Yet another design trends article — on UX & digital possibilities of 2019
For the ones who do not relate to the term ‘UX’ — google it, or start with ‘5 UX tips to design better mobile apps’
While the world went pessimistic in ways more than one, the people sprinkled good dosage of magical dust AKA hope. Millions broke their glass shields including us!
2018 was a gigantic year — for us at Sparklin, the UX design industry in India, and more so, for the future of UX worldwide.
If you’re in a hurry, please skip to the list of ‘UX design trends of 2019’, about a couple of scrolls down.
Pessimism? Glass shields?
Apart from the questionable political moves, heart-shattering sexual revelations, horizontal Instagram error and widespread awareness of dark UX patterns, there were an enormous number of first times of big BIG things.
By big, we mean the car that orbited the Earth while playing David Bowie’s Space Oddity and how the smartphone camera got a night sight and the launch of first commercial self-driving car service and the car flinging tunnel! Oh, how can we forget — we got to see the first instalment of Avengers: Infinity War and the ultra-amazing Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse.
Coming back to design trends & digital possibilities of 2019, we are going to exclude other interesting aspects of design, which we typically touch upon a lot more — namely Branding, Typography and UI. They will have mentions as the elements that construct the future of UX, but will not be discussed in detail. Kapish?
What’s the influence?
The world is morose, and waking up! Social platforms know us better than our parents ever would. And they’re using the information unethically, the platforms and not the parents. Both Facebook and Google were caught using the data unethically — so much so that some of the employees publicly shared their outcry, while the leaders made rounds to the Senate.
The red dot of notification is the control center of our daily lives!
We woke up to a great realisation that our phones have taken over our life. Apple unveiled a new tool to control this smartphone addiction. Amidst the tech backlash, Google launched a set of principles guiding its research into artificial intelligence.
A zettabyte (ZB) is one trillion gigabytes and the current annual data creation rate is 16.3ZB.
Consumers continue to create, share and access data on a exponentially high basis. The cloud is growing way beyond the earlier expectations and the world might be hit with a new shocking number soon. 163 zettabytes of data a year by 2025 — that’s the number predicted by IDC’s latest paper, Data Age 2025.
We are living through the greatest period of urbanization, and demographic and climate changes in world history. More than 1 billion people will be added to global cities by 2030. ~ Hans Neubert, global lead of digital experiences, Gensler
As some of us are busy creating the next era for mankind, the future might 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 and 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.
The design of the future will be more intentional & focused. ~Himanshu Khanna
In presence of all of these bleakish-neo-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 & responsible.
UX Design Trends of 2019
1. Voice assistants will continue to soar
According to Adobe Analytics, 71% of owners of smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home use voice assistants at least daily, and 44% using them multiple times a day. 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information within the last year. 46% of voice search users look for a local business daily.
Voice assistants will dominate our day-to-day lives. They will help us communicate with our home appliances beyond lights & sound systems — like refrigerators and even kitchen appliances. We shall also experience a massive growth of voice-controlled devices to rule our workplaces — playing a key role in hospitals, educational institutions and manufacturing units.
2. Gestures will be the new interface
The Internet of Things (IoT), Discrete Interactions, and Gestural Designs will play an even bigger role: We have become familiar and even comfortable with gesture technology whether we realise it or not.
From smartphone screens — pinch to shrink and swipe to scroll — to infrared sensors in bathroom faucets, we have been trained to interact with ‘smart’ objects in many ways. Widespread usage of wearables will another big push to gestures for us to interact with the world around us.
3. Research focused impact
Data will rule, interfaces will rediscover themselves and design goes device-agnostic. 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.
4. Augmented interfaces go mainstream
The role and responsibility of UX Designers will go beyond screen-only interfaces to include physical interactions and micro movements.
Think of this as an extension to gestures. The ability to modify the real world to imaginary imagery isn’t just useful for gaming applications. If you have not experienced them yet, some of the e-commerce companies have already launched their own AR-based apps for their customers to experiment with the products before making a purchase.
5. 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. Interestingly, newer versions of design roles are being introduced. It’s not just ‘creative’ anymore. There is ‘brand design’, ‘content design’, ‘user journeys’, ‘product design’ and more.
6. 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.
We cannot define just one or some touch points. As a business, we must be ready for all of them. Moreover, many users switch devices mid-task, making it even more essential that we define the experience consistently. As the businesses become better aware, the demand for device-agnostic designs will shoot up and take prominence.
7. The rise of predictive design
Banks will know if the last transaction was fraudulent — hospitals will predict the life-threatening-index of your illness — government will predict when a certain department will run out of funds.
The Amazons and the Alibabas of the world introduced the mainstream idea of predictive interaction. We can expect the phenomena to mushroom as innovative platforms will be able to anticipate a user’s next move, query, or even illness. Businesses will find patterns, trends and relationships before they could exist, all fuelled by predictive design.
8. Flat design is back — not that it went away, ever!
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. A typically user eye will be able to observe subtle differences in grays and whites. Usage of colors, patterns and illustrations will continue to highlight the play!
9. Content-focused experiences
Research reports have predicted that video will account for 85% of all internet traffic in 2019. With video viewership in the billions, video and video advertising will be the go-to medium.
Design applications for video go beyond the basic screen optimisation or gestural preferences. They will need immersive storytelling through newer avenues — Augmented-Reality and Virtual-Reality technologies.
10. Bigger, vibrant and more visual focused apps
A report by App Annie confirms that people are spending more time on apps now than ever before. Individuals use roughly 30 apps monthly, with nine apps used daily. In contrast, on average people used 14 apps on their phones in 2015. People are using more apps now because the phones are considerably faster, with more memory.
Even the lower end phones are faster and at par with what we called high-end in previous years. This will open major possibilities for app developers, giving them freedom to create apps that are big in size and to use higher quality images to heighten the overall appeal and engagement of the app.
11. Focus on ethical design
As mentioned earlier, the year 2018 was a wake-up year for most creators and users of technology platforms. Concerns related to surveillance capitalism by the tech giants were made public, including senate intervention.
They say the root of the problem lies within the business model of capitalising and monetising user data. Designers and design teams have realised 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
Hopefully you’ll be able to relate to some of these points.
If you liked the story above, have an opinion or wish to have a discussion with us on the topic or anything design, we’re just a tweet away!
To better UX in 2019.
