Enhanced User Experience: Latest UX/UI trends for mobile solution

2013 was an exciting year for UX/UI design with one of the key changes being a marked move from skeumorphic to flat design. However, beware of thinking this approach as merely a move towards a minimalist style. The real point behind this change is that it is a shift of focus onto content and functionality, while doing away with superfluous elements. It is important to note that improving UX is not merely about removing as many elements as possible in an attempt to reduce clutter. It is about deciding what to remove in order to make the product easier to understand while still maintaining a clear hierarchy of elements.

Layered Interfaces

In the past year since we have seen less and less skeumorphic design, doesn’t mean that we’re moving towards two dimensional interfaces. On the contrary, interfaces will become more layered and taking full advantage of the z-axis. This approach gives a sense of depth to the interface making the experience more tangible.

Divide by elements & spacing, not lines

While the ultimate goal is to simplify our interfaces, make them more functional and usable; we should think twice when separating content by lines and dividers. Less lines and dividers will always give your interface a cleaner, modern and more functional feel.

Swipe, swipe & swipe

Today the screen options available are not only touch target but also gesture target. Touching and gesture capabilities, as well as more gesture-based actions have emerged. Swipe gestures are used to: go back, reach the menu or trigger actions such as share, like or delete items. Reducing steps in the user flow while interacting with the interface. This allows for a quicker, more efficient and comfortable experience for hand gestures since a larger area of the screen is used for a function.

Thumb-focused interactions

With the use of smart phones and mobile devices clearly increasing, we find that people are using them in many different situations and locations - while on the subway, at work, at home, when exercising etc. Users don’t want complex gestures, like three fingers tapping or both hands to use the phone. Users will use the phone with one hand and rely on their thumb.

When designing, take into consideration that your app will be used in several contexts, design for the lazy, this can increase the usage of your app!

Simple color schemes

We will see a lot more apps with very simple color schemes. The use of simpler color schemes is usually associated with the flat design approach and the philosophy “less is more”. Using neutral colors for the general scheme and adding just a bit of another stronger color for calls to action, helps the user focus on the actions we want them to.

Icons - Stroke & fill

This year we will see an explosion of apps using this design pattern. This gives better contrast between active and inactive sections. Recognition of active tabs, controls and toolbars is more straightforward.

Animations - Do it well or don’t do it

Designers are moving away from textures and skeumorphic designs to a new approach where motion and depth create a 3D effect. Movement and animations are vital elements when embracing this new paradigm, giving fluidity and more meaning to the user experience. The specs and technical capabilities of the new mobile devices allow designers and developers to create more complex animations.

One app, one typeface

The use of Helvetica (mostly light or thin versions) in iOS 7 is still a hot topic between designers and typographers. It doesn’t mean iOS 7 is perfect typography-wise, but the principle of simplifying and reducing the numbers of fonts and weights is refreshing.

When designing an app think about how can you make the typography powerful by playing with weights and dimensions, not different typefaces.

Blur effects

Blur effects arise as a logical solution to a minimal user interface, allowing a certain amount of play with the layers and hierarchy of the interface. It’s a very efficient solution when working with layered UX/UI since it gives the user a clear understanding of the mobile solution’s flow and hierarchy. This also gives designers a perfect opportunity to explore different menu and overlay solutions. Even though we eventually might grow tired of the effect it is an effective solution at the present time.

Phablets

2014 is the year of the Phablets. A Phablet is a merger between a smartphone and a tablet and includes the best of both worlds. With bigger screensizes come different layouts. Flexible devices are also on the rise even though they might take longer than 2014 to become a trend.

The introduction and rise of Phablets will allow for layout adaptation and UX solutions which perhaps were only previously taken into consideration for tablets. Android devices are already on the market with the Galaxy Note 3, while Apple and Windows will, in all likelihood, shortly follow with their own devices.

After reading through all these UX/UI trends, we can easily conclude that to reach out the next generation of users we need to have extremely intuitive design which has the best of these features - touch, speed and mobility.

About Author:

Padma Nambi is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at padma.n@spluspl.com