UI and UX design trends for 2019
Every company wants to keep up with trends, but it’s not only about being updated and fashionable, it’s about providing users with a high level of usability. A wise combination of the following trends will lead to more satisfied users, and support your product’s success.
UX and UI Design Trends for 2019
It is hard to divide user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) as they are closely related. Trends in UX directly impact the UI state, so we will talk about both at the same time, but starting from more UX-related topics and moving to interface design.
User Experience Personalization
The mass production is not an option nowadays. There is a huge competition on the market and users expect a personalized approach from you.
We are not surprised by our name in the Email subject line or related products recommendations. In 2019 personalization extends by artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots and voice assistants. We have a more emotional connection with our devices than ever before and we expect them to know us even better than our closest friends do.
Personalization is flourishing in retail, with prices adjusting according to user’s location, advanced product recommendations, and personalized marketing in addition to the ability to shop through voice assistant that will suggest us exactly what we want for the best price.
Time-Saving Design Features
Today’s user is impatient and can hold focus for approximately 8 seconds. So, the trend in 2019 will be designing the user experience that reduces friction and saves time for users.
The key point here is to reduce users hesitation and make a design more intuitive. This can be achieved by such approaches in design as:
- Features are visible only when a user needs them in a specific context.
- Linear design, where a user performs one action at a time and is not overwhelmed with a variety of actions.
- Light and gentle popups with suggestions or tips to speed up action taking process.
Voice-activated Interface
Voice-command technology prospers, smart-home devices such as Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa and virtual assistants is nothing new today. But websites and mobile applications are still adopting this technology and there is a huge space for design innovation.
Voice is commonly used in search engines and it’s predicted that 50% of all search engine queries will be performed by voice by 2020. That means that users will expect your interface to support voice search too and this will require additional UI presentation.
In 2019, we are looking forward to new interesting ways of how design and technology will change the user’s voice experience.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
Internet of Things is changing every sector of the modern web, including design. This technology has connected us to the world more than ever before. Smart devices are influencing the way we experience digital products and services as we are interacting with them through the web or mobile interfaces. IoT produces a lot of data that should be represented and interacted in the most convenient way possible.
Content-Centered Experiences
Of course, the visual appearance matters and design should be beautiful, but let’s face it, people come to a website or mobile app for content. And in 2019 content becomes richer and people consume it more than ever. The success of the product is defined by the right mix of technology, design, and content. Designers can keep content easy to access and consume in 2019 by:
- Having a well-structured content on the page
- Removing unnecessary fancy stuff to keep the focus on content
- Using white space to give content some air.
In addition to text and image content, there will be a huge demand for video content. Cisco has predicted that more than 80% of all Internet traffic will be video by 2021. So UX and UI designs should be ready to become more video-focused.
Augmented Reality (AR)
AR isn’t just used for games like Pokemon Go. It becomes a useful tool that enhances user experience and in 2019 there will be more AR applications. For example, Ikea gives its users the ability to see how new furniture will fit in the room through a mobile application. Moreover, AR slowly penetrates into the web as well.
Augmented reality itself is another platform with its own UX and UI. Such things as navigation, object-related elements presentation, animation and interaction with elements on top of the real-world image should be designed as well as in-app design. Therefore, the AR experience should be carefully thought through.
Virtual Reality (VR)
VR is a big player in UI and UX trends as it becomes more widely used among people. There is a lot of job for designers as VR is a mix of experiences, a whole world you put the user into. VR can be used from training doctors by imitation of surgery to entertaining games.
Biometric Authentications
We will see more use of biometrics for authentication and person identification. It will enhance security for both people and enterprises by removing traditional login form with login and password.
So in the future, facial recognition, fingerprints and voice recognition will be a new way of logging into websites and apps. This approach requires new UX and UI solutions that will replace old ones.
Chatbots and AI
Chatbots and communicating interfaces are also in trend in 2019. With the rapid development of chatbots powered by AI, more websites include such technology. Communication with bots is becoming more organic and usual. In addition, previously mentioned voice assistants are flourishing and interfere into user experience on the web and mobile.
Colors, Gradients and The Overlapping Effect
The overlapping effect is achieved by the right combination of text, image, gradients, and shadows. In 2019 we will see more bold colors, monochrome and in gradients implemented in illustrations, UI elements or backgrounds to add more depth feel to the platform.
Illustrations
Beautiful and rich illustration become a trend back in 2018 and will remain in 2019. They allow designers to tell stories and ideas without saying too much, which as well improves the user experience. Illustrations are used in many products and you can see a common trend of isometric cartoon-like illustrations with gradients.
But it’s not enough to just use illustrations, they have to be unique and represent a brand of your company. Creating such illustrations will be the goal for designers in 2019.
Motion Design
Modern browsers have better performance, that allows using more complex animations on websites. Motion design is a discipline of design, that makes a website more alive. This approach uses every second to do some sort of interaction or animation to engage visitors.
Motion design also provides a user with more information by those small details like smooth movement, transitions, light change and shadows. And it definitely should be used on your web or mobile platform for better engagement of users.
Material Design
UX started moving to a more engaging level with light and shading features, transitions, clean structure and 3D icons back in 2014. In 2019 material design is still on demand, but with new, cleaner look and more advanced motion design techniques. Modern design is moving toward more user-centric approach, liveliness and mind-blowing interaction animations.
3D in Interfaces
Designers started using 3D elements in interfaces some time ago, but a little of companies used this approach in the web because it affected performance too much. Today movie-like visual effects are quite accessible due to improved abilities of modern browsers. Such technologies as WebGL allow rendering complex 3D graphics in web interfaces.
The trend of 3D graphics will the best fit for ecommerce companies, where products should be displayed. With this approach, the user can interact with an object and see it from all the angles.
Real 3D opens more business opportunities, creates a deeper connection with a product and makes the user experience more rich and engaging. In addition, 3D can be used in illustrations for adding interactivity to your interface.
Conclusion
In 2019 we expect interfaces to be more alive, engaging and interactive due to 3D graphics, motion and material designs with bold colors and gradients. All of that will be merged with such trending technologies as IoT, biometrics, AI, augmented and virtual reality with a more user-centered approach and advanced personalized experience.
If you see that you need to refresh your website, feel free to contact us. We have a team of professional designers and developers that can update your website according to the latest trends.
