As a User Experience Designer, a great deal of my efforts are spent on the intricacies and nuances of this niche area. ‘User Experience Design’ is arguably an output of imagination, and critical to growth in the Digital Era we live in. By evaluating the pulse of the design industry, it easy to see how the current technology trends merge, dissipate or expand in different directions and how designers can capitalize on this. Contemporary and generally accepted design practices, are not always applicable in all countries, especially in the Middle East. This is due to the effect of culture, perception of design, and variating methods of software development and lack of design awareness in corporate environments.

Investment in an idea is a gamble for corporations. Because there are so many directions that one can invest in. However there are many who are visionaries and ahead of the times and will likely be looked to as a leaders in their particular areas of practice. ‘User Experience Design’ is something that senior management is catching up with , mainly due to the ease of use delivered by popular Apple and Google devices. From what I’ve observed of the tech industry, almost every single management professional is working on an RFP to digitize an existing industry or sector. The competitive advantage currently is the ‘User Experience’ since all-most all companies are capable of delivering the same offerings.

I. Responsive Design

The usage of mobile devices is growing exponentially across all countries and socio-economic segments. From here on forwards, not only content, but how the content is being delivered also holds immense value. The concept of responsive design is not a new one, but started somewhere in 2010, and will surely continue to grow. Thus it is a primary requirement.

II. Material Design

Google bought material design which is an iteration of Flat Design. You can use any of Google’s apps or Android 5.0 or later to get a feel of Material Design. It is content-focused, very adaptable, and brings in motion, visual and interaction design together. This trend is alignment with Minimalism, and seems to continue on since its part of Clean Design, and makes apps and pages load faster by eliminating unnecessary visual elements, but thats just my opinion.

III. Meaningful Interactions

A lot of people have a fondness and love for something they are attached to, can be an appliance in their room, a device they wear, or perhaps an app on their phone. The contained moments within that product, such as setting an Alarm to wake you up on time, sorting out your emails, and syncing your fitness tracker via bluetooth.

Micro interactions seem near invisible or non existent because we are becoming so used to them, these interactions play an immense role in maximizing potential user experience. As the Internet increases in complexity, the User Experience should decrease in complexity. User Experiences should be simple and effective, in order to enhance usability, and minimize the time and effort spent on doing something.

IV. A Large Emphasis on Typography

In the past designers would spend a lot of money to purchase fonts. However Google Fonts has some reasonably high quality typefaces for free, and are actually well optimized for different screen sizes, which directly ties in with the ‘Responsive Design’ trend that i mentioned earlier.

V. Card Style Layouts

The ‘Card’ style layout is a nice way to organize large amounts of content and minimizing visual clutter and the interactive hassle of going through large amounts of content. It is used commonly in e-commerce sites, news site and what-not and serves purpose by being simple, clean, versatile and adaptable to different purposes.  ‘Card style’ layouts also serve a functional purpose in a sense that they can be easily integrated with responsive layouts.

VI. Parallax Scrolling

Parallax Scrolling is visually one of the most impressive and appealing User Experience trends and minimizes the act of clicking, and increases scrolling. It delivers seamless content experience and reduces load time, it works great as a narrative storytelling style to your design.

VII. Content-focused Design

The way your users consume content, regardless of what device they are using, is an important factor, and is a very important criteria that should be taken into consideration when designing user experiences. Designers should focus on readability, accessibility, and usability. Minimizing clutter and maximizing content.

VIII. Prioritizing Icons over text

Everyone knows the lame-saying a picture is worth a thousand words, that saying is so stale, but it still holds true. Icons make a user experience more lightweight and visually appealing. A quick glance at an icon gives the users an idea of the particular functionality of it. Icons play a very important role in grabbing attention.

Conclusion

‘User Experience Designs’ breaks the barrier between the digital and the perceived physical or human reality. If a user feels that the the product is complicated or not pleasing to use, they will shy away from your product. This is a clear sign that even now, some companies are still not adapting a ‘User-Centric’ approach to their software development process.