If you are a software designer or mobile application developer, the actual task is obviously a walk in the park. It is what you do for a living and it shouldn’t be such an ordeal. The problem arises when you are done with it. Unless you have been commissioned for a specific project, then you have nothing to worry about. But if you are designing a mobile application with the intent of selling the digital product to a company, then there goes your problem. How do you present your product?
However, presentation is much of a problem because of user experience websites like UX Planet. The website provides people with mockups to help designers market their digital products. The mockup is a canvas where you could place your design in an already-made “finish” look—a template! The template comes in many forms—it could just be a feature of the technical tools or it could be a tableau of the tools in an environment where your design can be seen. The mockups help you create your own narrative to support the design you have created. By presenting a narrative, you are giving clients a glimpse into the real goal of the app you designed.
For mobile applications, the iPad mockup seems to be the perfect choice for a canvas. Ramotion store also has a great lineup of mockup templates that can help you showcase your app.
Why use the iPad mockup?
The iPad is a great mobile device—it is handy and convenient to bring around. So if you have a mobile application, you would want to use it either on your iPhone or any of the iPad models—from the iPad Mini to the iPad Airs. The iPad is even better than the iPhone when it comes to applications like games or online retail stores because of the bigger screen. This means you can see things a lot more clearly.
For those who still have not been weaned from the desktops and laptops, innovations are in place to make the iPad, particularly the iPad Pro, work more like the professional favorite MacBook. One such innovation is the Touch Bar on the Smart Keyboard that might arrive soon.
Aside from the many advantages of the iPad, there are also a lot of free PSD mockup templates around with the iPad as a device of choice. The iPad mockup is the perfect canvas because it is like the compromise between the very small iPhone and the bulkier MacBook and larger iMac. The iPad is not that small but it’s not that big either—so you can really work on an iPad and with an iPad in so many things.
Showcase gaming apps
Mobile games are possibly the most popular category of mobile applications, and if you have designed one, then you better show it off in a big way. Choose a vector mockup in order to showcase your design in high resolution. There are hundreds of vector mockups out there and they are usually pretty basic: just the iPad but with your design on the screen. Complement it with the PSD file, which is always best for editing.
The internet is full of free iPad mockup templates and choosing one should not pose a problem—but it actually does. You can’t just choose a mockup tableau of a workspace to showcase your gaming app because that will showcase a ridiculous story. People are not supposed to play games while at work. Using that kind of mockup will hurt your narrative. Perhaps the best kind of mockup is one that will have the mobile device as the centerpiece—no accessories, no setups, and no distractions.
One example of that will be the iPad and iPhones mockup. This makes sense because both devices are the best and most recognizable mobile devices out there. The mockup will also demonstrate the differences between having the app on the smaller iPhone and the bigger iPad.
For apps available on Mac and iOS, the devices mockup can also help you showcase how your design will look in all Apple devices: from the iMac to the MacBook, down to the iPad and iPhone. Some devices mockup even places the Apple Watch in the template. Since you don’t really place games on the Apple Watch, perhaps you can showcase messages indicating game updates on the screen of the smartwatch.
Other applications
If you have photo-based digital products, then you can simply use the mockup that has the iPad in the center of the mockup with a person’s hands seemingly using the gadget. This will show how your design will look like when it is in actual use—when the person flips from one page to the other looking at different photos. This is particularly helpful when you are designing an e-commerce app. You definitely need a lot of pictures then—pictures of the products.
The perspective mockup will work in all kinds of applications because this kind of mockup just basically shows off how your design will look when it is shown in different angles—different perspectives to be more direct about it. So the perspective could be from the top or from the side or however way you want to put it.