The last five years has brought a visual design awakening. Visual Design is now a driving success factor in digital products and services. Technology has reached a point where developers can build almost any look and feel with code. Technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 enable a new world of interaction and design liberation. Apple continues to set a precedent for visual design. IOS 7 leveled the playing field by dissolving the aesthetic embellishments of the past, allowing visual design principles to come to the forefront.

All this focus on visual design is relatively new. Only a few years ago most tech companies saw design as the result of the interaction between computers and people. “User experience” was the driving success factor. No matter how user-friendly product were, they still had the tendency to look ugly.

Visual design is completely different from user experience. Visual design is the combination of design principles and brand communication. Visual design improves user experience by providing a look and feel that people can understand, identify with, and take pleasure from.

Visual design is now just as important as user experience. Technologists have realized that concepts like typographic hierarchy, visual balance, contrast, harmony, etc., as well as a deep understanding of brand identity allows the user experience to come to life and have meaning.

Just a few years ago visual design wasn’t so sexy in the tech world. The best visual designers were found in the print, packaging, and advertising industries. Now those worlds are becoming integrated with tech. Many former print designers are making the jump from print to pixels.

In the next five years we will see beautiful visual design expand to the ugliest parts of the web. Hold on tight. Things are about to look a whole lot better.

How do you see visual design’s role expanding into technology in the future?