The important role design will play in 2021, and beyond

As designers, we’re used to keeping our eyes toward the horizon, designing for the future. But as much as we might like to think we can see around corners, we never could have anticipated this year. And if navigating uncharted territory in our personal lives wasn’t enough, we also had to adapt in our ways of designing, developing new products and building teams.

Reflecting on all the change that’s come our way in 2020 and considering the shifting landscape that lies ahead, here are five trends for the product design industry that I expect to see in 2021 and beyond.

1. Designers will lead the charge on important issues

Much of product designers’ energy over the past decade has been focused on building nice-to-have and convenience products, like social networking apps and streaming services. While those projects have value — and are certainly fun to work on — 2020 has taught us our energy needs to be directed toward more substantial and impactful challenges.

Inclusivity, accessibility, equity, sustainability, transparency and justice. These are just a few of the themes I’m hearing about the most in conversations with my peers. At Opendoor, for example, we designed an experience where our buyers can make all-cash offers on homes. Typically, sellers find cash offers more attractive, so we’re helping level the playing field between those who need financing and those who are fortunate enough to not to.

Yes, these are broader business and societal challenges, but as designers, we have a unique skill set of listening, identifying problems and bringing solutions to life. We’re well equipped to lead the charge in creating products that solve substantial problems. The market of convenience and entertainment products is saturated — enter the era of the hard but rewarding projects!

2. Existing technologies will show up in new and surprising places

COVID-19 has thrust more traditional industries into a new wave of digitization and innovation. We’ve seen restaurants reinvent themselves as digital bodegas and QR-code wielding automats. And I never thought I’d be kickboxing along with other badass women on a small screen in my spare bedroom.

In 2021 we’re going to see more industries powering a new range of fully digital experiences. And it won’t necessarily be a race to develop new technologies, rather new applications of existing tech like machine learning and artificial intelligence that has been developed for other industries. At Opendoor, we’re experimenting with using our current tech to enable customers with the ability to better evaluate the condition of a home, even before stepping foot inside.

Watch out, though, because screen fatigue is real. People will be more and more selective about how they spend their screen time. We need to be mindful of how we can make digital experiences less taxing and more engaging for all the senses.

3. Brand and UX will converge — and create demand for designers with new skills

Larger companies have separated hyper-specific roles and departments, driving a wedge between form and function. Both of which are fundamental to design. Product design is no longer a series of screens that need to be organized by a UX professional and skinned by a visual designer, based on a system made by a brand designer. Now it’s about data-rich, animated and personalized experiences that need to be considered simultaneously as an aesthetic and functional experience. It only takes seconds to go from advertising to using a product, and in those instances, form and function need to be perfectly married.

How? Tools will help. Over the past few years we’ve also seen design tools like Figma, Invision, and Principle enabling designers to cover more ground. I think we’ll also see more designers writing queries and defining the positioning. The likely solution, though, will sound familiar: busting out of our silos and finding new ways for different perspectives to collaborate and empathize.

4. We’ll need new collaboration tools to empower both creativity and efficiency

As a designer, I think in pictures. When I’m working through something with my team, the easiest way to convey it is with a quick whiteboarding session or sketch. One of my professors in design school could always tell if we’d jumped onto the computer to design without sketching first. He’d remind us “everything on the computer just wants to be perfect, it’s so much harder to create something new and unique.”

Though design and collaboration tools have come a long way, computers still struggle to match the fluidity of thought that can come from working with our hands and in-person. However, having to make it work remotely is going to help us find a new path in 2021.

We’ll do more than design screens together. We’ll uncover new ways to quickly communicate the less tangible parts of our work. Collaboration and design tools will evolve, empowering us to design complex flows and work with real-time data in ways we could have never made happen on a post-it note.

5. Design teams will become more diverse

Product design jobs have been entrenched in tech meccas and large metro areas like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, creating a massive bias in our industry. Remote work is already changing this, with larger employers going fully remote for many roles. I’m excited to see designers from smaller cities, rural areas, and different demographics getting a leg up this year and beyond.

As we’ve learned, the bubbles we’re in have a profound influence on our work, ideas, and worldview. These new, more diverse teams will bring fresh perspectives and inspiration. This more flexible way of working also helps balance things away from the archaic “time in office” and more toward impact. Parents and employees with different working needs will have an opportunity to shine, when they may not have in the traditional hyper social office environment.

Creating scalable products for broad audiences can be challenging, but I predict it will be much easier when our teams more truly represent the diversity of our customer base.

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