those are exceptional cases. 90% of the time, good app design is going to cost you a fair bit of money and cheap app design can cost you your reputation and more.

Everything we are going to discuss below isn’t 100% representative of cheap or inexpensive app design. However, it’s close enough and that’s good enough to avoid taking a risk.

To begin with, let’s take the example of app design templates. When it comes to cheap app design, there is a strong reliance on using simplistic templates. The problem with these templates is that they are very restrictive in their functionality and format.

As a result, you have to deal with issues such as a rigid design. You have no room left for customization and that can spell doom if you’re looking to infuse unique elements that are reflective of your brand. Plus, the ability to include other features later in the future can also prove to be very difficult.

Rigidity is one thing. With simplistic templates, you also might have to deal with aesthetic issues. Now, not all customers want to see the same thing. Depending on the kind of demographic you cater to, you might need a more visually rich app with graphics and animation or an app with more textual content. The point we are trying to make is, it’s better to have a customizable mobile app that helps you adapt to your customers’ requirements. Simplistic templates don’t offer this.

There are similar issues that affect app design as well.

For example, did you know that 6% of the apps submitted to the Apple App Store are rejected for simply not meeting the user interface standards? In other words, compromising on app design prevents you from even making it into an app store. It doesn’t matter if your app achieves the objective. How your app works also matters.

In a study conducted by Localytics, it was found that around 23% of apps that are installed aren’t used and another 23% of apps are used only once before being abandoned. It’s just the remaining 54% of apps that are actually used.

This is the cost of going in for cheap app design.

As we already discussed, good mobile app design can set you back a little, but the long terms benefits outweigh the risks that come with cheap app design. If you want to make an impact, you shouldn’t hesitate to spend. Sometimes, you just have to give some to get some.

About Crafted

Crafted has been making significant strides in the area of mobile app design. By combining our professional expertise with the latest technological tools, we have been able to deliver the best in mobile application design.

Crafted puts every penny you spend to good use, allowing you to reap the benefits that come with a stellar product.