Services
Mobile app design
App interfaces designed around real tasks — one-handed, quick to open, and readable by someone standing on a gangway with the sun in their eyes.
Good apps feel obvious, which is never an accident — it's the sum of a lot of decisions nobody notices. We design mobile interfaces that are quick to navigate and comfortable to use, whether they serve your customers or the people doing the work for you. We'll also tell you when you don't need one, which happens more often than the industry admits.
- First question
- Do you need an app?
- Typical build
- 8–12 weeks
- Store review
- Handled by us
- Design
- One-handed, bilingual
Where AI fits in an app
Mostly behind the scenes: filing reviews, sorting support messages into the right bucket, drafting a first reply for somebody to check. None of that justifies building an app. If the only case for the project is that AI could go in it, it very probably isn't worth building.
Do you need an app, or a good website?
This is the opening question, and the answer is frequently no. Something wanted once or twice a month is better served by a quick mobile website, at no cost and with no install to fight through. An app earns its keep when there's repeat use, when the browser genuinely can't do the job, or when being offline matters. If a website is enough we'll say so, even though that means a smaller project for us.
Designed for a distracted thumb
Apps get opened on buses, in shops, holding a child, standing in the sun. That dictates the design: large targets near the top of the screen, readable type, nothing that needs two hands, and an obvious route out of whatever you've wandered into.
Two languages, one screen
An app that only speaks Spanish is broken for half the people on this coast, and one that only speaks English is broken for most of the staff. We put the language switch where a thumb can find it, remember the choice, and design the layouts so the longer German strings don't push everything off the screen.
Offline is a design decision, not a technical one
Whether an app can do anything useful without a connection has to be decided while you're drawing screens, not bolted on by engineers afterwards. What should happen to the half-finished task when the signal drops at a marina entrance is a design question as much as a technical one.
The store review is not the hard part
The app is the easy bit; being listed and approved is the paperwork. We design against the current guidelines from the start rather than getting rejected and reworking, and we make sure it's findable, because a good share of app discovery happens through a search rather than through the store.
Month six is the real launch
What happens in the first version matters far less than what happens over the following six months, when you find out what people struggle with and what they quietly stopped using. Updates are planned in from the beginning, and you'll be told what the ongoing work involves before you commit to any of it.
What’s included
- Designed around the tasks people actually repeat
- Prototypes you can use before anything is built
- iOS and Android conventions respected
- A language switch that isn't buried in settings
- A handover your developer can build from
Why it matters
- An app people open without being asked to
- Fewer taps between wanting something and having it
- A decision to make before any code gets written
Often useful alongside this
- Website design if what you need is a fast mobile website, which is often the cheaper and better answer.
- An app for your staff if the app is for people doing the job rather than customers.
- An app for your customers if there's a genuine reason for them to keep opening it.
Common questions
- What will an app cost me?
- It depends what it does, and we won't put a figure on a page that doesn't exist yet. Tell us what you're trying to achieve and you'll get a written estimate, with an honest note on whether a website would do the job first.
- Which platform first?
- Whichever your actual users carry, which is worth checking rather than assuming. On this coast that usually means iPhone first for customers and both for staff. We'd rather you spent the budget on the right devices than half of it on the wrong ones.
- What does a build usually take?
- Eight to twelve weeks for a focused app, testing and store submission included. Anything more complicated stretches, and we'll be specific about the milestones rather than vague about the finish line.
- Will it clear the store's approval?
- It should, because we design against the current guidelines from the first screen rather than retrofitting afterwards. We submit on your behalf and handle anything that comes back.
- Is there an ongoing fee?
- Some, and it isn't optional: the operating systems underneath keep changing and something has to be updated. You'll get the figure before you commit rather than a surprise in the second year.
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