A well-designed website representing your brand’s authenticity is good business practice. It forms a good impression on your potential customers who only take about 50 milliseconds to form an opinion of your website and your services. Web designs that capture user’s attention are an indispensable part of online marketing presence. Navigation with ease and an overall good user experience goes a long way to win your customer’s trust. Hence user interface and testing mobile view of website should be the top-most priority of any website.
What is UI/ UX DESIGN?
UI stands for User Interface and UX stands for User Experience. Both of these are frequently used for one and the other. The user interface is more about graphical layout, text buttons, colour schemes of those buttons, shapes of the applications which creates the look and feel of an app. User experience is about how easy or difficult it is to interact with the user interface. It should be aesthetic but smooth functioning which is easy to understand, learn and read. The web designer should focus on the feel of the design being aesthetic and not too showy as aesthetic minimalism goes a long way which focuses on the visual aspect to express a clean and fresh style in design. Big and bold typography was hot in 2020 which benefited a lot of web apps in a very interesting manner hence it will continue to grow in 2021 too. We don’t always need a fancy UI for a product to look mesmerizing. There is nothing more pleasing and aesthetic than a simple minimal and readable UI with an immersive interface for users to generate more experience in the process of using the product. Therefore, if you’re planning to take courses on UI/UX design, here are the top trends to look for in 2021.
1). 3D elements
3D elements always receive great love because they make the user experience more engaging and informative with a functional purpose. These are the hottest trends around. They are widely used in full-screen animations. Their integration in the UI is used as the main key visuals. It also includes advanced micro-interactions which are subtle movements centered on accomplishing a single task; many of the UX designers will be adopting advanced motion design techniques. Also, AR and VR i.e. Augmented Reality adds digital elements to a live view by using the camera on a smartphone and virtual reality implies a complete emotional experience that shuts out the physical world. Again a trend to look forward to.
2). GLASS MORPHISM
This ‘through the glass effect’ is the new craze this year. Not a new style as it has been used in Windows Vista and IOS 7 before. It focuses on blurring the background with the frosted glass effect and the objects seem to be floating in space. It has become trendy because it simulates the glass age while being very subtle yet visible. Web designers should explore this area more because users seem to get bored of a trend that has been around for a while. Hence the web design firm should explore new paths like a subtle shadow for extra depth, high contrast, and cut through the glass with new and exciting designs.
3). DARK MODE
Big names like Facebook, Apple, Android, and Instagram offer a dark mode as their alternative theme as it reduces eye strain. It also looks modern and allows design elements to pop. It makes it easier for the users to jump between the light and dark mode on the devices which also focuses on the personalization of the design. Light background with dark color text elements seems to work for a lot of users as it provides attention to text elements and also focuses on the visuals at the same time. Because not only does it look cool to them but also increases battery life.
4). ANIMATED ILLUSTRATIONS
To capture user’s emotions and help them understand complex procedures and concepts, many UI designers are therefore incorporating animated illustrations these days for their brand’s reputation and to reflect its personality. They are also being used for promo and explanation videos. Because images in motion always catch the user’s attention and add life to the page. It is a huge thumbs up as it supports the original and stylish look of the product to add an emotional appeal. Users enjoy a variety of styles, details, colors and plots so this becomes a huge area to expand on.
5). DATA VISUALISATION
Users have started making decisions based on the information that they see during the change in their mental models. It is a way of communicating through visual representation to provoke emotions. It’s also about learning the target audience and their concerns. It’s beyond just pictures. Mountains of information can be deciphered for making data-driven decisions using the data visualization Trend. Because not only it helps us to foresee volumes of sales but it also helps us recognize areas that need improvement. Therefore in today’s world of fast-paced business data visualization is an important aspect to look out for. It increases engagement and also follows the term “less is more”.
6). ID AUTHENTICATION AND DATA PRIVACY
The process that ensures a person’s identity matches the one that is supposed to be called identity verification. Authentication of identities is important because it enables various institutions to keep their networks secure by permitting only authenticated users to access its protected resources.
Not only that, many of the users are concerned about IT companies checking on their activities. For example, if they browse something on the web they get its advertisement for the upcoming 4 to 5 days. Therefore companies are aiming to find a solution to this problem. A recent example can be used when you are asked to choose a name and an email address to sign in. You can choose a unique and random email address that automatically sends messages to your email address.
7). VOICE USER INTERFACE
VUI or voice user interface has exploded in popularity. It uses speech recognition technology to enable users to interact with technology by just using their voices. But these have existed since 2016. What’s new this time is the creation of a technology that solves a lot of complex problems being user-friendly at the same time. The main goal of the technology is to create an advanced personalization technique that makes the user feel like the content and the app is created for them. It would not only analyze the user’s voice but its tone and their mood analysis.
8). VIDEO CONFERENCING WITH LIVE COLLABORATION
A lot of institutions made major investments in collaboration applications like video conferencing and team messaging in 2020 due to the pandemic. This helped us communicate remotely. Yet again, it is not a new concept for those who have been working in the creative industry for a very long time but with the pandemic hitting us it has become an essential tool. Video conferencing not only allows us to have an urgent meeting with customizable backgrounds but also helps us to record our meetings in case someone misses them. Up till now, zoom has been able to conduct a meeting for 100 people at once for free. Web developers could use this opportunity to design their own video conferencing tool to meet up the user’s expectations for the future.
9). COMPELLING STORYTELLING
Stories are a way of connecting and understanding each other as human beings. They are how you remember information and build meaning. Web designers are adopting this approach to engage users because more than the boring information users remember concepts that are much easier to process and remember. Therefore a web designer should explore this area to create different characters like a mascot to make the story personal and authentic. The character can actively participate in the story or tell the story in a very witty or humorous manner. Also, the words chosen should be very powerful to be consistent in your communication. Don’t forget to add your company’s personality and goals which will help you connect with your site visitors. It makes all the difference when users choose between different web designs.
10). CROSS-PLATFORM APP OPTIMIZATION
Apple was the first to break the distinction between desktop and mobile which allows us to run iOS apps on the Mac OS. It gives a pathway to many web designers to do the same because it gives you access to a larger audience and a seamless transition between platforms. It will be more user-friendly as the user gets to decide which platform to use at any given moment. Not only that, but Web designers should also focus on enhancing the overall experience so that users come back. A great way to do that is to check out LT Browser which is specially designed for developers to check the mobile version of their websites.
Not only that it helps testers to carry out interactive live testing across 50+ different device viewports for mobiles, tablets, desktops, and laptops. Also, you can simultaneously compare two viewports side-by-side to live mobile view debugging, capture screenshots, record videos, use developer tools, perform hot reloading, and much more. A cross-platform app should have a native feel to it for a great user experience. Web designers should enthusiastically work towards it because the costs are reduced since creating separate native apps for the different platforms is expensive whereas cross-app optimization keeps you within your budget limits. Also, basic knowledge of standard language seems to be sufficient while optimizing cross-platform. The rest of the work is done by the development tools.
Wrapping Up!
UI/ UX design is important because it can turn potential visitors into permanent buyers. Also when user usage is kept in mind the web designer will focus on seamless design facilities which will draw the attention of the user. A recent example is the generated photos tool which uses artificial intelligence for generating human artificial photos. It is useful to create artificial identities without copyright issues, royalties, or distribution rights. That is why a user and a web designer need to look for these trends.
So as the user knows what is being offered in the market and the web designer knows the demand of a user. There should be compatibility on both sides for the smooth functioning of new designs which will increase the likeability of a user. It will also facilitate major developments in web designs for the future.
Hence this year the prioritization would be on simple page designs, authenticity, speed, cross-platform optimization approach, data privacy and security and workings of artificial intelligence to our benefit. Check your website on the LT Browser for a seamless experience.
