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DESIGN
Step 2
There are two parts to designing an app:
- UI (User Interface): how the app looks.
- UX (User Experience): how the app behaves.
How to get started
If you have no design experience, don't worry! Many people who design apps are self-taught (including me!) and there are tons of great resources online to help you level up your skills.
Here are the steps I would take to get started, and feel free to skip any steps if you're already familiar with them:
- Watch a few Figma tutorials on YouTube.
- Look up other professional designs for inspiration. I usually search “<my app type> designs” on Pinterest or Dribbble, for example “fitness app designs” or “recipe book app designs”.
- Using those designs as inspiration, start designing your own app. If you feel extra lost, even just work on copying those designs in Figma for practice.
- Design is an iterative process and it's about continuing to improve your designs. Continue to add your personal touch and changes as you see fit.
UX Research
UX design is harder to capture in Figma. UX is more the glue that ties your Figma views together, such as animations, onboarding flows, notifications, etc.
For UX research, I would highly recommend downloading every app you can find that is similar to what you want to build and playing around with those apps. Nothing beats actually using and testing out apps to get a better sense for UX.
Tools & Resources for Designing
- Figma: designing tool. This is honestly the best and only design tool you will need.
- Pinterest, Dribbble: design inspiration.
- Envato Elements, Iconscout: Icons and assets for your designs.