By Himanshu Khanna, Sparklin
2018 was a gigantic year for the UX design industry in India, and more so, for the future of UX worldwide. The future will have a new map for cities. We might never need to own cars.
When the commute is autonomous or flying or both, we might not need traffic lights. Pedestrians will be able to cross the streets wherever required. There will be more businesses on the move and the world will spread to farther reaches.
Social platforms know us better than our parents ever would. And they’re using the information unethically. We continue to create, share and access data on an exponentially high basis. 163 zettabytes of data a year by 2025—that’s the number predicted by IDC’s latest paper.
In presence of all of these bleakishneo-world elements, design, specifically digital design will need to answer a lot. The user experience will go beyond just controlling interfaces or engaging—it will grow ethical and responsible.
UX Design Trends of 2019
– Voice assistants will continue to soar
71% of owners of smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home use voice assistants at least daily. 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information within the last year. We will also experience a massive growth of voicecontrolled devices to rule our workplaces—playing a key role in hospitals, educational institutions, and manufacturing units.
– Gestures will be the new interface
The Internet of Things (IoT), Discrete Interactions, and Gestural Designs will play an even bigger role. From smartphone screens—pinch to shrink and swipe to scroll—to infrared sensors in bathroom faucets, we have been getting trained to interact with ‘smart’ objects in many ways.
– The rise of predictive design
Banks will know if the last transaction was fraudulent. Hospitals will predict the life-threatening-index of your illness. The government will predict when a certain department will run out of funds. We can expect the phenomena of Predictive Design to mushroom as innovative platforms will be able to anticipate a user’s next move, query, or even illness.
– Augmented interfaces go mainstream
The role and responsibility of UX Designers will go beyond screen-only interfaces to include physical interactions and micro movements. Some of the e-commerce companies internationally have launched AR-based apps for their customers to experiment with the products before making a purchase.
– Device-agnostic design—the new demand
Mobile-first or mobile-friendly design never meant mobile-only. There are possibilities that a user may communicate via email, website, phone app, social media, store visit, phone call, physical mail or some other undefined touch point.
Many users switch devices mid-task, making it even more essential that we define the experience consistently. As the businesses become more aware, the demand for device-agnostic designs will shoot up and take prominence.
– Flat design is back
Think bright, 2D animations with a minimalistic feel—think Material Design—highlighted with 3D icons, subtle shading, and light elements. With better devices at much affordable costs, the visibility and exposure will grow multifold.
– Content-focused experiences
Research reports have predicted that video will account for 85% of all internet traffic in 2019. With the video viewership in the billions, video and video advertising will be the go-to medium. Design applications for video go beyond the basic screen optimization or gestural preferences.
– Research focused impact
Deep researches and detailed observations will pave the future advancement. Traditionally, research has suffered the most from canned methodologies—the new research outlook will be methodology independent, amassing as much empathy as required for your users and your products.
– Bigger, vibrant and more visual focused apps
A report by App Annie confirms that people are spending more time on apps, roughly 30 apps monthly, thanks to faster phones. Even the lower end phones are at par with what we called high-end in previous years. This will open major possibilities for app developers, to create apps that are big in size and to use higher quality images to heighten the overall appeal and engagement.
– The change to the design-first approach
Earlier a designer’s role was limited to studying the ideas of the engineering and the business teams, and merely translate them to presentable visuals for the users. Now, an increased list of companies are involving designers in the problem-solving process. Business leaders are realising the criticality and possibility of design thinking as an initial step in the discovery pathway.
– Focus on ethical design
Concerns related to surveillance capitalism by the tech giants were made public, including Senate intervention. Designers and design teams have realized their obligation to build platforms that are better. Experiences with intention of human good will be the design of 2019!
Design Problem + Human Values = Ethical Design
(The author is CEO and design evangelist at Sparklin. Views expressed are their own)
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