Trends come and go. New technologies become popular while the old ones are forgotten. Mobile app designing is no exception. It keeps changing everyday.
In this post, I will be looking at some of the new UX/UI trends of 2017!
1. Personalisation
Personalisation isn’t exactly a new concept but the differences between this and its other half, responsive design is focused around adapting the apps layout, colours etc to an individual person where as responsive design was focused around adapting to a screen.
As an example, the size would be different on a 32” 4K TV compared to a standard 20” HD TV.
With this trend of personalization, users can change the app to suit their needs so a person who can maybe only see very minimal light or is completely colour blind can change the app to suit their needs.
2. VR
VR has become huge recently, though it has been around for a while the recent breakthroughs in VR technology have crossed over into the mobile world and it’s fantastic!
There was a time where mobile devices couldn’t handle what VR brought to the table but with advancements in mobile technology, it handles VR very well. It has also brought great opportunities, for situations including tourism and even college work.
3. Community Developers
This one is more outside of actual development but in recent times, a number of people who are just regular everyday people, developing apps has majorly increased. You don’t have to know the code to create an app, there is click, drag and drop app builders now!
4. Hidden Navigation
Though not such a recent thing, it’s becoming more common in 2017. The basis of hidden navigation is creating a navigation drawer that is visible only when it’s needed and is invisible the rest of the time.
5. Scroll Instead Of Navigation
Instead of having any type of navigation, your app or web page is simply just one page that users can scroll down through all of the content it provides. It takes out the need for users to figure out how to use your navigation system, especially if it’s over complicated.
6. Less Is More
Instead of having bright, bold and extravagant apps, now developers are focusing more on one colour scheme with a few different shades and mostly pastel shades. Not only does this make it seem more “calm” but it’s easier for the viewer of the app too.
This goes hand-in-hand with the design too, keeping it simple and easy to navigate is better than having an overly complicated app that is hard and time-consuming to navigate through.
7. Illustrations
This offers a sense of character and personality and in all honesty, traditional photography just doesn’t capture it quite as well as an illustration does. Having illustrations allows designers to create an image that is unique to them and their brand while adding parts of their own personality into them, whether they are goofy or serious.
Being so personal, this also allows designers to project their humanity through art instead of keeping everything mundane.
8. Chatbots
Chatbots are becoming more common especially within businesses, it’s basically a 24/7 automated Q&A to keep customers happy and for sales to be made.
9. Animations For CTA
Okay, I know I said in number 5 that less is more but when it comes to call to action buttons then making them animated can draw a user’s attention pretty quickly. The key is not to over-do it but have it catchy enough not to draw attention away from your product/blog.
10. Videos Instead Of Text
Think about this from a user perspective, if you are reading an about section on an app or reading through updates and it just goes on for paragraph after paragraph of text with nothing to break it up, then you are going to lose your attention very quickly, right?
Having a video instead of text can keep users engaged without having to scroll through a sea of text and there is actually proof that videos lead to more conversions.
