September Was Techtember!
I am sure the month of September has the maximum number of dots or crosses on your calendar app if you are a techie, love new gadgets or have the ‘shut up — and — take my money’ attitude. It also is a great month for designs and I bring to you 8 UI design trends or ideas that I found very interesting from the month of September until now!
1. Peek and pop!
It is only fair that I start this article with the most popular design trend of the year! 3D touch in the new iPhone. Usually, Apple releases a new iPhone with a change in the phone specs, or with an upgrade of the camera or with some new considerably effective UI features. This time, Apple came up with an incredible piece of UI design which arises little to no qualms. It minimizes the user’s clicks and allows you to quickly access the common features of an app. You simply have to press harder on any app, image, one of the emails from your inbox and then something amazing happens — you feel a small pressure like you strung a guitar. And a modal window pops up allowing you to choose from few options. Instagram, Pinterest, dropbox and some of the apple apps allow you to make use of this feature.
2. Rate your friends
You know how you can rate restaurants on Yelp and movies on imdb. Well, now you can rate people on peeple app or website. The Founder, Julia Cordray after receiving undesirable feedback from users decided to take it down. Although, the interface of peeple is something worth mentioning. It has a sleek and modern appeal with smooth transitions between the different elements. The white space is cleverly used too. Yelp could definitely adopt some of the design guidelines from peeple.
3. A colorful burst to maintaining notes
I am a designer who had to try really hard to minimize the use of colors on my designs. So, when I saw the ‘Google keep’ app for the first time, I was exhilarated. Unfortunately, it was available only in Android phones and web but now, you can download it on your iPhone! I have been using this app extensively since then. It is pretty much like any other note taking app where you can add checklists, share the lists or notes with others, add pictures, record memos but the best part is the burst of colors and the haphazard arrangement. Psychologically, I feel less burdened than usual when I see my to-do list.
4. This is how I actually look.
Facebook now allows users to upload a 7-second looping video as their profile picture. A little queasy considering you need to be at least an amateur video editor to make your face look as good as it does in your static display picture. It is also a fun way to bring out the creativity in you. Users can also upload an image to suit the occasion or situation by setting a time limit on the picture. This way, the picture reverts back to the original one. An extension to “what’s on your mind?”. Similar to the LGBT or support digital India display pictures. Facebook is coming up with really innovative features in the video genre considering it also launched the 360-degree videos and mentions app where you can see live videos of celebrities.
5. Gestures replacing buttons
Product designers are always trying to make interfaces more intuitive for people. The phones are getting bigger — but our thumb, unfortunately remains the same size. So, this particular feature helps a lot if you are too lazy to slide your thumb upwards. The above design not just depicts the change in the orientation of the arrow, but now the arrow depicts that you can slide down from anywhere on your screen to go back. Very cool! Happy thumb!
6. I really really really like you ❤
Yay! See that flying blue star — Now go check if you can find that on your tinder app and if you can, then swipe up if you really really really like that person and would love to talk to them. If you can’t find it, update your app and if you want to ‘super like’ up to five times a day, upgrade to Tinder plus. This small piece of design will definitely go a long way in helping to differentiate but could get killed if overused.
7. Now there are lesser chances of us dying
No seriously! Spotify is rolling out a feature where you can control your playlists using your car’s dashboard controls such as the rotatory knobs and touch interfaces. It is compatible with MirrorLink in-car systems. Users need to download the Rockscout android app to use this feature. I know you are probably thinking about the harm an additional app could cause to your phone but it is better that you stay unharmed. And it is going to get cooler with the plethora of in-car touchscreen user interactions that will generate from this idea.
8. I want to see something move on my screen but, not fish!
You remember the moving fish screensaver or wallpaper on your android phone? This is nothing like that. Google Creative labs team have come up with a new app called ‘Meter’ and it displays widgets instead of your wallpaper. These widgets notify you of your battery life, WiFi strength or number of pending notifications. They adopt the Google’s Material design guidelines. If you are confused about how the battery widget works, the size of the enclosed ball is directly proportional to the percentage of the battery life. This also takes away all those teeny tiny icons on top.
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