Mobile design trends to watch out for in 2020

*** This post is copyright from #mobilespoon. ***

Reading back this post from December 2018, it seems that not much has changed, and many of the trends are still happening: chromeless designs, gestures, gradients, deep flat, big bold fonts, and more, they are still here and will remain dominant during 2020.

Here’s a closer look at some new mobile trends that will continue to grow in 2020:

1. Dark mode

Yep, I know that’s old news already, but you know what they say: “once apple decides to go black, no one can go back…”. With the release of iOS13, dark mode has become built-in in every mobile app running on Apple devices.

This is, of course, not just an Apple thing, as Android and Windows also support this mode, but Apple has its’ way of pushing such initiatives really fast, with devices that are almost immediately up-to-date with the latest OS version and a developers community that is very disciplined and following Apple’s guidelines.

Personally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of this mode, mainly because most apps are currently using pure black and white colors that are awful bad for the eyes and causing eye strain.

The rule is simple:

Don’t use pure black on a pure white background.

(Check out my guide: designing text in products)
Most designers know this (just check out most of the websites or apps and you will realize the black is usually a dark gray), but for some reason, too many app developers neglected the opposite rule, which applies for designing dark modes:

Don’t use pure black as your dark mode background.

Unfortunately, many apps are using pure black as a background, causing overstimulation.

Looking forward to 2020, I’m pretty sure this will be solved.
I believe we will see app designers gradually optimizing their dark mode designs, adding some creativity to it, but also making it easier on the eyes.

Some companies (such as Notion and Slack) are doing it already: