UI design pattern tips: 'Find & Invite Friends'

Although many people are designing mobile products that are social in nature, few understand what that really means, how it works, or why it's important.

In this series for Creative Bloq, Chris Bank of UXPin, the UX design app, discusses the importance of social design patterns and details examples from some of the hottest websites and web apps today.

You can see previous posts from UXPin here. Meanwhile, for more examples of web design patterns, download UXPin's free e-book, Web UI Design Patterns 2014 and their free Web UI kit.

The problem

The user wants to experience the application with their friends.

The solution

Make the invitation process simple and easy to complete.

Since word-of-mouth and referrals are a huge driver of growth especially in consumer applications, you’ll see this UI design pattern proliferate and evolve even more.

Providing users with a way of connecting with and sharing the app with friends also gives them a better, more immersive experience even if just in terms of more content.

The invite feature can be built into the onboarding pattern or even as the empty state design, both of which we’ve covered earlier.

Words: Chris Bank

Chris Bank is the growth lead at UXPin, a UX design app that creates responsive interactive wireframes and prototypes.