Arrow Down
Mobile App Design
Mobile App Development

5 Reasons Why In-App Gestures Are The Key To An Intuitive User Experience

Prasanna Gopinath
-
July 9, 2019

You can’t make an app successful only by creating a great mobile app design. It first has to be comprehensive and highly intuitive. Amazing user experience shows to have a direct effect on the success of an app. With our access to never-stopping evolving technologies, in-app gestures are always increasing.

Mobile app development teams are constantly looking for new ways to maximize user experience. In-app gestures happen to be the key to the intuitive mobile app experience.

Looking all the way back to 2007, when Apple introduced the first ever iPhone, touchscreen interactions caught the attention of users as they learned that pinching, swiping and zooming on the interface are also possible. Ever since then these in-app gestures have become more intuitive and today we don’t even pay attention to these interactions, as they’re now natural.

Gestures are among the best practices to improve your user experience, as they can convey so much with so little motion. The main reason they feel so intuitive to us is that they resemble interacting with a real object.

Here are some of the reasons why in-app gestures are the key to intuitive user experience.

Ease of Use

Gestures are so common that people now expect to see them and know how to use them right away. As they are becoming even more intuitive, the use of a gesture can cut down of steps to completing a certain process.

A simple example could be given with an email. You don’t need to tap to select and then delete it instead, you could just swipe it away. The ease of use of gestures is their main advantage as users are looking for a more convenient, time-saving experience. Keep in mind that the fewer clicks needed the higher conversion rate will be.

Intuitive Controls

Buttons have an important role in driving calls-to-action, that’s why they can’t completely disappear from the mobile app design principles. However, in every case where gestures feel more natural and can simplify the user experience, they have to be implemented.

A great example of a popular in-app gesture are is Tinder swipes. Swiping left or right on users photos, depending on whether you like them or not. Many mobile apps followed this example it was even implemented in e-Commerce apps, so they can easily make correct recommendations of a specific user, based on what he likes.

Saving Space

Buttons take up space and gestures doesn’t. If your mobile app contains more information, you’d like to use gestures as they allow more open space to be utilized for it and for design. Simply said reduce the unnecessary components in favor of the necessary.

Furthermore, fewer buttons mean less distraction to allow completion of their primary goal more quickly, which usually results in higher conversion rates. Smaller screen devices like smartphones, which in fact are the most used ones, really make designers look for ways to optimize the available space so that all main features are easily acceptable.

More Lively User Experience

The demanding modern user won’t be satisfied if you only provide a useful app. It should be interesting and attractive as well. The best way to make your mobile application more lively and real is to incorporate in-app gestures. They make the user experience way more enjoyable. That’s because the screen is mostly free of buttons or navigation elements, so you can immerse into the content without obstruction.

Gestures also provide direct interaction with the content. Also using mainly touch and swipe gestures for navigation instead of other elements make your mobile app way more intuitive and keeps you UI pleasing and minimalistic. For the user such gestures are instinctive.

Every mobile app uses different in-app gestures. That’s why you need to leave some hints for your users just in case.

Content-focused mobile application

As we already mentioned the limited space on mobile devices is challenging designers to use it as wisely as possible. The creation of a data-driven design that is yet intuitive is essential. You can put all the content you need with the help of gestures. You’re also able to hide the menu or other features that are natural to an app and let users access it with a swipe for example.

iOS and Android users are very familiar with the swipe gesture as it’s been a part of the mobile operating systems for quite some time now. Users can explore your mobile app without any navigation elements that could distract them.

As a top mobile app development company we can use in-app gestures to create an extremely content-focused mobile application, that is sure to gain success.

Summing up

In-app gestures are a powerful mode of interaction. They make the mobile experience easier and engaging. It’s an absolute must to think about gestures when designing your mobile app. Don’t forget to provide hints to the possible actions as mobile apps use gestures differently.

We’ve listed 5 of the reasons why in-app gestures are the key to intuitive user experience. For sure there are a lot more, but we just gave you a brief example of how they can really improve a mobile app.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Need help with product design or development?

Our product development experts are eager to learn more about your project and deliver an experience your customers and stakeholders love.

Prasanna Gopinath