Design and UX specifically for mobile apps on iOS and Android. From first user flows to platform-compliant visual design, prototypes and design handoff to the build team: a design that works in the App Store and on the device.
App design is the process of designing a mobile application: information architecture, user flows, wireframes, visual design, interaction design and prototypes, specifically for iOS and Android. It differs from general UX design in its platform conventions. An app feels different from a website, and users expect an iPhone app to behave like an iPhone app.
Good app design respects Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and Google's Material Design. That means tab bars at the bottom on iOS, bottom navigation on Android, gestures that feel right, system fonts (San Francisco, Roboto) where appropriate, dark and light mode, dynamic text sizes and VoiceOver/TalkBack accessibility. In our experience, around eighty per cent of the UX quality lies there, not in a spectacular splash animation.
We work from discovery (user interviews, jobs-to-be-done, competitor analysis) right through to App Store assets and handover to developers. We also design and do app development ourselves, so the handover is not just an empty Figma link but a design system with tokens, components and clear acceptance criteria. Our designers and developers collaborate from the first sprint. That saves the familiar back-and-forth between design and build, in which nobody feels ownership of the final result on the device.
Ultimately, good app design is more than a collection of screens. It is a coherent product story: a user arrives, quickly understands where they are, and leaves the app with the task completed. That calls for careful choices about information architecture, respect for the user's attention, and the courage to leave things out. You can often recognise good mobile design by what is not there.
You know what you want to build, but you have no in-house designer. We handle the entire process from sketch to Figma prototype, which you can validate with users before a single line of code is written.
Your team builds excellent backends and web apps, but mobile design requires its own knowledge of platform conventions. We work white-label behind your project lead.
Your audience is on the phone. A good app increases retention, push notifications enable immediate re-engagement, and in-app payment works more smoothly than on mobile web.
The old app still dates from iOS 11 conventions, users find it slow or illogical, and you are torn between a rework or starting again from scratch. We begin with a UX audit and together determine the right route.
Multiple product lines, multiple apps, no consistency. A mobile design system makes scale manageable without every team reinventing the wheel.
Since the European Accessibility Act, many B2C apps are legally required to be accessible. That is not a scan after the fact but a design decision: contrast, target size, Dynamic Type, screen-reader flow.
What does the user see when they first open it? Which screens are there, how do they relate, and what is the primary navigation pattern (tab bar, side drawer, modal)? This is where we make most of the decisions that are hard to reverse later.
Colour, typography, iconography, gesture behaviour, transitions and micro-interactions. Brand-aligned yet platform-conformant: an iPhone look on Android is a red flag, and vice versa.
A clickable Figma prototype (or in Principle/ProtoPie for advanced interactions) so you can test with real users. Three iterations on a prototype are better than one release that turns out to be wrong.
Concrete deliverables, not just "a few nice screens". Which components are part of your project depends on scope and phase.
User interviews, JTBD, competitor analysis.
Screen overview, navigation pattern, taxonomy.
Onboarding, conversion, primary tasks in detail.
Low-fidelity sketches and mid-fidelity mock-ups per screen.
Brand-aligned screens, dark/light mode, dynamic type.
Gestures, animations, purposeful micro-interactions.
Clickable Figma prototype, ProtoPie for advanced interactions.
VoiceOver/TalkBack, contrast, Dynamic Type.
Moderated and unmoderated, App Store beta.
Tokens for colour, type and spacing: a single source of truth.
All sizes for iOS and Android, store-ready.
Screenshots, preview video, ASO design.
iOS (Human Interface Guidelines). Apple's guidelines prescribe behaviour for the tab bar at the bottom, the navigation bar at the top, modal presentation, the swipe-back gesture, large titles, San Francisco typography and SF Symbols. iOS users recognise a well-built iOS app by small details: correct haptic feedback, a properly configured share sheet, and respect for the safe area on notch or Dynamic Island devices.
Android (Material Design 3). Google's Material You calls for bottom navigation, a floating action button where appropriate, dynamic colour theming based on the user's wallpaper, Roboto or system typography, and navigation patterns that work with the Android back gesture. What belongs on iOS usually does not belong on Android, and vice versa.
Cross-platform does not mean one-size-fits-all design. With React Native or Flutter you can share one codebase, but that does not mean the UI has to be identical. We design to platform conventions and specify which screens can be identical and which should differ per platform. See also our work with React Native.
The industry standard for UI design, with variants, auto-layout, design tokens and developer handoff. Our design files are structured so development can start straight away without the designer having to explain them.
When a micro-interaction or gesture is better explained in a prototype than in a Figma mock-up, we use ProtoPie or Principle. That saves discussion between design and development later on.
For remote usability tests we use Maze (tasks, success rate, heatmaps) and Lookback (moderated sessions with recording). For beta testing on real devices we use TestFlight and Google Play Internal Testing.
App design cannot be separated from the rules an app must meet to be listed in the App Store and placed on the market. We build those requirements in from the very first sketch, not as a check at the end.
Contrast, focus states, target size, legibility.
European Accessibility Act for consumer apps.
Screen reader flows tested on iOS and Android.
Layouts that scale with the user's font size.
Permission flows with clear consent text.
Stricter rules for apps aimed at children.
Transparency requirements for AI features in the app.
App Store and Play Store guidelines checked in advance.
Good design handoff stops developers from having to guess. We deliver a Figma file with design tokens (colour, typography, spacing, radius, motion), components with variants that match code components one-to-one, and specifications per interaction where needed, without spelling out everything that is self-evident.
Does your team work in SwiftUI, Jetpack Compose, React Native or Flutter? We export tokens as JSON or as platform-specific files via Style Dictionary. This keeps design as the single source of truth, so a developer doesn't have to change a colour by hand across twenty screens. That's not a luxury: for an app with thirty or more screens, a central token system is the difference between maintainable and not.
We don't do the handover through a document alone. We schedule a handoff session with the designer and lead developer, walk through the flows, and remain available during the build for design review on the actual builds. This prevents the classic "the design looks different from the mock-up" problem. For enterprise projects, we also set up governance: who may change tokens, how component changes are versioned, and how we keep multiple product teams in sync on one design system.
A specific point of attention is consistency between the design tool and the production build. A Figma component with 80% opacity and a 12px blur can look different in SwiftUI or Jetpack Compose than in the browser preview, due to different blending, rendering pipelines and devices. We test design elements on real devices early in the project, not only in the QA phase, so surprises don't cause rework.
We talk to your stakeholders, conduct user interviews with the intended target group, and analyse competitors and existing apps in the same category. This is where we define the jobs to be done: what your user is really trying to achieve, and which problem the app solves.
Screen overview, navigation pattern, and primary user flows (onboarding, core tasks, conversion, edge cases). Low-fidelity sketches focused on structure rather than colour or typography. This is the phase where the most can be saved by testing quickly.
Brand-aligned high-fidelity screens, platform-conform for iOS and Android, dark and light mode, Dynamic Type variants, and screen states (loading, empty, error). In parallel, we build the component library with variants and tokens.
A clickable prototype that you test with real users. Maze for unmoderated quantitative tests, Lookback for moderated in-depth sessions. We look for drop-offs and hesitations: small signals that point to a design flaw before development begins.
Exporting tokens, specifying components, and a handoff session with development. During the build we remain available for design review on real builds, and adjust the design where the realities of the platform reveal something that wasn't visible in Figma.
A desktop mindset on a mobile screen. A mobile app is not a small website. Designing screens like a dashboard but at 390 pixels wide produces something that works poorly in any context: tap targets that are too cramped, typography that is hard to read, and navigation that falls apart as soon as a user scrolls.
Too many features in onboarding. The first five seconds determine whether a user carries on or leaves. We regularly see onboarding flows of six screens in a row covering permissions, an intro tour and account creation. Ask only what is strictly necessary for the first valuable action, and postpone the rest until the user has context.
Identical design on iOS and Android. A tab bar at the bottom on iOS should look like a bottom navigation bar on Android. They look slightly different on purpose. A swipe-back gesture works natively on iOS, whereas on Android users expect a back button or the system back action. Ignoring these conventions gives you two half-working apps instead of two that work well.
Ignoring permissions. Location, camera, microphone, push, contacts: each permission is a potential refusal point. The design should make clear why the permission is needed, at the right moment, with a fallback for "no". We have seen apps become unusable as soon as a user declines push notifications, simply because that scenario was never designed for.
Accessibility as an afterthought. A VoiceOver check at the end of the project reveals faults that were already built into the design, such as a gesture that cannot be undone for a screen reader user, or colour contrast that falls short. We test accessibility from the wireframe stage, not only at QA.
App Store assets as an afterthought. A good product with poor screenshots gets fewer downloads. Iconography, screenshot templates and possibly a preview video are part of the design process, not something marketing adds afterwards.
You have an app idea but no design team. We handle the whole process, from the first user interview to a Figma prototype you can validate with investors or real users. Often combined with building an MVP through app development.
Your team builds excellent backends, web apps and APIs, but mobile design requires its own expertise. We work white-label under your project manager, or as a specialist within a shared project.
Your audience is on their phone, push notifications give you direct re-engagement, and in-app payment works more smoothly than on mobile web. A well-designed app measurably increases retention and conversion, provided the design is right and the App Store page convinces.
The current app feels dated, users find it slow or illogical, and ratings are falling. We start with a UX audit, identify the top three problems, and decide together whether it needs a redesign or a start from scratch.
Multiple product lines, multiple apps, no consistency. A design system for mobile keeps scale manageable: one source for tokens and components, governance over changes, and versioning of the system itself.
The EAA, WCAG 2.2, GDPR and the AI Act for in-app AI features all add up. We build these in from the very first sketch rather than checking for them afterwards.
A half-hour introductory conversation in which we discuss what app you want, on which platform, for which user group, and which type of design project suits that. No obligation, no sales pitch.
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