Top 12 UX Trends for Mobile Apps
Mobile design, typography, face id — here you’ll find the most important UX trends and tips on how to keep users engaged mobile app. Stay on top of the latest mobile app UX trends to make users happy with your mobile products.
An average American spends nearly three minutes on their smartphone. And 90 percent of the time is spent on apps.
That’s good news, especially if you have a mobile app for your business. However, to keep users engaged and on your app, you have to go above and beyond to provide excellent user experience plus great content.
Here’s where staying on top the latest mobile app UX trends come into play. You don’t want to be stuck in the 2000s while users and other apps have moved to the 2010s.
So, what UX trends are going to make the most impact in 2019 and moving forward?
1. Design for bigger screens
Smartphones are increasingly coming in bigger screens, and with the new models; app designers are facing a new challenge — how to position navigation elements comfortably within thumb-finger reach.
Take, for instance, iPhone Xs Max has a wider screen, where less than a fourth of the screen is within reach of the thumbs.
So, while more and more app developers design apps for a wider screen, the trend comes with its challenges.
2. Minimalist design
Minimalistic design continues its adoption as the preferred layout UX trend. The goal is to make the app interface as simple as possible.
Designers add only the essential elements that get the job done since too many items can confuse users.
We’ve seen this trend also applied to the number of colors used for each design. It’s a commonplace now to see apps with just one color.
3. Full in-app gesticulation
We are already used to swiping either left or right as an intrinsic feature of our smartphones. However, the latest trend for the new generation smartphones is to go full in-app gesticulation.
This trend is driven by the increasing elimination of buttons from smartphones by manufacturers. Today, we are only left with just a home button on the screen and two buttons on the sides for power and volume.
The good thing though, is that app developers now have more screen space.
4. Full-screen experiences
The edgeless frame design is now a thing with the release of the latest Samsung S8 and iPhone X.
With the frameless screen, developers now have larger screen space to play with.
5. Bold scalable typography
Typography is making a comeback as a crucial design element after taking the backseat for a while.
However, the trend is towards the adoption of scalable typography, especially with the launch of iOS 7 and the Helvetica Neue.
6. Increase video content adapted for mobile
As more and more developers try to boost user engagement with their apps, they will look toward integrating video content in their app.
So, look forward to seeing more video-based content and more platforms with live streaming capability.
7. You’ll see more of material design
Material design will continue its comeback as a preferred design method displacing flat design.
And with this trend, expect to see more depths in apps. Little tricks like animation, drop shadows, color gradients were some of the ways designers use to create depth perception.
8. The emergence of Face ID
Face authentication might become the preferred mode of unlocking your phone as more and more smartphone manufacturers remove the last buttons from their devices.
It’s not surprising to see forward-thinking designs begin to incorporate facial recognition into their apps. We believe this trend will continue and might even become a preferred feature to unlock your phone or login into an app.
9. The conversational design will continue its strong adoption
Facebook’s launch of chatbots for messenger in 2017 signaled the increasing trend to leverage artificial intelligence to drive in-app conversation and improved user experience.
Also, if you’re seeking for ways to convert your app users into customers, figuring out a way to integrate conversational design, in this case, chatbots into your app may be an effective way to achieve your objective.
10. Dynamic functional animation
Another popular app design trend from last year was creating and utilizing dynamic functional animation.
Animation as the trend has shown no longer restricted to only games. It’s a great way to capture attention, engage users while improving UX.
11. Augmented reality
Remember, the once viral game Pokémon Go? That’s a mobile app that incorporated augmented reality to entertain and engage its users.
The trend is not slowing down any time soon; even we are beginning to see designers leveraging augmented reality to create apps that are functional, helpful, and solve everyday problems.
A great example of augmented reality is IKEA’s app that enables customers to test out a piece of furniture to see how it will look in their room before placing an order.
12. A strong case for Cards
Cards offer a neat granular way of organizing information in mobile apps. You can easily display videos, text, images, and so on.
A great example of cards in use is the latest switch by WordPress to use of cards to build pages and posts.
New trends are supposed to prepare you for the future. Hopefully, these UX trends listed above will help you plan and design your mobile app to meet current design practice.
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Originally published at uxreality.com
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