Did you know that it takes website visitors roughly 50 milliseconds to decide whether they like it? There isn't much time to make an ever-lasting eye-catching impression. You need to design a powerful website that will hook customers on the spot. But how do you determine which type of design will captivate your users? Easy. Follow current UI design trends.
According to research, 65% of the general public are visual learners, meaning they must see information to remember it. Hence, it's very important to make websites visually appealing to make users explore more. First visual impressions have the power to either win over prospects making them lifetime customers or turn them away forever.
What Are The 3 Golden Rules of UI design?
Regardless of how often trends change, there are few UI design rules that will remain timeless. If you follow these rules, the chances of creating a successful user interface increase tremendously. So if you are wondering…
1. Place Users in Control
Users will feel more at ease, learn more quickly, and gain a sense of mastery if they are allowed to maintain some level of control over the experience. There are a few ways in which you can easily put users in control,
"Undo" lets users make changes and then undo those changes one at a time. "Redo" lets users undo the undo, so they can continue making modifications. By adding these two small features, you will give users the freedom to explore without holding back.
Read Also: Understanding UX Design Process and Methodology For Effective Outcomes
2. Reduce Cognitive Load
"Cognitive load” is referred to the quantity of information that working memory can handle at one time. Reduce work as much as possible, avoiding users working too hard to use your product. You can achieve this by following the below points:
3. Make The Interface Consistent
Keeping your design consistent is crucial to making your users connect & comfortable with the application. When the design is inconsistent, it becomes chaos. If Users have to keep looking for navigation patterns for every web page, they will never come back.
Overall consistency gives the viewer a sense of structure. This helps them understand your message, idea, or product better. It also aids in the creation of a framework for a designer to work within. Saving them time and letting them focus on the work they do to make it work better! The following points will ensure that your design is consistent:
- Make sure your design has visual consistency. Use the same color, font, and element so that users know exactly what you mean and what to expect. For example, the cross button should be exactly in the same place and with the same shape on every page.
- Your design should also have functional consistency. It implies that each page should function identically throughout the interface. Your buttons, menus, and drop-downs shouldn't change, this will make the users frustrated. So, maintain consistent navigation across all screens.
- Establish a clear visual hierarchy, making the most crucial elements big and prominent, and ensure everything is evenly spaced along the grid or add another type of visual organization.
By now, you have a vivid idea of how you can make user-friendly designs. But recently, designs have to be beyond user-friendly, they need to be agile and futuristic.
Modern UI Trends
In this section, I will discuss the 12 modern UI trends that will help you make captivating visual designs.
Neuphormism
Neumorphism evolved from skeuomorphism to develop a whole new UX style. It's a new, simple way to design things that look like they were pushed out of soft plastic. The interface appears to have been vacuum-formed. You will discover a lot of catchy neuromorphic designs on Dribbble and Behance, and it's becoming a trend in and of itself.
The way neumorphism deals with depth is crucial. Until you press a button, it will appear raised; once you do, it will appear sunken. Shadows and gradients are used to create a three-dimensional look in Neumorphism, resulting in a clean and modern interface design. Neumorphism relies on low contrast, monochromatic color schemes, and subtle shadows to convey a sense of depth.
This sort of design may have potential accessibility concerns due to its low contrast, especially in dark mode. People with vision impairment, blindness, and color blindness will have a difficult time interacting with this interface style. Therefore, to guarantee that the interface is accessible despite its low contrast, a successful neuromorphic design requires additional attention to design aspects and principles like typography, space, and hierarchy. As designers are problem solvers, they can develop a variety of methods to ensure accessibility in neuromorphic designs.
Dark Mode
A survey published on Medium revealed that 82.7% of respondents utilized the dark mode on their devices. The results of studies conducted by Android Authority and Polar were comparable, with 91.8% and 95% of respondents expressing a preference for dark mode.
Apple claims that dark mode "makes it easier to concentrate on work.” Also, according to Microsoft, the dark mode can "reduce eye strain and extend battery life." Google claimed that this function "improves visibility for people with limited vision and those sensitive to bright light. The marketing message was received: consumers desire the product.
The dark mode UI is a style of design in which the text is light, and the background is dark. This color scheme makes device screens less bright, and some studies have shown that it helps improve visual ergonomics by making it easier on the eyes. Potentially reducing eye fatigue is helpful for interfaces where people have to read a lot of text on top it saves some battery power. Even I like dark mode as well. This example of the dark mode website will make the concept clearer.
Animations
As humans, we simply love animation! Something about that strange combination of imagery and motions never ceases to entertain us. It helps you to add story-telling is your designs. Users are intrigued by moving objects and surprising animations, encouraging them to scroll deeper to discover what happens next.
However, the purpose of animations in UI/UX is more than just entertainment. Animation in UX needs to accomplish a task to delight us truly. For instance, it can inform us when a process is finished or tell us when we're doing something correctly. And we refer to that as functional animation.
There are plenty of types of functional animations in UI/UX. Functional animations are used for many purposes, the most common 5 types of animations are for loading. Transitions, scroll, navigation, and action are complete.
P.S Our designer has used animations while creating this Law Agency illustration.
Bold Typography
If you are a reader, you will see the author change fonts just to express the emotions, such as capitalizing letters and using italics also, children's books have different fonts than adult books. This is how typography plays a crucial role in different UI design styles as well.
Bold fonts give the user a sense of assurance and confidence. Bold typography commands attention and stands out from its surroundings. The overall aesthetic must, however, be an essential (and integrated) component of it.
Popular websites are implementing this strategy. Not only websites, products, and logos are applying these similar fonts. With a direct and proactive approach, bold typography appears to be here to stay and will likely grow in 2022. The best use of bold typography can be seen on the landing pages of Dropbox, Drift, and Nike. You can also watch how we used bold typography for making this Personal Portfolio Website.
Augmented Reality
For quite some time, designers have been incorporating augmented reality (AR) into user interface (UI) design, and this trend is anticipated to continue for years to come. The AR-powered features will make design comprehension simple, precise, and superior.
Moreover, AR technologies enable end-users to receive real-time app feedback. The most significant aspect of UI design with augmented reality is the analysis of user behavior, including age group, time spent, and expectations. The medical industry is a great example of how AR can be applied to telemedicine or online medical consultations.
Let's emphasize the following trends in the usage of augmented reality in user interfaces:
Here’s an example of a UI design made using Augment Reality to give a virtual make-up experience to its customer.
Virtual reality
Modern user experience designers are using virtual reality (VR) more than ever before. The designers think about not only the basics of photography, sketching, and motion design but also depth, curved design, interactions, sound design, and the environment.
The usage of VR in UI designs are:
- Make a full 360-degree view.
- Use a curved design that makes it easier for the user to see the text or pictures.
- Don't turn 2D things into 3D things because that takes away from the immersive experience of VR.
- Show all the UI elements, experiences, menus, text, and any other extra information about an object at the same depth.
- Need affordances in VR to show when an element is interactive and when the interactions happen.
- Voice UI And Artificial Intelligence (AI)
By 2021, more than 50% of searches will be conducted using voice, according to some studies, in the era of Alexa, Siri, and other voice-activated assistants. AI has changed the way websites are made and set up many standard ways for people and machines to communicate quickly. One of the best examples of this is the rise of chatbots, which can now be found on almost every website or app.
AI is bridging the gap between human cognition and machine automation with its sophisticated AI algorithms and sophisticated machine learning procedures.
The voice assistant can aid website visitors to your company in their search for products or services. As people have become accustomed to voice chatbots and virtual assistants, UX designers should integrate VUI into their apps to make them more engaging for users.
Tips for integrating voice interaction in user experience design:
- Guide users through the commonly used features
- Apply different voice interface design principles
- Recognize how people naturally communicate through voice
- Give users choices rather than graphical user interfaces
Check out our HMI car dashboard cluster, where we used Voice UI & (AI) to provide a unique experience.
Custom cursor interactions
Custom-cursor-interactions-UI-trends Technology provides more opportunities than ever before as our devices and their software continue to advance. Websites frequently implement micro animations and overly flashy interactions to stand out among other websites. Musemind website has also used a customized cursor to present a unique UI.
The primary objective of using a custom cursor should be to boost the number of interactions. For example, encouraging users to view more by clicking on a link or image.
Rather than making the cursor entirely stylistic, concentrate on creating cursors that improve the user experience. You can also experiment with it, using multiple shapes and sizes, but know when to stop and when it is appropriate. We don't want to frustrate users.
One of the most fashionable interactions is when the movement of my cursor functions as an input, producing lively and entertaining outcomes. If you want to explore some more quirky & unique hovers and cursors interactions, check out AWWWARDS. You're welcome!
Flat design
Flat design is a style of user interface design that uses bright colors and simple, two-dimensional shapes. A common contrast is a skeuomorphic style, which imitates real-life properties to create the illusion of three-dimensionality.
There are numerous reasons why flat website design has swept the web by storm. The combination of a simple user interface, bold colors, sharp images, straightforward navigation, distinctive fonts, and text that is easy to read makes flat design the preferred option for many designers and clients.
This flat design became popular after it was implemented in popular products such as Microsoft's Windows 8, Apple's iOS 7, and Google's Material Design. You can also look at these examples to understand better about flat designs. We made an analytical dashboard for an affiliate website using a Flat design, this will clarify your idea about this trend.
3D graphics
Among the year's top trending UI design trends, 3D graphics are soaring above creative experiments. Integration of diverse 3D graphics into mobile and web interfaces is unquestionably a difficult task that requires specialized skills and an artistic eye. Additionally, it is time-consuming. However, the benefits are extremely important:
- It is undeniably appealing, and users will never ignore it.
- The 3D renders frequently appear photorealistic, which is a significant advantage for user interface design: graphics of this type may save the game in cases where photo content is either impossible to achieve or very expensive.
- Nothing can help you more than a futuristic atmosphere.
For user interface design, the fact that 3D renders frequently resemble photorealistic images is a big plus. Graphics of that kind may even allow you to win the game if the photo content you need is either extremely difficult to obtain or prohibitively expensive. There is no better way to create a futuristic vibe. The industries which are using 3D graphics the most are games, food, home decor, e-commerce app & NFTs.
This might interest you, one of our talented designers created a 3D modeling website for scooters. We would love to get your views.
Smooth Gradient
A gradient is a gradual transition from one color to another (or, if you're feeling particularly colorful, from one color to another color to another color; gradients aren't limited to two shades). Gradients are also known as color transitions. If you are still not sure, then think about the Instagram logo.
This shows gradients are now not limited to cool UI designs anymore, people are using it on logos, packaging, apps, and print materials. Humans seem to be in love with it since 2018!
The gradient is eye-catching and captivating for two reasons. One, they can blend colors and create combinations of both contrast and similar colors. Secondly, it's extremely versatile. It can be bold or subtle, the design's focus or background. Gradients can create new color combinations that feel modern and different, giving designs a unique feel.
Illustrations
People are naturally drawn to other people and this is why illustration creates a difference. Illustration helps differentiate and distinguish UI products. In a sea of digital platforms, it's important to stand out. Digital or hand-drawn, 2D or 3D illustrations can have different aesthetics.
When combined with motion design, illustrations can bring static pages to life. Adding characters to a digital platform or product can increase user engagement, empathy, and memorability.
Instead of distracting users or slowing down the platform, illustrations should enhance the user experience. When done right, illustrations can boost conversions and user experience custom illustrations have replaced stock photos to give your designs a unique look and tell the story of your products. We have created a Food Landing Page using illustrations, you can check it out and give feedback.
This sums up the most popular 12 UI design trends of 2022. More new trends will be coming up in the next few years, this does raise a question. Maintaining an awareness of the most recent UI design trends will allow you to keep up with the most recent innovations. The most effective method is to read blogs and follow designs.
Wrapping Up
Everyone has witnessed the rise and fall of iconic fashion items and artistic movements. The same holds for UI design trends as well. . Trends in UI design shift from interfaces that imitate real-world objects to interfaces with no embellishments. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. With an understanding of these UI trends, you can create and test new ones, which is crucial for innovation, advancing the design industry, and enhancing your design practice. Simply put, I am excited to see what the future of UI holds.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
