Mobile App Design Agency in Shanghai

QPSoftware is a digital agency in Shanghai that designs mobile apps for iOS and Android, for companies whose users are in China or abroad. As an app design agency, we handle UX research, UI design and prototypes tested with users. Since 2009, our team has delivered more than 200 projects, including the design of the Mageba earthquake monitoring apps.

Design is the first step of the work of our app development company in Shanghai: the same team then develops and tests your app.

What our mobile app design covers

• UX research. We start from your business goals and the needs of your users, with the Core Model method. See our UX research and Core Model workshops.
• Wireframes. The screens and the user journeys, validated with you before the visual design.
• UI design. The visual interface of each screen, for iOS and Android.
• Interactive prototypes. A clickable version of the app that real users can try before development starts.
• User testing. Sessions with users, then design changes until the key journeys are validated.

Apps can serve customers as well as teams: e-commerce, promotions, loyalty cards and coupons on the consumer side; appointments, invoicing, CRM or business intelligence and internal communication on the business side.

Our app design process

Each project follows these steps, within our agile methodology.

1. Understand your requirements, your business goals and the needs of your users.
2. Draw wireframes from this research and validate them with you.
3. Design the interface, then build an interactive version for a first round of user tests.
4. Collect the feedback and change the design until the user tests validate it.
5. Build the prototype, make the final improvements, test and release.

A prototype has costs as well as benefits: our article on the pros and cons of prototyping explains when it pays off. When your expectations and the feedback of users point in different directions, we use the methods described in client expectations vs. user validation.

Designing an app for Chinese users

An app for mainland China has design needs of its own.

• Language. Screens are designed to work in Simplified Chinese, and in English when the app is bilingual.
• Local services. Users expect local login and sharing: the loyalty app we developed for Montagut offered them with WeChat, QQ and Weibo.
• The filing number. Under a 2023 notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), an app that provides internet information services in mainland China must display its filing number in a visible place, so the design plans where it goes.
• Chinese devices. The screens are then tested on the Chinese Android phones of our device library, as part of our mobile app testing on Chinese devices.

Apps we have designed

• Mageba. For the ROBO®QUAKE earthquake monitoring tool, we designed, developed and tested a web app and a mobile app. The mobile version reproduces the web app for use on the move, with real-time and historic dashboards, event alerts and a Bluetooth connection for on-site checks.
• Montagut. For the French clothing brand, we worked on the UX strategy and UI design of an iOS and Android loyalty app, with a store locator, purchase history, reward points and badges earned through gamification.

Our app design tips share more of what we look for in a mobile app.