Mobile app design can be a pathway to creating a sustainable user base with actively engaged users. You should think about all the resources that go into developing and designing the UI as both an insurance policy and an investment.
Most professional developers already know the ratio – $1 invested in UX development can generate over $100 in returns, as reported by Forrester Research. On the more defensive properties of good UI, it must be noted that over 90% of users stop using an app due to poor performance. Hence, tested and well-iterated mobile app UI design can provide outstanding returns while retaining the users.
For most cross-platform developers, React Native is the preferred framework. It reflects that over 42% of developers across the world use it for cross-platform development. If you want to optimize your cross-platform app development process without compromising the functionalities, React Native, and its libraries can be your go-to solution.
The cross-platform app development process can become chaotic if you do not manage it from the outset. Assembling the right development toolkit is central to the efficiency of the process. Here are the top 10 React Native libraries that can help you unlock these efficiencies:
1. Lottie-Web for Animation
Lottie Web has over 24k stars on GitHub. It is one of the most popular libraries for adding animations to your application. If you are building a React Native application, Lottie Web can help you add some truly spectacular animations to your app. You have the freedom to choose from a large library of free animations. Once you have iterated your app for the ideal product-market fit, you can even use Adobe After Effects to add custom animations to your app. You can expect to see a boost in engagement and time spent on the app, with the added animations enriching your UX.
2. React Native Maps
Have you ever felt the need to add an interactive map to your application? A map can communicate a lot more than geospatial data. You can add nearest store locations, expected delivery time, and several other features to your depending on the vertical you cater to, using the React Native Apps. The library has over 12.1k stars on GitHub and is the preferred map library for adding features like zoom and custom animations laid over the map.
3. React Native Navigation
Navigation is generally one of the most underrated elements of the UX. It reflects how seamlessly a user can transition between different screens in your app. For a considerable time, React Navigation has been the go-to library for designing such navigations. However, React Native Navigation, backed by Wix, is gaining popularity. It offers several of the features available in React Navigation, along with a more native feel. Since Wix backs it, you can also expect a very structured approach to the library getting updated. Perhaps, this is the reason why the library has attracted over 12.1k stars on GitHub.
4. Gifted Chat
A chat functionality can automatically drive the engagement of your app exponentially. This is because Chat enables users to stay within the same environment and interact with each other or one of your representatives. With over 10.5k stars on GitHub, Gifted Chat is one of the libraries that make designing, developing, and deploying chat functionalities easier. The library provides absolute freedom to help you customize your app. It also offers several important features like clickable links, Redux support, and easily copied images.
5. NativeBase
NativeBase is yet another secret weapon for developers using the React Native libraries. Generally, when a fresh React Native project is undertaken, developers often spend resources on redundant and preliminary tasks such as developing elements and themes. If an MVP is yet to be optimized, such resource allocation can lead to higher than usual development costs.
The NativeBase library makes it possible for any developer to create a Minimum Viable Product with minimum hassle. The library is loaded with several starter packs, themes, elements, and functionalities to help you expedite your React Native app development process. It has over 14.9k stars on GitHub.
6. React Native Camera
Apps that can leverage cameras, whether for security purposes or for creating engagement with the users, tend to have a more consistent user presence. And that works because once users are sharing the camera access, they would also want to see the results. Thus, it becomes critical for apps using camera access to provide seamless functionalities.
Whether you are designing an app to scan a QR Code, for detecting a face, or to click a picture – React Native Camera makes it very easy for your app to interact with the device without the hassles of native code. Its ease of use makes this library one of the most favorite ones in its category on GitHub, with almost 9.1k stars attributed to its name.
7. Ignite CLI
If you are looking for plugins, generators, and boilerplates packaged into a framework that makes it easier for you to run your projects – Ignite CLI is the perfect solution for you. It is a cross-platform tool that saves you from the painful process of managing runtime and works equally well with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux platforms. It remains one of the most popular React Native developer tools on GitHub, with over 12.3k stars attributed to its name. The core idea of having this developer tool at your disposal is to shave off development time from your project. If the publishers of Ignite CLI are to be believed – you can save almost two weeks of development time by using the tool.
8. React Native Paper
React Native Paper is becoming one of the most popular libraries for React Native developers, with almost 8k stars on GitHub. It makes flat layout & design creation very easy for developers. The library is open-source and cross-platform, hence ensuring it does not add costs to your development budget. Moreover, it supports a dark theme as the main theme for your app and makes seamless switching between themes possible. You can use plugins like Babel to marginalize the size of your app. With Appearance API for React Native, you can make the themes used with React Native Paper adaptive to the device on which your app is downloaded.
9. React Native Snap Carousel
As the name suggests, React Native Snap Carousel gives you the carousel components for your React Native app in a structured format. You can use the available preview options along with the layouts. You can also add latent React Native design UI features like parallax backgrounds to make the app more engaging. The best part about the library is like the best React Native libraries; it supports Android and IOS. Moreover, it is comprehensively documented and loaded with optimization tactics for your React Native app. Its ease of use is one of the key reasons it has received over 8.5k stars on GitHub.
10. UI Kitten
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could focus on the business logic while some libraries took care of the visual appearance and standardize the design elements? The UI Kitten library does exactly that. This approach makes it very easy for developers to take an optimal path to develop an MVP without compromising on the key React Native UI components. In the simplest terms – UI Kitten implements the Eva Design System. And with 8.1k stars attributed to its name on GitHub, several developers have tried and tested UI Kitten.
In Conclusion
React Native is generally a part of every developer’s toolkit who wants to create an outstanding and efficient app. The framework is known to help developers design and deploy frictionless user experiences while expediting the entire development process. Moreover, since the developed app is not native, the performance is relatively superior. When you add the earlier-mentioned libraries and developer tools to your React Native app development process, you are further optimizing your development lifecycle and adding crucial UX elements to create engaging cross-platform apps. Most of the libraries mentioned here are open-source. So, make sure you utilize them and locate the ones that fit your use case.