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A healthcare mobile app's unique and user-friendly UI design reduces friction and ensures a seamless user experience. Our team can help you with a robust healthcare mobile app by incorporating value-driven mobile UX design and advanced features for digital health solutions.
Our world revolves around smartphones and intelligent apps-- and mobile health apps are no different. The use of mHealth applications has escalated twice since 2015, driven by increasing investment in the digital health market. One will find 350,000 health and medical apps across Apple and Android app stores, with 560 million people using health app users in 2022, a 22.5% increase from the previous year.
In the crowded healthcare app market, only a select few capture and keep users' attention. This often comes down to how well they balance a sleek design with practical functionality. Our guide is here to help you navigate this challenge. You'll learn to create a healthcare app that's not only professional and functional but also engaging and intuitive. Tailored to the needs of patients, providers, and administrators, these tips and tricks will elevate your mobile UI/ UX and ensure your app delivers an optimised mobile experience.
Successful healthcare mobile app development includes well-planned mobile UX design, which ensures a rewarding experience. Here are a few essential features of UI UX for mobile apps that can retain user engagement.
Richard Branson has rightly said, “Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make things complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.”
When designing a UI for a mobile app, it is vital to keep it simple and easy to understand. If users find it challenging to navigate through the app, they might quit using it.
Effective mobile UX design hinges on simple and thoughtful navigation, especially in healthcare apps. This allows users to perform tasks, boosting both engagement and satisfaction quickly. A mobile app UI that's clear and minimalistic is universally appreciated, making it easy for users to navigate through various screens smoothly. It also empowers them to explore and understand the app's features at their own pace.
“By leveraging well-designed mobile app UI templates, you can enhance the user experience, ensuring your app not only meets but exceeds the expectations of all stakeholders in the healthcare industry,” says Dr Aakash Doshi, CEO of Montar HealthTech.
A typical mobile app design’s look and feel is one of the determining factors in how long a user will use it. This holds for healthcare mobile apps as well.
An aesthetically pleasing design featuring the right mix of visuals, colours, and fonts can significantly enhance the user experience of a mHealth app. While there are no strict colour rules, choosing a palette that contributes to a positive and comforting experience for the user is important. Opting for soothing shades like cool blues and greens can help set a calming tone, potentially easing user anxiety.
In developing healthcare mobile apps, it's vital to balance innovation with clarity. Overloading the app with cutting-edge features can lead to a cluttered interface, confusing users and detracting from the app's primary purpose. A well-designed healthcare app UI/UX should focus on straightforward navigation and clear presentation, allowing users to quickly find necessary information and complete tasks efficiently. Remember, the best UI UX for mobile apps blends advanced features with user-friendly simplicity.
Keeping essential elements of the UI and UX for mobile apps consistent across all app screens meets user expectations that performing specific actions will deliver the same results every time. Crucial components like typography, layout, and interactions can help users identify and become familiar with app usage patterns. They won’t have to spend much time learning to use the app, which, in turn, reduces their cognitive load.
While getting accustomed to the app, users may make mistakes. A well-designed UI should not only help avoid these errors through intuitive guidance and alerts but also assist in correcting them.
For example, if a user enters incorrect patient data, the app could provide a notification or alert to review and rectify the information. Analysing common user errors and implementing strategies to prevent them can enhance the app's usability and user engagement.
Now that we have covered the essential features for good UI/UX design, let’s look at the functional elements of a mHealth app that will attract - and retain- user engagement.
Users often decide whether to keep or delete an app within just 3 to 7 days, and about 25% abandon an app after only one use. Most apps are uninstalled within three months. Given this rapid judgement, it's crucial to consider: how can your app capture and retain their attention effectively?
This can be challenging, especially when several other options are available in the mhealth market. Let’s find out more about the RIGHT design elements a healthcare mobile app needs to deliver an optimised experience that will have users coming back for more!
Responsive design is key for users to seamlessly transition between different mobile screen sizes while enjoying a consistent interface. Adopting a mobile-first approach, prioritise designing for smaller screens first. Utilise fluid grids and flexible layouts to ensure your app adapts well across various screen sizes, maintaining readability and usability.
For visual elements, employ SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), which scales without losing quality, ensuring your graphics look sharp on any screen. Additionally, CSS media queries can be used to adjust the resolution and size of these elements to suit different screen sizes effectively. This approach guarantees that your app's interface looks great and functions smoothly, regardless of the device used.
The two dominant mobile operating platforms–Android and iOS, have their own interface elements and software development kits. Hence, having native app features delivers exceptional app performance and efficiency. Further, visual aspects of native app development are stored in the phone, making load times faster.
For example, teleconsultation apps can provide a voice-over function by using the phone's microphone to make patient care more direct and accessible. Other mobile functions like camera or GPS can also provide a better user experience.
Offline app development enables users to use the healthcare app without a cellular signal or WiFi. A study by Forrester states that offline capability is the most essential feature of modern apps. Sometimes, poor network connectivity can hamper patient care and delay critical decision-making.
The app restores data stored on the phone in offline mode once the network is stable and continues working smoothly without any hassle. Users can use the app technically at all times, enhancing the overall user experience.
One of the modern features that medical apps shouldn’t ignore is push notifications. A pop-up message on the mobile screen can trigger users to log into the app, attracting and engaging users. For example, push notifications can remind them of their exercises, diets, or ongoing treatments. It is one of the effective ways to upsell other services and make mobile UX design different, increasing engagement and retention.
It is not easy to overlook a pop-up notification on the screen, making push notifications for UX mobile apps effective, direct and quick!
Social media helps enhance healthcare communication and education. Social media integration and calendar integration can offer convenience and allow users to interact with their social networks through the mHealth app. The UI of mobile apps can integrate push notifications with the phone’s calendar to remind patients of upcoming appointments.
Likewise, users can share their experience on social media platforms and spread the word about their care experience. They can share health-related information through the app and foster community support, increasing the mHealth app’s brand visibility. However, ensure user consent and privacy compliance to protect user’s sensitive information.
Medical apps are a prime target of hackers as they contain personal and sensitive information. Hence, safeguarding protected health information (PHI) stored in the app is crucial, including user data and encryption keys. Security measures like vulnerability scanning, strong authentication, and web applications firewalls (WAF) help mitigate data breaches and other forms of fraud.
In addition, security protocols such as compliance with HIPAA, meet statutory requirements in the healthcare industry. It ensures that only authorised individuals can view and access PHI data. Taking a proactive security approach ensures a robust medical app and builds trust amongst users.
The UI/ UX design of mobile apps, especially in healthcare, should be tailored to the target audience's expectations and perceptions. This approach engages all stakeholders and makes the app enjoyable to use. The key to success is a simple and clear design, enhancing the app's usability and user comfort.
Partnering with the right technology expert is the first step in creating an aesthetically pleasing and personalised medical app. Montar Healthtech, with its extensive experience in digital health software and solutions, can guide you in offering a feature-rich mobile app. Explore our custom digital health solutions and mobile app UI design templates for expert consultation on designing your healthcare app. Contact us today!
