20 beautifully designed smartphone apps

It’s no secret that designers must start designing for mobile. With more and more people starting to browse the web from their phones, web designers have to get hip to making sites good and viewable on smartphones. It’s imperative because we’re not just taking a look online, but we as consumers are beginning to purchase, request info and more from our phones. And we have to be set up, as businesses, to convert in any environment.

The next part of learning this new skill is creating the front end of a mobile app. Many businesses have decided they don’t just want a mobile friendly site any more, but they want something their audience can carry along with them all the time. They want their owns apps.

It can be something useful to the lives of their customers or it can be as simple as a nicely designed RSS feed. Regardless, designers have to continue to learn how to design for mobile.

There are so many different experiences one can design for and different techniques one can use. Mobile interface design is challenging, yet a gratifying process when complete and seen in use. Today, we’ve gathered some of the most beautiful mobile interfaces for your inspiration.

Dribbble Android

As an Android user and Dribbble fan, I love the idea of this app. Sometimes you just want to browse works while you’re away from your computer. This app isn’t only great because it makes sense but also because it has a very consistent look with its web version.

Prague Zoo

Here’s a great idea that shows a way to take make an interactive app that’s completely useful. The Prague Zoo App is for tourists of the park that need to locate attractions. One can also keep tabs of their friends by syncing up with them. While this app is wonderful, it has an absolutely darling design.

Natalie Retina UI

Makers of this interface claim it’s the sexiest user interface that all users want. They’re pretty spot on as this dark themed interface is extremely slick but still able to have loads of detail.

Alarm Clock

What should you do when no one makes an app that you think should exist? You take that matter into your own hands and create something spectacular. That’s exactly what this designer did with their alarm clock app. It has some great features that are totally useful for everyone and has just an amazingly clean design that’s easy to understand.

Today’s Schedule

I like this app because the look is very interesting and futuristic, especially for a scheduler. While many designers are making use of squares and white space, this designer really decided to do something different with these shapes and even with the (assumed) function of the app.

Withjack Designs

I like this app because with portfolios, we focus all our time on creating a wonderful layout. This guy is forward thinking in creating an app for his portfolio that potential clients can keep with them at all times. There’s also some really neat and forward thinking interactions with this app.

Panvel Ciclos

This is an a very specialized app for women brought to them by a pharmacy in Brazil. The design is absolutely superb and the color palette is just amazing. It goes to show how apps can be useful while subtly extending a brands touch to a consumer.

Coffely

First off, this idea is just genius and I don’t even know how they do it. But Coffely basically is a remote control app that allows you to tell your modern coffee maker when to make coffee. It also stores your favorites and you can set alarms.

Whatsapp

This fictitious Whatsapp redesign takes clean design to a new level. Everything here is absolutely perfect. And even though there’s not a lot too it, the details are so well thought out and make so much sense.

Hunt a Place

If you ever travel to a foreign city or country, you’ll probably want to download this app. You’re able to connect with people from certain areas who can essentially show you around via this app. The interface is so clean and attractive, especially the profile page.

Facebook flat concept

I’ve personally never been a fan of the way Facebook designs any of their user interfaces, whether it be online or on mobile. It always feels like something is missing. This app concept lends itself to some of the very small details that make this app go the extra mile. Just goes to show how important the minor things are.

Bikester

When you’re creating an app that’s going to be heavy on statistics and data, you have to find a way to make it easily visual and easy to understand. This Bikester app does a great job of doing that while also making the design aesthetically pleasing. From the icons to the colors, this app just feels good.

Teamride

Teamride is an app for skiers and snowboarders who want to be able to make a team, communicate with each other and see each others stats. The design is absolutely beautiful, especially with the maps and statistics. What’s really neat is this app also works with Google Glass.

Web Fest

The Web Fast app is a great example of how you would create an app for something that would otherwise just go on a website. The app is for a festival that takes place, but they also have found ways to make the app interactive and useful, especially by showing a timeline of the event.

Lucid Dreaming

There’s a bit of a phenomenon that’s been around for a while called lucid dreaming. It’s basically the ability to know that you’re dreaming, as you’re dreaming. There’s a certain kind of skill to it that this app helps you prepare for so you can have your own lucid dreams. You can also use this app as a dream journal to help you remember your dreams.

National Geographic redesign

Redesign a site that you absolutely dislike or think is just too dull is a fun personal exercise. This designer did that with the National Geographic website and smartphone app. They’ve used many elements from well known apps and created something that’s beautiful and intelligent enough for the National Geographic brand.

Taasky

Taasky is trying to make a task list app that makes more sense and is obviously more beautiful than the rest of them. The UI is super clean and looks like it’s super easy to use. The app will be available soon for free and I’ll be waiting in line to catch that download.

Cmplain

Most of our time on social media, we use it to complain and badmouth some of the brands and businesses we’ve had interactions with. You know, people are more likely to tell a story about a bad experience rather than a good one. So this app has come along to make sure you send your feedback to the correct people so they can do something about it.

I Need Money!

When you think of UI and you take into consideration many of the apps we’ve seen already, this isn’t your typical style. It’s handwritten, looks organic and stands out from many other apps.

Weather

While everyone is living in boxes and other geometric shapes, it’s nice to see someone do something a little different. This isn’t your typical run-of-the-mill weather app and I think that’s what makes it so great. It’s still easy to understand but beautiful as well.

Conclusion

Creating and designing apps for smartphones and tablets is the next big thing. It’s not enough for designers to just know the web, so it’s best to be up on great user interface design and the ways in which to make it useful. There are so many resources out there, from blogs to PSDs to give you a jumpstart on your creations. Dive right in and become enthralled with the beautiful world of mobile app design.

What’s your favourite app? Have you ever dreamed of designing one yourself? Let us know in the comments.

Kendra Gaines

Kendra Gaines is a freelance designer from Virginia, USA. Connect with her.