iOS App Development & Design Trends

With over $30.7 billion revenue Apple has gained over 2020 last quarter, iOS mobile app development is still taking high priority for many rising startups and businesses worldwide. Most if not all of the mobile app development companies are investing so much effort into the iOS app and UI design just to produce a product that will immediately grab all of the attention from their potential market segment. Raising significantly customer loyalty and brand awareness coming close to completing the big enterprise giants.

The iOS app development market to this day is still considered to be one of the most promising and unexpected ones in the entire USA. Furthermore, the operating system is considered to be one of the most secure ones among other mobile competitors and is the prominent leader of mobile app development. So there is no doubt that any digital company or a rising startup will be thinking about iPhone app development once they have a unique idea of their own. And that leads to a very curious question: “What drives such technical providers to go for the iOS app development so much?” The answer lies within this article, which we are glad to present to you today!

iOS or iPhone OS or iOS mobile app development is an operative process of software products for iPhone products. Most of the modern apps are written in the Swift programming language, also developed by Apple. If you don’t know much about swift app development, then it is not too late for you or your team to learn it. Since it is quite a powerful and quite a straightforward one.

Ever since 2014 Swift has passed through some core changes and has evolved tremendously. However, Swift app development is not the only branch available for you, there is also Objective-C. It was primarily being used as a main programming language way before Apple released their one, between 2008 and 2014. Sometimes you may even stumble across it in some of the early iOS app development builds. In other cases, you may notice that some of the big companies are still utilizing it as their main programming language. But if you are just a fresher into the iPhone app development stuff, then we highly suggest for you to start with Swift.

Various reasons can both support your swift app development process and provide you with an insight into the importance of it. One of the good reasons you should go along with the iOS mobile app development is the amount of desired revenue that you want to generate. Otherwise, to develop a very good number of users, you probably should go with the Android development. For gaining more users during an iOS app development you need a solid marketing team. And with each announcement of any new Apple products or iOS versions, various companies are constantly aligning their development to the new updates. More than that, it seems like Apple is controlling the entire technological industry on purpose, which is both good and bad. So to define other significant points, we present to you some reasons that you should go with iOS app development.

• Performance and Business-Oriented – In the vast majority of cases, the iOS apps are typically used to improve the satisfaction of the customers and to boost sales for your company. Since all features and functionalities are mostly focused on business-related approaches.
• High-Quality Applications - Speaking of quality, all of the created apps in the Apple Store are very qualitative and secured. That is also one of the reasons why everyone is so reluctant towards iOS app development.
• A viable OS that Produces Revenue – Being one of the leading companies in the mobile app development niches, iOS app development is preferred typically because it is capable of gaining more revenue from its customers. The monetization system is very polished, driving your business endeavors.

Indeed, Apple is directly affecting and impacting the state of the market with each new revolutionary and innovative technology released. So to illustrate what are the approaches and methods Apple is currently using, we present to you core trends that are directly tied with the iOS app development process.

Swift

According to the 2019 research, it was estimated that almost 42% of all apps available on the Apple Store. So you can say that the swift app development is both flexible, secured, and scalable. Swift 5.3.3 is slowly getting more and more praises from all kinds of different places due to its stable Application Binary Interface. There are quite a lot of features that can be discussed and debated, so it’s not a surprise that so many businesses are into iOS app development.

Most of the Swift libraries will be included in every future Apple product both physical devices and digital applications. One of the key features that are swift app development can potentially attract more developers is its compatibility with most of the Linux operating systems.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is a very brand new innovative technology of 2021 that is still gaining more and more popularity during iOS mobile app development. That being said, Apple has integrated ARKit 4, which can be exclusively used for those who have a deep desire of developing an AR-based iOS app.

There are other interesting and amazing features which include Motion Capture, People Occlusion, Scene Geometry, Instant AR, and others. Which makes ARKit 4 a very trending and exciting addition to the main iPhone app development process.

Machine Learning & AI

Nowadays lots of various companies and startups are actively including Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence technologies during the iPhone app development. If both of them are combined, all of your potential clients will be getting an individual approach based on their preferences. Since the implemented technologies are constantly learning and analyzing the users’ behavior patterns, improving the experience and the journey that your client passes through your application.

Plus, your sales will be rising, the productivity of your business will significantly be increased, and the satisfaction of your users will also hit the top level mark. All of that will be produced based on the analysis of your users’ actions.

Security

Another popular reason to go with the iPhone app development is a tight security aspect that the Apple team has strongly incorporated in its strict guidelines. It has a set of very strict policies and algorithms that will completely eradicate any attempt of a simple DDoS or any type of password brute force attack into any of the Apple products. More than that, the Apple team is constantly improving and enhancing all of the security levels for every iOS app development process to make it optimal for everyone.

Internet of Things

If someone doesn’t know the Internet of Things is a concept that describes a whole network of physical devices and their features capable of constant interaction and data management via the Internet. Quite a simple term, but it has greatly impacted our lives since now mobile phones are the communication nodes among the people we know. And it doesn’t stop there, since iOS app development allows you to connect with various significant information from the Apple Apps utilizing IoT technologies. Thus, we can say that it is quite a significant trend during the iOS app development.

Cloud Apps

With the invention of cloud technology, lots of Apple apps started to host most of their information in the cloud. Exactly optimum security allowed lots of IT companies to host lots of confidential and private information securely. Thus, requiring much lesser space and gaining more popularity across various users. This iOS app development trend will change the way most of the apps have been created before.

Enterprise Apps

Enterprise iOS app development is a key and major player in the iOS market. Most of the businessmen are inclining towards iOS app development, due to the scalable applications they can produce. Plus, compared to the SMBs enterprise apps can provide a better user experience, security, and productivity. That can easily score as one of the promising and significant trends one enterprise company can leverage during iOS app development.

Another side of the iOS app design development process that hugely attracts various tech enthusiasts is the design aspect. Previously, we examined mostly backend trends that are still popular to this day. However, the frontend features, including the iOS UI design inspiration are the other things that highly attract users and companies. Let’s take a look at the most prominent ones.

Color Palette

The color palette is something that you should be both creative and careful about. Since exactly all of the app colors will highly affect and impact the user journey of your customers and the overall feel of the interface. It is highly recommended to stick to the color pattern of your brand identity and to any other design products that you are producing.

Furthermore, don’t try to use any explicit colors that are just hurting your eye. Use more gentle and soft tones on your app blocks, which are both trending and are easily recognizable by your eye. This type of block can be warning messages, for example.

Color means Interaction

Tint colors and pastel colors are usually brimming with interactivity and user-friendliness. Most of them are saturated with light gradients and have a brighter appearance. By implementing them, your clients will have a much easier time understanding and visually dividing each separate element. Try to even separate each set of colors for both static and dynamic blocks.

Adapting to light and dark modes

Another thing about the iOS UI design colors is to make sure that all of your system’s colors are pretty much adaptable to the light and dark modes. The iOS system colors are already pre-configured for both modes, so all you have to do is to see whether all of your elements are visible in both dark and light modes. If you want to save some time, use the system colors for your iOS app design inspiration.

Custom Typography

There are no strict rules when it comes to choosing the font types for your app. However, there are two fonts that we want to highlight and that is San Francisco (sans serif) and New York (serif). Both of them are already integrated with the scalability and adaptability options in them.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t use any other fonts apart from the two previous ones. If you think that some of the other fonts will make sense or you already have a style guide, then by all means go ahead. Just keep in mind that readability is the very first thing that your user is going to encounter during his app journey, so take good care of your typography.

Logo space

It’s good practice to include your brand logo on your main mobile menu, but you need to be careful about it. Since, you’re not just trying to sell your solution to the customer, but rather afford them a quality rollercoaster ride where they can buy what they came for. Plus, it can damage the overall iOS UI design structure and diminish the excitement from the positive user experience.

To reinforce your app, show the professionalism of your company and make it look more trustworthy, follow the same color pattern from your brand identity. Use it in your elements and various blocks through the iOS app design.

Ensure adequate contrast in a dark mode

Next, ensure that the text in your iOS app design can be easily distinguished while in the dark more. For example, let’s say a user has increased the contrast of the screen while in the dark mode. He may see little to no visual contrast between the dark text and the background. So always check that your font and background have a good contrast for readability reasons.

While your user is in the dark mode, make sure that you have a very solid contrast between your background and foreground. Another thing to consider is your signs or symbols for both the dark and light modes. Since some of them either don’t match with the color scheme or just won’t properly load. To fix it design hollow glyphs with outlines light mode and filled glyphs dark mode.

iOS Gestures

Every iOS user has a good memory of how every single incorporated iOS gesture works. They know how it operates, what does it do and how to activate it. So, don’t try to include any new gestures that your app might have unless it is a breakthrough app for the entire market. The main reason is that iOS users don’t like to learn any new gestures, as they already know the basic ones that allow them to access the Notification Center, the Home screen, the Control Center, and the app switcher. Try to use only the standard gestures to complete all of your tasks.

Utilize iOS haptics

In some cases to provide a user with a more home-like feeling, you may need to use the iOS haptics, which are the standard UI elements. They are all compatible with any type of application and are easy to integrate into your current set of functionalities, such as sliders, date pickers, and switches.

In-app navigation

Maybe you have already noticed how all of the iOS apps don’t have any native navbar at the left top of the screen, unlike Android apps. Instead, they operate according to the regular app’s flow and the user journey. Thus, it is highly recommended to build a proper scheme where your app logic is adequate and each user can easily access the desired functionality. Apart from that, include a small arrow key button on the top left of your iOS app design. That way you can guarantee that the user will not be confused and have no trouble getting back to the previous screen.

For example, if your user is viewing a message in the chat from his friends, then by clicking an arrow button he will surely go to the catalog of all messages that he has. On the top right, there should be either an edit button or any other feature that you may seem necessary to include in your iOS app design.

In conclusion, every entrepreneur or a young businessman is striving towards securing both of the largest target markets in this world: iOS and Android. But the very first option that they are willing to consider is the iOS app development. They are attracted to the simple and yet flexible design, a wide variety of trends in different industries, and the large market portion that spreads across the US, Australia, and the UK.

So if you already know who is your target audience and have a reliable marketing team, who knows how to attract awareness to your product, then go ahead! We truly hope that this small guide will find its use in your hands. And at the same time, you’ll understand the importance of iOS mobile app development and decide which platform you should choose.