Businesses are constantly updating their apps to meet user needs and keep up with trends. Sometimes to improve user engagement, sometimes to speed up the app or refresh the brand look — reasons can be different but an app redesign is a common solution for all. The question is: How to redesign an app to make users stay instead of leaving the app? As a company providing UI/UX design services , we'll answer the question and provide you with a checklist for an effective redesign.

What is an app redesign?

Mobile app redesign is an approach that businesses use to give their app a new look and make it work better. Designers can update the layout, change the color scheme, and refresh the icons to match current design trends and the company's brand image. Developers fix bugs and work on the app's performance to help it load faster and respond better.

These updates make the mobile app more appealing and functional, which can attract new users and retain existing ones. Mobile app redesign can refresh the app, helping it stay competitive in the market.

Why companies choose to redesign apps

The aim of app redesign is to improve key user engagement metrics, such as session duration, return frequency, and customer retention. By boosting these metrics, businesses can effectively compete in the market and increase their profits. According to a report by Forrester, businesses that use top design practices often grow at double the rate of the industry average.

Here are some main reasons to redesign a mobile app:

Poor User Experience (UX)

If an app becomes outdated, difficult to navigate, or doesn't meet user needs, customers may switch to alternatives. A UX redesign helps businesses update the interface, making it more intuitive and appealing to users. This can boost user loyalty and increase the time they spend on the mobile app — it can also increase the company's revenue since 80% of customers are ready to pay more for a better user experience.

Poor app performance

When it comes to mobile app performance, 39% of users stop engaging with content when loading time takes too long. Designers can change the app's UI to optimize graphics and make the design elements more minimalistic to help the app load faster.

Security weaknesses

Security weaknesses in mobile apps, such as outdated encryption or insecure data storage, can leave user information vulnerable. A redesign can address these issues by updating security protocols, implementing stronger encryption standards and multi-factor authentication. This protects user data and builds trust with customers.

Brand evolution

As businesses grow, their brand image can change. At this point, a UI redesign is a must to reflect the updated brand image to ensure consistency with the new look and feel. When Airbnb updated its brand, they redesigned the app to match the new logo and color scheme, keeping it aligned with its updated brand identity.

Lack of accessibility

Mobile apps can lack accessibility when they don't include features like screen reader compatibility, adjustable text sizes, or proper color contrast, making them difficult for people with disabilities to use. With a redesign, you can add voice commands and ensure interface elements are easily navigable by everyone. By making these changes, the app becomes more inclusive, broadening its user base and improving the experience for all users.

Technical issues

Frequent bugs and crashes are also no friends of user retention. If a mobile app doesn't function reliably, users quickly become frustrated and may abandon it in favor of alternatives that offer a more stable experience. Although it's not directly related to UI/UX design, fixing technical issues during a redesign project is also important.

A redesign isn't just a visual update — it's a strategic investment in business growth. However, blindly redesigning the whole app can lead to customer backlash and other significant problems. Further, we'll discuss why a redesign can fail and how to avoid that.

Why do app redesigns fail?

Redesigns can often fail due to several core reasons that derail intended improvements. A common issue is when designers focus more on aesthetics than on aligning updates with user needs and functionality, which can alienate users. Insufficient testing before launching changes can lead to technical problems, like bugs and crashes, frustrating users and causing them to abandon the app. These pitfalls often result in costly mistakes for businesses, leading to decreased conversions, higher bounce rates, and reduced engagement. Many companies don't even realise where the redesign project went wrong. Here are the main reasons:

Too many changes

Implementing too many changes in one redesign can overwhelm users and make it challenging to determine which changes impact the app's performance positively or negatively. When changes encompass navigation, new features, UI design elements, and text content simultaneously, it's hard to pinpoint what specifically has improved or worsened the user experience. This complexity is evident when redesigning menus, as it often requires altering both the frontend and backend architecture, turning what seemed like a simple update into an extensive product overhaul.

For example, Windows 8 drastically shifted to a tile-based interface, leaving users disoriented. Changes should be gradual so users can naturally adapt — this way it's also easier to measure the impact of each adjustment to find out what exactly improves the user experience. Maintaining user loyalty and satisfaction requires balancing innovation with familiarity.

Ignoring the user needs

One common reason for redesign failure is not meeting user needs. Designers often focus on how a mobile app looks rather than ensuring it functions well for users, which can remove or hide key features and lead to frustration. Successful redesign requires in-depth user research to make sure changes truly benefit users and address their needs.

Many businesses also mistakenly think that they can squeeze another day of engagement out of users by making purely aesthetic updates. This tends to come from a desire for “newness”, as opposed to actually solving problems. Changing things without knowing what users actually want and need is a risky tactic that rarely pays off.

In 2018, Instagram faced backlash over a redesign that was initially released to a wide audience by mistake. The update replaced the familiar vertical scrolling with a horizontal swipe format for navigating through the feed. This unexpected change confused and frustrated many users, who were accustomed to the traditional scrolling method. As a result of the overwhelmingly negative feedback, Instagram quickly reverted to the original mobile app design, highlighting the risks of implementing substantial changes without sufficient user testing and feedback.

Lack of user research

The lack of adequate testing is a major cause of redesign failures. Releasing major updates before assessing them properly leads to bugs and performance issues that annoy users. Most redesigns get off on the wrong foot by making assumptions influenced by past experiences rather than research. Your decision to redesign should come after thorough research, understanding of customer needs takes time and effort. Even the best visual ideas have little chance of succeeding without reliable and timely data.

In 2018, Snapchat introduced a significant redesign aimed at separating content from friends and content from publishers, with a new algorithmic feed. The changes were made to improve monetization and content discovery. The redesigned app was met with significant backlash from users. Many found the new interface confusing and difficult to navigate. Over 1.2 million users signed a petition to revert to the old design. Snapchat's stock fell, and user growth slowed, illustrating how negatively the redesign impacted the brand.

Popular redesign approaches

Redesigning a mobile app is a big task that can be done with several different approaches, each with its own benefits and challenges. Here are some key approaches to consider:

User-centered design approach

The user-centered design approach focuses on understanding the needs, behaviors, and preferences of users. This method involves conducting user research, creating personas, and performing usability testing.

Benefits:

• Results in a mobile app that is tailored to real user needs, making them satisfied and engaged.
• Reduces the risk of launching features that users don't want or need.

Disadvantages:

• Can be time-consuming and may require extensive user research and testing.
• May lead to scope creep if emerging user needs continually expand the project scope.

Incremental redesign

The incremental redesign process means implementing changes gradually over time, rather than all at once. This strategy allows businesses to test and refine features step by step.

Benefits:

• Reduces risk by allowing businesses to make adjustments based on user feedback at each stage.
• Enables businesses to deploy updates faster, delivering improvements to users quickly.

Disadvantages:

• Can confuse users if changes aren't planned well.
• Users may find frequent updates disruptive.

End-to-end redesign

The end-to-end redesign approach completely updates the app's design and features. This can be suitable when an app requires a significant remake.

Benefits:

• Offers a fresh start, allowing businesses to integrate modern design principles and technologies.
• Provides an opportunity to address all existing issues and improve the app as a whole.

• This redesign process can be resource-intensive, requiring a lot of time and investment.
• May disrupt existing user habits and require a reintroduction of the app to users.

Data-driven redesign

A data-driven redesign uses analytics and user feedback to guide design decisions, focusing on improving engagement metrics based on insights such as user flows and drop-off points.

Benefits:

• Provides evidence-based insights that can highlight exactly where improvements are needed.
• Helps prioritize redesign efforts by focusing on areas with the most significant impact.

• Relies on the availability and accuracy of data, which may not always capture qualitative user insights.
• May lead to overlooking creative opportunities not evident in data alone.

Brand-driven redesign

The brand-driven redesign approach ensures that the app's design reflects the current brand identity and values, aligning it with other brand platforms.

Benefits:

• Increases brand consistency, strengthening brand recognition and trust.
• Aligns the mobile app with marketing and business strategies.

• Risk of prioritizing aesthetic elements over functionality and usability.
• May not fully address the needs of users if brand considerations dominate the redesign process.

Each approach to app redesign offers its benefits and challenges. The right choice depends on specific business goals, user needs, and the current state of the app. Often, design teams use a combination of approaches to achieve effective results.

Our approach to mobile app redesign

With over 18 years of experience in UI/UX design and development, we've worked on many kinds of redesign projects and have come up with our own strategy. Depending on the client's business goals and current state of the product, we can use two different combinations of approaches to app redesign.

Functioning product

We recognize that a full-scale app redesign can be unpredictable, often leading to unexpected challenges. For a functioning product, our preferred redesign strategy is to make gradual changes to different screens and elements based on user behavior data. This way, updates match what users want, making improvements more useful without wasting resources.

Make small iterations gradually and in a measurable way

Such a redesign process lets us see how each change affects usability and user engagement. If anything goes wrong, we can take a step back anytime and revert to the previous version.

OddsCrowd app case

After releasing the OddsCrowd app, we made a couple of small changes based on how users interacted with it. We removed the chat feature since it didn't become popular and the client saw no value in maintaining it. In this redesign project, we also replaced the eOddsmaker service with a new data aggregator, which gives users more detailed information about teams, games, and statistics. This change aims to help users make smarter bets and win more often.

Non-functioning product

When a full redesign is needed, especially for apps not yet launched or those working poorly, we start by researching what users want. This helps us predict how they'll react to changes, making sure the redesign fits their needs. We test with real users to get feedback that guides us and minimizes negative reactions. Along with the design, we also look at the app's architecture and fix any issues, since a redesign requires input from both designers and developers.

Lainappi case

The Lainappi team initially approached us with a ready-made interface, however, we found the design had issues with logic and visuals that didn't match the brand's values. Together with the client, we decided to create a new, simple, and user-friendly design that highlighted Lainappi's focus on sustainability. We used a green and white color scheme to emphasize this and added important features like combined payment processes and user profiles.

By simplifying verification into a single screen and offering multiple login options, we made it easier for users. We also turned the rental process into a chat system to improve communication between renters and item owners, aligning the app with user needs and the brand's ecological mission.

Nigerian financial app case

Initially, our client requested us to perform an app audit since it had performance issues. We conducted a thorough code audit, using manual reviews and tools like SonarQube and IntelliJ IDEA, which uncovered severe bugs, security threats, and overly complex code which posed risks to the business.

Instead of trying to refactor, we chose to rewrite the app to create a clean, structured architecture that's easy to maintain and expand. Our focus was on building a secure, flexible infrastructure that protects user data and enables quick recovery if needed. We wrote clear code to ease future maintenance and implemented a high level of automation to ensure fast updates, which is crucial in the fintech industry.

Our app redesign process focuses on using data and putting users first. We aim to make changes that fit both the client's needs and user preferences, whether through small updates or complete overhauls, ensuring that every change leads to real benefits.

Our app redesign checklist

Redesigning a mobile app needs careful planning to make sure it meets business goals and user needs. Whether the app works well or has problems, having a clear plan helps a lot. Here's a simple checklist to guide you through a successful app redesign.

1. Determine your redesign goals — Clearly define what you aim to achieve with the redesign project, such as improving user engagement or fixing technical issues.
2. Perform a usability analysis — Identify problematic areas like unclear content, friction points, and confusing design elements.
3. Conduct a technical audit — Use tools and manual reviews to find bugs, errors, and other technical issues that may have been overlooked.
4. Analyze user data — Review app analytics to spot problematic metrics and track where users drop off in the user journey.
5. Use real-time user interaction tools — Employ mouse tracking and session recordings to observe how users interact with your app.
6. Run heat maps and scroll maps — Evaluate user click and scroll behavior to gain insights into engagement and areas needing improvement.
7. Conduct user testing — Conduct both qualitative and quantitative tests to introduce new design ideas and feature updates to real users.
8. Gather user feedback — Launch polls and surveys to understand user needs, preferences, and dislikes.
9. Iterate and test gradually — For functioning products, make small, measured changes and observe their effects to ensure improvements align with user preferences.
10. Prepare for app submission — After completing the redesign, follow the guidelines to submit the updated app to the App Store and Google Play, ensuring it meets all requirements for approval and is ready for users to download and enjoy.

To conclude

The mobile app redesign process is complex, this task involves understanding user needs and business goals. It's important to know why you're redesigning — whether to fix bad user experience, improve performance, or update the brand. By balancing looks with functionality and doing thorough user testing, you can avoid past mistakes seen in big companies like Instagram and Snapchat.

Using a methodical approach with clear goals, data analysis, and user feedback is key. Following the checklist and choosing the right approach — like incremental or user-centered redesigns — can improve your app's appeal and usability. With the right plan, redesigning becomes a tool to engage users, achieve business goals, and stay ahead in the market.

If you need help with remaking your app's interface — our design team is here to help. As a full-cycle development company, we can also help you implement the design, so you don't need to hire other agencies. Fill out the short form below to contact us and we'll discuss your project to find a suitable strategy.