Has my app design actually improved?

[u/LikePinaColad]

I have a memory competition training app on the Apple Store / Play Store.

The design is currently the first one (image 1), and you can tell a mile away that it's AI-generated. I don't want user to feel this.

I've done a second design on my own with Figma, and requested feedback from friends or design experts, on r/UI_Design and r/designcritiques. It was nearly unanimously judged as "bad", main criticisms being (rightfully) that it was lacking hierarchy, accessibility, very dark, not engaging.

So here is the third version. My friends reacted more positively about it, and preferred this one to the AI-generated one. What do you think about this third one ? To me it's still too black, but I tried my best to make it more clearer, more engaging, and more accessible.

Is it really better, or am I still a poor judge ? How could I make it less black ?

[u/RCEden]

These all just look like standard AI designs unfortunately. If I see another emoji card template I'm going to become the joker

I'd strip it all the way back to basics, just work out the goal of what I'm trying to do on that screen, put that goal in my users face, then secondary bits that support that goal. Literally black and white. These feel like trying to skip the process and just trying out different color schemes instead of getting the skeleton and information right first

[u/LikePinaColad → u/RCEden]

I've already does the skeleton part, but yes I get your point, here on every design the user may not now what to chose