2023 UX Design Trends
Summary:
UX Focused:
1. AI-generated content and visual design will change strategy and design
2. The Metaverse and Web3 need UX
3. Increased Customer Journey Awareness, Agility, and Engagement Through Analytics.
4. Curating Cross-App Experiences to Boost Customer Loyalty.
5. Universal, Inclusive, Accessibility Becomes the Norm (and Legal Requirement).
6. More intentional use of notifications
UI Focused:
7. Lightweight websites that are efficient and load fast
8. No more parallax scrolling
9. Just for fun interactions
10. Customization and personalization
UX Designer Focused:
11. The "Growth Designer" gains momentum (business-focused vs. user-focused)
1. AI-generated content and visual design with change strategy and design
UX designers will continue to play a critical role in understanding and shaping how we engage AI with digital products and services.
Automation and analytics solutions have sped up the design process, improved usability and increased customer satisfaction.
The rise in AI/ML-generated visual design tools promises to shake up UX design in 2023. Random face-generating apps and art-generating tools are becoming sophisticated enough for use in visual design.
Companies like Jasper AI are re-shaping the UX space with their combination of offerings: AI-generated artistic content with AI-generated written content, making creative design faster and more accessible, and opening new possibilities in experience customization.
2. The Metaverse and Web3 need UX
UX is the final hurdle before mass Web3 adoption. Perhaps the most crucial factor in determining Web3’s success will be how well it enables users to navigate experiences seamlessly while retaining control of their data. In other words, UX design will play a pivotal role in shaping the new internet.
3. Increased Customer Journey Awareness, Agility, and Engagement Through Analytics
Data-informed design decisions help to create experiences that are continuous, consistent, customized, and omnichannel. The continuation of this mega trend will see real-time audio and visual analytics integrated into the customer journey.
4. Curating Cross-App Experiences to Boost Customer Loyalty
“Superapps” are among Gartner’s top 10 strategic tech trends for 2023. Gartner defines superapps as platforms that provide users with a set of core features and then, nested under that core proposition, sit multiple, independent, complementary mini-apps. By 2027, Gartner predicts more than half the global population will be daily active users of these superapps.
Examples: Uber can be considered the largest Super App in the United States. It allows you to call a taxi and car-sharing and order goods and food. The company also has the UberMoney payment service and Uber Wallet, to which customers, drivers, and couriers are connected. Google Maps is also actively developing; they make it possible, among other things, to order food, book hotels or tables in restaurants, or call a taxi.
Facebook and Airbnb have been on the road to building Super Apps. Facebook wants to develop in the area of business services, and Airbnb wants to turn from an accommodation booking service into the largest travel platform.
5. Universal, Inclusive, Accessibility Becomes the Norm
The pandemic focused on digital accessibility because digital became the only way to access business, leisure, and education. Enterprises now have an added incentive to make sure their accessibility initiatives don’t slip: Digital accessibility lawsuits have been increasing year-on-year thanks to legislation like the ADA. According to a recent Forrester survey, 36% of companies have pledged executive-level commitments to accessibility, and grassroots efforts are driving change in 48% of companies. An inclusive design mentality is finally shaping how digital products are created rather than being an afterthought.
This is important: Forrester highlights that in the US, we have a 1 billion-strong market of people with disabilities with an annual disposable income of $1.2 trillion and a rapidly aging population.
More broadly, there’s a realization that almost everyone has had negative experiences with digital accessibility, regardless of whether they have a permanent “disability” or not. For example, being unable to see a screen in bright sunshine or typing with one hand because the other is in a cast. This strengthens the case for normalizing universal, inclusive and accessible UX design.
6. More intentional use of notifications
Historically, companies have used mobile notifications as a sales tool. Notifications have the power to prompt consumers to buy, whether that’s alerting them of sales, something to purchase, or a new feature.
More apps and websites will incorporate notifications to connect with their users this year. Audiences want their interactions with the apps they are using to feel more genuine and be more useful to them.
Notifications have the power to make websites and apps more useful, more personal, and more integrated into users’ lives. This year has seen an overall trend toward more engaging experiences on the web. In particular, we expect to see notifications being used in more creative ways to interact with users and provide useful information.
7. Lightweight, more efficient websites
Both visually and on the back end, websites that are light, quick, and optimized for the user experience will become more common in 2023. Users hate to wait. Not only that, but more and more users are accessing sites on their mobile devices or networks that may be slow. The trend of lightweight websites ensures users get what they need and enjoy accessing your website.
8. “Just for fun” interactions
This year, we are expecting to see more interactions that are “just for fun” and don’t serve any particular purpose besides adding to the experience of a website.
Building on top of last year’s trend of app-like websites — just for fun interactions let users play with a site and bring that experiential wonder to sections of a more significant site.
9. No more parallax scrolling
A lot of websites will slowly do away with parallax scrolling in 2023. It is no longer in trend and is now an outdated feature!
Parallax scrolling is a visual effect where the background moves at a different speed from the foreground by using CSS. It is effective only when there’s lots of information and it is necessary to bring users’ attention to all the information.
Apple used to adopt parallax scrolling extensively on its homepage but has stopped doing so with the launch of the iPhone 14 series with the Dynamic Island feature. Learn tips on how to design for Dynamic Island here.
10. Customization and personalization
Users expect your app to be as personalized as possible and get frustrated when they don’t receive what they want.
You can create a customized user experience by asking your user to fill in some forms. For example, if you’re a pedometer app, you can ask your user their age, sex, weight, and height, and with this info, you will be able to tell them their speed, the number of steps they make, and the number of calories they burn.
11. The "Growth Designer" Gains momentum
A growth designer has:
Knowledge and application of conversion rate optimization
Knowledge of marketing and growth strategy
Knowledge of user psychology and storytelling
In a broader sense, this entails a more comprehensive knowledge of business processes and functions and a more strategic alignment with business objectives and growth goals. Stef Ivanov from Pony Studio explains this in more detail in their post here.
Granted, growth goals for businesses are more prominent in earlier-stage startups, where product market fit hasn’t quite been found yet, or growth is the primary business objective. Still, a more strategic outlook on the application of design can benefit any business.
Essentially, this primarily involves two types of qualitative testing combined with user research, data analysis and user insight.
Those types of tests are:
A/B test — A test between two or more variants to evaluate which performs best. For this to be fair, the test should ideally have 1 variable that is being tested.
Multi-variate test — A test between multiple combinations of multiple changes. So for example, if you want to test what combination of copy + design works best, you would test Copy A + Image A, Copy A + Image B, Copy B + Image A, and Copy B + Image A.
A decent understanding of CRO, testing principles, user research and data analysis, and ruthless prioritization is the winning combination for the growth designer.
Marketing & growth strategy
When it comes to marketing and growth strategy for the growth designer, this comes down to understanding two things:
How digital marketing works
Growth experimentation
User psychology & storytelling
The last key weapon in the arsenal of the growth designer is a deeper knowledge of how the design actually affects the user on an emotional level.
This means understanding psychological principles around how we think and even learning some of the principles of neuroscience and behavioral science.
And there is no better way to understand human behavior from what I have found, than learning the principles and structures that underpin storytelling.
The End. 🤓
Sources:
https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/5-ux-trends-to-watch-in-2023/
https://webflow.com/blog/web-design-trends-2023
https://uiuxtrend.com/top-ui-ux-trends-2023-you-need-to-know/
https://trends.uxdesign.cc/
https://uxdesign.cc/what-is-a-growth-designer-and-why-might-your-business-need-one-d5bd29758c99
https://uxdesign.cc/becoming-a-recession-proof-designer-155f3331d07
https://mwdn.com/blog/13-ui-ux-design-trends-2023-by-mwdn/
