The role of graphic designers entails designing solutions with a high visual impact. Graphic design jobs demand a flair for creativity, a professional approach to deadlines and costs, and an up-to-date awareness of industry software. The work not only involves designing for the web. The focus is gradually moving on to designing effective and attractive graphics for digital devices like smartphones. And since graphics on phones are different that on desktop devices, graphic designers must address the challenges of working with mobile technology.
The following are six important ways to help make your graphics perform well on mobile phones.
1. Always Design the Graphics for Multiple Resolutions
When you are designing graphics for phones, take note that their screens are much smaller than the huge desktop monitors you have been designing on and for. The large monitors display graphics at a resolution of 1920 x 1200 and above. Mobile devices are a different ballgame altogether. You will also have to realize that different mobile sets will have different sizes and resolution. You can’t design for just a single resolution and size. You will now need to design multiple graphics to demonstrate how they will appear on various devices.
2. Make Use of a Fluid Format
Smartphones usually consist of G-sensor. The G-sensor recognizes how a mobile is oriented and accordingly displays the data correctly, which means that the images and other graphics will be presented in landscape or portrait setting based on how the user holds his phone. Keeping this in mind, a graphic designer must apply a fluid layout for the designs on phones. To use background images in an app, you should tile or stretch them. Also, you should create both landscape and portrait layouts so that your graphics will fit both orientations of the screen.
3. Keep the Size of the Files Small
Designing for mobiles doesn’t necessarily mean designing apps, it also entails designing websites for mobiles. While doing so, you will need to pay more attention to the internet connection of the user. Try to optimize images for a quicker load time as not all users will have 4G speed. In certain locations, coverage remains and issue and then there are those who may not have unlimited data plans. So keep such users in mind and reduce the code to take away unwanted tags and comments. Images and files must be compressed to reduce time for download. If you wish to design an app that will be downloaded using the data plan (and not Wi-Fi,) keep the size less than 50 MB.
4. PNG Format Should be Used for Images
The format of images will make or break your design so choose wisely. The correct format will take you a long way if you wish to design usable graphics for smartphones. Use .png as your format rather than using .gif as it will give you more depth in color. It is also lossless with variable transparency. The .gif format will either have opaque pixels or will be fully transparent. The .png format will have up to 254 levels of partially transparent pixels, allowing you to benefit from alpha transparency.
5. Optimize the Colors
Smartphones tend to differ when it comes to color support, so make your graphics accordingly adaptable. Handsets like HTC and Blackberry support 65,000 different colors. But iPhone and smartphones by Nokia support up to 16 million colors! This implies that these mobiles will show better graphics with brighter and sharper images.
6. Proceed with Relative Pixel Sizes
While designing for small screens, do not define dimensions in absolute pixels. If you set the width to 200 pixels, it can take up a majority of screen space on some phones. Thus, it is wiser to opt for relative sizes. Use ems and percentages to ensure that the size adjusts to fit all screens.
For graphic designers, moving beyond the web and designing a mobile app is a great way to boost their graphic designing career and open a plethora of avenues. Professionals who seek to prosper in this industry must remain acquainted with the latest innovations and practices of designing and development.
Author bio: A writer by profession, Devika Arora is currently focusing her writing on the extensive domain of career building. She has written various articles and blog posts related to job search and career development. The above article is a compilation of facts and discusses about a career in graphic designing.
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