Creating better UX means staying on top of UX trends. In 2017, we’re already seeing quite a few trends that are making us rethink the way we design. End-users are expecting more from us than ever before, but we’re more than ready to deliver.
Even we don’t use a trend ourselves, we can still learn something about our target audiences by seeing what trends they embrace. In the end, that’s what matters, right. Without further ado, here are some of the top UX trends of 2017.
More Intuitive UX Designs
There’s no denying that people are impatient by nature. We want what we want and we want it 10 seconds ago. With the emergence of the digital age, people are more impatient than ever and it’s starting to really show in how UX designers approach apps, sites and products.
In 2017, we’ll start working towards far more intuitive and time saving UX. Think fewer screens and taps, less of a learning curve and more getting straight to the good stuff. End-users want experiences that happen in real-time (or even faster) with no delays at all.
Building Upon What Came Before
It’s kind of in our nature as creatives to want to do something completely unique and different, but where does that get us? We spend hours of our lives recreating the basics that someone else already did. It’s only after we build on the basics that we start getting to the fun part – creating something unique.
One of the popular and more useful UX trends of 2017 is skipping the reinvent the wheel step and taking advantage of design guidelines that help us quickly design the experience, leaving us more time to build upon that foundation. A great example of this is Apple’s iOS design guidelines that give designers a starting point versus starting from scratch.
Creating Conversational Interfaces
Chatbots are on the rise and that’s affecting UX design. The need for conversational interfaces is a growing trend. Of course, it’s not just interfaces, it’s the entire process of how people communicate in general. The conversational UX trend actually even goes a bit further.
With AIs such as Alexa, it’s up to UX designers to figure out how to create a seamless experience between different devices while still considering how people interact with their voices versus taps, swipes and clicks.
Thinking About Non-Users
As UX designers, we have to create user flows quite often. One of the newest UX trends for 2017 is creating user fail flows. This might sound a bit pointless, but think about it this way – what if the target user isn’t a digital native? It might seem hard to believe, but many people are just entering the world of smartphones and even computers in general.
What happens when this audience tries using a design? UX designers are now considering failure points and how to best adjust the experience to meet the needs of both experts and novices alike.
Adding A More Human Element
While we may love the idea of talking to a robot and getting things done as fast as possible, we still like having that human element from time to time. Think about two retail stores for a moment. The first gets you in and gets you out as quickly as possible. The second has a personal shopper that’s ready to assist you if you have questions or to recommend a product if you ask.
Which one would you rather shop at? This is a challenging trend as UX designers are tasked with bringing more humanity to design to create a more personal experience versus just getting something done.
Exploring More Advanced Interaction Design
Interaction design is a term that’s continued to grow in popularity over the past several years. This is one of the more fun UX trends. Instead of just standard interactions, the trend is toward hapnotic interactions. The concept involves using haptic feedback to further engage a person and keep them using the finished product, almost like a hypnotic approach, hence hapnotic.
We always see new UX trends every year. Some continue to grow over time, while others simply fade away. What do you think? Have you already tried any of these? Any other great trends you’d like to share?
Images: Sebastian Mantel, Valor Kopeny, Alexis Brown