Top UI Kits to Enhance Your Mobile App Design
UI design is crucial for every mobile app. But creating a user interface from scratch can be challenging.
Fortunately, there’s an easy solution—UI kits.
The best UI kits simplify mobile app design projects. They improve a designer’s workflow, saving time and money—ultimately delivering a beautifully designed final product.
Ready to transform your design system for iOS and Android with UI kits, mockups, and templates? This in-depth guide will teach you how.
Key Takeaways
- UI Kits Simplify Design: They streamline the design process, saving time and resources.
- Pre-Packaged Components: UI kits include fonts, colors, and other elements, reducing the need for custom design work.
- Consistency Across Platforms: UI kits help maintain consistent branding and user experience across different devices.
- Versatile Use Cases: Many kits cater to specific niches, like ecommerce, providing tailored starting points.
- Enhanced User Experience: Well-designed UIs improve user retention and satisfaction.
What Is a UI Kit?
A UI kit—or user interface kit—is a pre-packaged collection of all UI components for a mobile app or website. This includes fonts, colors, typography, shapes, navigation menus, text styles, and other UI elements. UI kits can even contain icons, layered design files, HTML files, and CSS files.
With a UI kit, designers don’t need to create every design component from scratch. You can just edit or tweak them based on your needs. It’s not worth it to re-create a new drop-down menu or form for each new design process, especially if you’re just prototyping.
Designers can easily integrate UI kits into their design system workflow to speed up and simplify the entire process.
Many UI kits can be used as templates for niche-specific use cases. For example, all ecommerce apps should have a similar user interface. So a designer can use an ecommerce UI kit or wireframe kit as a starting point and then customize the interface from there.
Why Is UI Important For Mobile App Design?
Functionality is just one component of a successful mobile app. Apps must also look professional and provide a seamless user experience. If the interface is rigid and doesn’t allow users to navigate with ease, an app will struggle with conversions and retention.
That’s why UI design and UX design are so important.
Your app should also have consistent branding across all digital touchpoints. The color schemes on your web design should mirror the colors in your app. You might even use the same typography from your website in the app design.
Mobile UI kits make it easy for you to replicate the design features and functions, all translating to a smooth user experience. Designers love UI kits because it makes their jobs easier, and app publishers love UI kits because the end-users benefit as well.
UI design has a massive impact on how much time users spend in an app. If the app is well designed, easy to navigate, and responsive, users are less likely to churn or uninstall the app.
Examples Of Great Mobile UI
Let’s look at some examples of real apps that have a sleek UI design. All of the apps below were designed and launched with BuildFire, and you can get more UI design inspiration from our app showcase page:
AMMA (Agent Multimedia Assistant)
AMMA is a multipurpose media and branding solution for real estate agents and brokers. The mobile app offers templates and resources that agents can use for social media posts and digital marketing.
The interface design of this is sleek but also delivers in terms of functionality. It’s easy for users to navigate and find what they’re looking for with just a few clicks from the menu.
NowRise
NowRise is designed to help entrepreneurs reach their personal and professional goals. If you visit the NowRise website, you’ll see the fonts, colors, and branding elements match on both channels.
The use of white space is a great design trick that will still look great if Apple or Android users decide to enable dark mode on their devices.
My Wealth & Wellness
My Wealth & Wellness is a financial resource app. Unlike other banking apps or finance apps on the market, this entire design system helps put the end-users at ease.
The design is light, bright, airy, and super inviting. These design elements help encourage users to learn more about good financial habits, investing, budgeting, and more. The user interface doesn’t have a boring, outdated, or intimidating feel—like other apps in this space.
How Do I Create a UI Design Kit?
Effective interface design all starts with the right software and design resources. All of the design tools below will improve your workflow and overall design system.
The best option for you depends on your budget, technical ability, and goal. Some might be better for basic material design or mockups, while others provide all of the UI components you need to create a mobile app.
| Design Tool | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|
| InVision | Extensive library of free design resources, supports niche-specific categories. | Primarily branded as whiteboard software, not solely focused on UI kits. |
| Adobe XD | All-in-one solution for UI/UX design, offers kits for various platforms. | May require a learning curve for beginners. |
| Sketch | Versatile, beginner-friendly, affordable pricing. | Lacks mobile UI kits out of the box compared to other resources. |
Figma
The best part about Figma is its extensive resources for designers. You can quickly find UI kits, wireframes, illustrations, design systems, icons, typography, illustrations, widgets, and more. The platform has resources for both web and mobile designs alike.
Advantages Of Using a UI Kit?
Here’s a quick overview of the benefits you’ll experience using UI kits:
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| UI kits save time and money, allowing projects to be completed much faster. | Not every kit has everything a designer needs out of the box. This is especially true if you’re using a free UI kit. |
| Design resources can be allocated to more complex areas of a project, rather than tedious or repeatable items like buttons and navigation. | Some designers think that UI kits limit their creativity. |
| UI kits can provide inspiration for wireframing and speed up prototyping and mockups. | If you want to match a new UX design to an existing design product, it can be hard to find a UI kit that matches everything exactly (fonts, colors, etc.). |
| Designers don’t need to create every UI component from scratch. | Pricing for different UI kits varies depending on the source and quality. You may need to spend some money to find good ones. |
| UI kits are versatile and support product design for mobile apps, web apps, websites, and more. | If you’re using an open-source UI kit, the design may not be unique. |
| Designers can quickly and easily make design changes. |
Overall, these resources improve the entire UI design system for your mobile app. Designers can even learn new skills when they’re working with UI kits, as they can pick apart different design concepts during the process.
Conclusion
Overall, UI kits simplify the role of an app designer. But they’re not the only way to create a stunning UI design for your mobile app.
BuildFire has a wide range of app development and design services. You can use our platform to create an app on your own with no coding knowledge. Just pick a template, and you can quickly customize all aspects of the design on your own.
We also have an expert team of designers and developers that can create an app for you. With BuildFire Plus, we’ll handle all of the wireframing, prototyping, mockups, design, and development to bring your vision to life. Request a free consultation to learn more.