Technology is changing and evolving at a rapid rate of knots. As technology evolves, so does UX UI Design.
The traditional definition of UX is the design of products to be easy to use and engaging to interact with. A person’s experience with these products is almost as valuable as the product itself. Taking this into account, UX design experiences have been focused primarily on presenting information and making navigation easy.
Websites and software that pulled images and text from a database rather than hard-coding them were considered dynamic up until now.
As technology rapidly expands the horizons of what can be accomplished and users expect more from their products, designers will be required to deliver more than just quality presentation and simple navigation. Instead, they will need to create engaging experiences to accompany the information.
UX professionals who master human-centred design skills like empathy, storytelling, and design ethics will be the future of UX design. Even though technology trends come and go, understanding human needs and taking action on them is what ensures UX’s survival. With that in mind, this is how UX design and interfaces are likely to evolve in the coming years.
The Role of Interfaces in UX Design
Wireframes are turned into aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-use user interfaces through the process of user interface design. User interfaces allow the user to interact with the product they are using. So, UI design is concerned with all visual and interactive elements of a product interface, including buttons, menu bars, icons, and more.
Increasing the Use of Motion Design and Gesture-based Interfaces
Today, and in the years to come, users will expect more. A good product should not just be useful but also easy to use, engaging, and visually appealing. Users are more likely to be hooked if their experiences are frictionless and flowing.
91.54 per cent of the global population, or 7.26 billion people, currently use smartphones and mobile phones. Over half of all internet searches are now conducted on mobile phones compared to traditional desktop computers and that number is only going to continue to grow in the future.
Users are also increasingly relying on their mobile devices. A smartphone or tablet should allow them to do everything they can do on a website. However, smaller devices have smaller screens.
In this case, swipes, pinches, tappings, and tilts of the screen become essential to maximise function without eliminating features. Using intuitive gestures in design allows apps to store more content without overwhelming the user and overcrowding the screen.
Artificial Intelligence To Predict Human Needs And Emotions
In every industry today, artificial intelligence (AI) is used to automate processes, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. This trend is most evident in the industry of digital transformation, which uses AI to improve the user experience.
One of the leading ways that artificial intelligence can be used to improve the user interface is to make them thinner by stripping out redundant functions on the screen.
As users navigate or explore a website or application, thinner user interfaces present fewer obstacles. Artificial intelligence can analyse historical data in order to anticipate a user’s action or query and provide an appropriate response. With the advancement of AI technology, products are now able to prioritise their users’ requests.
The Elimination Of Screens Altogether
We all know what software is. Our lives are run by it in the digital age. How about SmartWare?
The trend of software as a service is changing and moving into the cloud. Meanwhile, terminals are becoming redundant and user interfaces are vanishing, creating new UX design challenges.
Screens could potentially disappear altogether with SmartWare, which represents a significant shift in user interfaces.
Smartware refers to devices or computing systems that “require little active user input, integrate the physical and digital worlds, and continually learn on their own” as defined by UX Matters.
Through 3D printers, VR headsets, and delivery platforms like Google Glass, user interfaces will shift from delivering information and interacting with content via screens to experiences that are integrated into our lives through smart devices.
Chatbots And Personal Assistants
As part of the UX designer’s role, it was their job to minimise the interface and information and assist users in completing tasks in the shortest possible time. Today, users don’t need to look for the content; they can simply ask a chatbot, which responds immediately.
Personal assistants are effectively a voice-activated chatbot for the home and they are rapidly becoming the norm. For example, Amazon sold over 100 million Alexa devices in 2018 highlighting that this technology is being widely adopted.
Chatbots are the last form of the user interface. Human-computer user interfaces have been about using ever-increasing computer power to make the machines work harder so that they can interact in a way that’s easier for people.
The future of user interfaces will include voice and speech recognition as part of their standard functionality.
