UX and Design Trends That Will Make Customers Happy in 2017

Creative fields are bound to be influenced by newer trends. They are the driving elements that can dictate the activities of everyone involved. This is especially true in the realm of design-based technology. In order to achieve the futuristic user experience (UX), experts must design the innovative interactions that can complement the latest trends. The popularity of ‘mobile-first’ strategy followed by the global acceptance of ‘responsive’ designing has already taken the world by storm. So, can we figure out the upcoming trends that could make their mark in 2017? Discussed below are some of them that could not just keep the users engaged, but would also help the business achieve the broader objectives of maximizing their returns.

Minimizing Interstitial Anxiety

One of the vital aspects that designers usually focus on is the interstitial anxiety. It is the anxious state in which users find themselves after initiating an action. For example, the action could be clicking a ‘Pay’ button, and landing on the next page that shows the response. The tension level is normally bound to go high especially during monetary transactions. It can also shoot up when the time taken by the next page to load is much more than acceptable while performing an important or urgent activity. Among the various reasons, a non-optimized design is the usual cause of this high latency.

The latest innovation in design would now allow users to momentarily preview the next action. The transition components that can cite the next screen in the sequence are the elements that make it possible. This design feature is turning into a new fad that is bound to offer a seamless experience to the users by minimizing their anxieties. As users subconsciously perceive this new trend, we could see much more of it in 2017.

Di-linear Navigation

Simplicity has already become the buzzword and a vital metric to measure usability. The menus for navigation have been simplified to an extent that the user’s interaction with the system has been highly-regulated and stereotyped. It’s become mandatory for users to follow a pre-defined step-by-step process. They are even required to interact with the application in a fixed way and have to follow a linear path.

For instance, most e-commerce portals today force the users to move along an inflexible navigational path. It starts with users having to select the product category like apparel or electronics. Following which the users can select the items they wish to buy. Once they have added the items, they are prompted to buy them. On completion of the purchase, they are required to rate the experience subsequently. This is the simplest and the most widely followed method of shopping on many e-commerce portals.

However, more and more designers are realizing that simplicity doesn’t always lead to better usability. They have also identified that most users are no more enjoying such over-simplified processes. They do not want to be driven from screen-to-screen like nerds. This has shifted the focus on Di-linearity.

Designers now seem to respect the intelligence of the users. They want to provide them with several options to choose from, which is totally based on their preferences and needs. This simply means, viewers will have many more paths to navigate and can decide which one to opt. The year 2017 will see innovative designs that will integrate many more touch-points for users to navigate as per their own choice.

Age-specific Design

The responsive design methodology has enabled the website-layouts to be adaptable to a huge range of devices. However, this initiative of restructuring the website’s content to match the size of the user’s screen is only the first step in the process. The next vital step that designers are contemplating is to match the content of the site to the specific age of the user. The trend is to go by the pretext that content consumed by children and elderly people are totally different. For example, the books read or TV channels watched by children wouldn’t appeal to elders and vice versa. For this simple reason, experts believe that website content should also cater the specific needs of the users based on their age. Going by the trend, children and adults would experience different interfaces of the same website, and we could see more of this in 2017.

UX design experts are using metadata to identify the age of the users to initiate website-adaptations. For example, the fonts, font-size, images and spacing between the content would be manipulated to adjust the preferences of various age-groups. Even color schemes could be customized in order to appeal to both children and adults alike.

Embedded ‘AI’ Support

Artificial Intelligence or AI assistants, like voice recognition tools, have become a vital aspect of digital communication platforms. They are now performing various useful tasks that can enhance the experience of the user in many ways. Be it scheduling reminders or responding to the user’s queries, the need for an AI tool to perform the tasks now seems essential. For this reason, their acceptance level is surging on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. As many more AI assistants make their way to the fore, designers have to find new ways to utilize these tools to optimize the performance of the overall system. Designers have to ensure that these smart helpers do not perform redundant or contradictory tasks. This would lead to unwanted complexity, while the main purpose of using them is to simplify things. As 2017 would see many more AI apps and tools being embedded into the various devices, designers have to ensure they are accommodated in the best way possible.

As creative thinkers learn and borrow the emerging design aspects from each other, our online interactions are bound to be affected in the near future. Most of these design trends are aimed to enhance the users’ online experience, and they would continue to grow in relevance. While more and more businesses understand their importance in enhancing the UX, they would automatically get incorporated into futuristic designs. They may also give rise to newer trends, leading the innovations in design-based-technology to the edge of users’ delight.

Key Takeaways

• In order to achieve the futuristic user experience (UX), experts are designing the innovative interactions that can complement the latest trends.
• Most of the design trends are aimed to enhance the users’ online experience, and they would continue to grow in relevance in 2017.