2017 — I had written a post around the same time last year taking a shot at predicting what 2017 had in store for web design. And now, looking back, the post hit all the marks but UI has truly had a tremendous year in terms of creativity & tech advancements making it possible to take great design to the next level.
Here’s my take for web design in 2018!
Design Systems
With digital experiences spread across multiple screen sizes, devices & media, a lot brands have begun developing design systems to standardize experiences & design language. Noteworthy among them are Airbnb, IBM & Uber. A design system is essentially a collection of reusable design elements & clearly defined guidelines & standards ensuring standardized experiences for users across media. I see a lot more brands taking this approach to digital products in 2018 to create unified & integrated experiences across devices.
Isometric Design & Photography
A purely aesthetic trend that has picked up steam, Isometric photography/ design is a way of representing 3 dimensional objects in 2 D space. I noticed this visual representation first in one of the best designed games ever (IMHO!) — Monument Valley in 2014. But 2018 seems to be the year where creative isometric visual representations either in design or photography is having its day in the sun. There are some really awesome websites with this technique & we can expect much more of this trend this year.
3D Design & Typography.
Carrying forward from the last topic, 3D design as a whole seems to be having a heyday. Use of 3D elements, animations, illustrations & even complete environments is becoming more common, largely due to higher internet speeds & development environments supporting these advances. These new environments definitely heightens aesthetics, user experiences & creative designers are using 3D design to showcase products & content in novel ways. As tech advances & internet bandwidth get higher, 3D is set to take off in ways that we haven’t even imagined yet. This will only get better with AR/VR progress as well.
Neons/ Bright colors & Gradients
Another purely aesthetic choice, but suddenly over the past year, we can see this trend popping up over quite a few platforms on the internet. From the instagram rebranding to banners & color transition animation, bright/ neon colors & gradients are taking over the internet. Our new website has similar elements as well. These colorful blocks in a website make for good intervention from the clean & minimal direction that UI has gone towards & provide great balance. Expect more usage of bright colors & gradients through out 2018.
Load Time & Data Centric Design
Expect load times to become a lot less shorter. Consumers have increasingly shorter attention spans & have no time for slow & frustrating user experiences. They are not the most loyal bunch & will switch if there is an alternative better & faster option in the landscape. Brands will strive to provide the most important decision enabling data points to consumers first to capture their attention & engage them. Expect brand experiences to be a lot more to the point & straight forward.
Web design is slowly becoming a part of a bigger whole i.e. consumer/ brand/ service design & is not stand alone as it was previously. New technologies, higher internet bandwidth & multiple device screens & touchpoints are throwing up opportunities for creative designers to explore user experiences & interface is previously unthought of ways. As much as there is a push to standardize UX, there is an opportunity to channel creativity & push the limits while keeping in mind the basics of user experiences. 2018 seems to be an exciting time for designers & the UI/UX landscape.