It’s been an exciting year for us here at Proto.io. We’ve worked hard to bring you fresh and exciting content on UX design, interactive prototyping, and product development. We’ve listened to your suggestions and brought new features to our rapid mobile prototyping tool.
To conclude our monthly Top 10 Mobile App UI series for this year, December’s edition looks at 10 beautiful app designs. This month, we included a number of delightful mobile games for those who would rather spend the holiday season engrossed in some other exciting virtual world. In no particular order, here are the best of mobile app UI of December.
1. Lumino City by State of Play Games
Lumino City is a puzzle game recently adapted to mobile. It took three years to craft this game as it’s entirely handmade out of paper, card, miniature lights and motors. The ‘making of’ video is an absolute delight to watch so be sure to check it out. Not surprisingly, the mobile app UI is drop dead gorgeous. The intricate details are astounding and the beautiful world that you explore in the game is astonishing. A true creative masterpiece.
Get Lumino City on iOS.
2. Grocery Shopping List by Capitan Inc.
Grocery shopping can be a real chore, especially if you’re shopping for a household of more than one person. There is always something more to buy, something you forgot to buy, and last minute texts from your partner that arrive just as you step out of the store are downright frustrating. Luckily, Capitan has come up with this app that will get rid of your grocery shopping woes. The mobile app UI is also lovely, making the app well-organized, easy to use, and visually appealing.
3. Notify by Facebook
Facebook already takes up a chunk of our precious time with an endless feed of addictive content and they’re not about to stop there. Notify by Facebook is an app that wants to keep you on top of the news. The app delivers timely notifications to you about news that matters to you from the sources you prefer. There’s actually a lot to love about Notify, one such being its clean, good-looking mobile app UI. The delightful color palette and detailed custom icons are my favourite.
4. The Room Three by Fireproof Games
An array of awards and a flood of praise from the press should be enough to convince you that this puzzle game needs to be on your phone right now. The Room Three is a sequel to the second edition of the game series by Fireproof. It is bigger, better, and more gorgeous than its predecessors. The mobile app UI successively spins a mysterious atmosphere as you wander into this adventure filled with challenges and enigma. A haunting soundtrack and intrigue further enhances the experience of the game.
Get The Room Three on iOS.
5. Last Horizon by Pixeljam
With all the hype about the upcoming Star Wars movie, we might see a bit of a space craze in time to come. As I belong to the camp of fans who will be heading to the theatres tomorrow, this game by Pixeljam caught my eye almost immediately. Last Horizon is a space survival and exploration game. With limited oxygen and fuel supplies, you must seek out new inhabitable worlds. A gorgeous, minimalist mobile app UI and big little details that add a touch of delight to the experience, Last Horizon is definitely worth it for all space-lovers.
Get Last Horizon on iOS.
6. Alto Mail by AOL Inc.
I grew up in the 90s, the era of dial up, IRC, and AOL. Many from my generation will remember those times with a slight tinge of nostalgia. For a while, it seemed like AOL would be reduced to a meme for pulling off jokes about ancient technology. But AOL is not about to be collecting dust anytime soon, as proven by the recent release of their email client app, Alto Mail. The card-based mobile app UI is stylish and sleek, and the app comes with a smart system to organize all your attachments in stacks. Real neat, I say.
7. Sofa by Astrio
Movie night and out of ideas on what to watch? It’s a common issue faced by many. Sofa app understands your pain and wishes to help with curated movie collections and a powerful movie database search engine. The mobile app UI is also impeccable, with every inch designed to make the hunt for movies a much better experience. I particularly like the feature of being able to search by title, writer, director, or actor.
8. Forecast by Dennys Hess and Thodoris Tsiridis
With so many weather apps out there, it gets difficult to decide which to stick to. Forecast caught my attention almost immediately due to the classy, vintage look of its mobile app UI. The bold and beautiful Wes Anderson style color palette together with the elegant typography, this app’s design has won me over. Forecast aims to reduce the amount of interaction needed to get the weather information that you’re looking for.
Get Forecast on iOS.
9. A Skyrocket Story by John Evelyn
A mobile app UI that was not crafted from Photoshop or Sketch but made of hand-drawn illustrations? That’s a novelty. For sure, the world of mobile app UI and game design has reached new levels of creativity and innovation. A Skyrocket Story is a hand-illustrated work of art, consisting of beautiful, simplistic sketches that evolved into its own mobile game. Witness how John Evelyn’s lovely drawings come to life as you journey on a rocket in a world that is essentially a picture book.
10. Curiosity by Tamper
Are the kind that spends hours reading through Wikipedia only to wonder later on why you couldn’t just close the browser? Curiosity might be the app for you. It’s a context-aware Wikipedia reader that uses your location, trending topics, and other curated sections to bring you relevant and interesting Wikipedia articles. Read them on a delectable mobile app UI designed for a great reading experience rather than on Wikipedia’s relatively unexciting mobile site.
We sense that 2016 will be an even more inspiring year for mobile app UI design. If you’re looking to feature your work, or if you know of an app that deserves a mention, let us know by tweeting us @protoio or @wildningja!
