The UX/UI world is a balancing act between new ways to engage users while listening to their needs. It’s going beyond metrics to hone in on the human beings who interact with these products and applications every day. After the pandemic shaped most UX/UI design trends during the last two years, the industry refocuses on designing interactive products that are personalised, seamless, clean and simple.
Minimalism and simplification
As life becomes more complex, big tech companies strive to simplify their products. They strive for minimalistic, simple, and informative interfaces. Companies like Revolut, Meta and Oculus have this in common. This trend is here to stay and even grow this year and the foreseeable future.
Personalisation
Companies are collecting more and more data from customers. It includes localisation, demographics and behavioural data. Hyper personalisation is the order of the day where companies like Netflix curate their show experiences, Spotify compiles playlists, and Instagram suggests shopping lists. Ecommerce can benefit from this trend by utilising AI to suggest products to users. Take a look at Shein, now worth more than Zara and H&M combined. They use AI effectively to suggest garments to users from their vast stock list.
Metaverse
In the metaverse, users are linked to each other, their devices and the external environment by wearing a VR device. Facebook is notably in front of this trend with the introduction of Meta and their VR remote work app. Their new Horizon Workrooms app allows users wearing Oculus Quest 2 headsets to hold meetings as avatar versions of themselves. With plans to employ 10 000 people in Europe this year, this trend is set to grow.
Audio content and voice search
Clubhouse might not have survived, but it proved something. Audio is alive and well, and it deserves a new look. In a conversation with Fernando Angulo from SEMrush last year, he cited one of the biggest trends to look forward to this year as voice search. People increasingly search while they’re driving or doing something else. Others just prefer talking to typing. Be that as it may, it’s a trend that is growing.
Accessibility is becoming more important as the world’s consciousness wakes up to minorities, and voice search goes a long way to improving the lives of audio impaired people. Speaking of accessibility, UI and UX designers are continually improving accessibility on digital platforms with the following design elements:
– Using contrasting colours
– Allowing users to decrease or increase text sizes
– Providing captions for videos
– Providing descriptions for images
Making your product more accessible is not only required by law, but it will also win over new users. Another trend in this space is inclusive design that ensures your digital service is usable by as many people as possible. It represents a wide range of human factors like race, sociocultural background, gender, age etc. Emojis are a good example where diversity is represented with a wide choice of options.
Dynamic data
Gone are the days of drawing a simple graph to communicate data. Infographics have become an art form in itself, and designers find new ways for people to read complex data at a glance. Apps like Lumen give users insight into their metabolism and energy levels from the convenience of their hand-held device. Spotify’s Only You displays a colourful visual language to personalise their music recommendations. These are a few examples where companies have found ways to present meaningful data to users whilst improving interaction with their products.
Responsive design
Every day new screen sizes are born. A new iPhone is launched, smart television sees the light of day or laptops open with different screen sizes. Responsive design creates fluid user interfaces that can dynamically adapt to any screen delivering consistency across devices. Responsive design programmes like EditorX are likely to grow as designers build smart, simple layouts that work on any screen size.
If you haven’t joined the Truevo community yet, make a plan to get access to our app. Our design team is on top of the latest trends resulting in an elegant, easy to use tool. If you’re interested in simple payment solutions, get in touch with us. We can’t wait to crunch numbers with you.
