UX (user experience) focusses on the experience a website visitor has whilst on site. The UX website design goal is to make an experience on a website enjoyable and easy through every step of the user’s journey. With the constant evolution of technology, the UX website design landscape is continuously changing too. So, what does the future hold for UX web design?
Here are some of the things the expert KIJO team think we’ll see in the years to come.
Some are predicting the demise of the conventional graphical user interface and we tend to be in agreement. We think UX web design will lean into a more conversational user interface such as through voice, touch and gesture.
We’re, of course, already starting to see this. Conversational interfaces already live inside our phones like Siri and Google Assistant. These bots are written to offer specific services without having to open our phones. In reality though, both conventional and conversational interfaces are likely to happily coexist. Context will play an important role in deciding what kind of interface you interact with.
At KIJO, we believe how we interact with the digital world will see a shift towards being even more relevant to human behaviour and experiences. We’re seeing this demand through further implementations of artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
It’s a UX designer’s job to ensure that all user interactions are both joyful and memorable. So, this poses a question in the face of this prediction… How do you make for a positive, lingering experience with conversational/humanised interactions? We’d argue that the same methods that have always been used can be repurposed and adapted to fit the job. It’s a matter of researching your target user and optimising around their needs. However, ensuring that the multimodal interface you implement is seamless will become paramount.
The days of having a polished user interface, colour scheme or branding to separate form from function will, in some cases, no longer exist. Developing a conversational experience will centre around how something feels; its personality, its human-like qualities. The ultimate judgement will come down to how useful it is. How has it helped its human user to achieve what they wanted to?
We may even see the emergence of new job titles such as ‘Conversational UX Designer’ or ‘Human Experience Designer’ too.
Our team have also theorised that the future of UX web design will be about time sensitive interactions. These will provide users with the information that they need and allow them to take the actions in the order they need to.
In our pursuit of simpler cleaner interfaces, and of making things as easy as possible for the user, it no longer makes sense to provide all the options at once. Users often want to take a single action at a time and receive only the essential options they need. User experience will move towards providing features only when a user actually needs them and in an order that makes sense.
Let’s take the example of a theoretical app that allows users to find local tattoo studios:
Each step in the user journey directly relates to the previous step, and the app asks the user to take only one or two actions at a time. Once the user is familiar with the usefulness of the product, you can gradually introduce them to more functionality. Rather than being overloaded with features at the start, users now have the context to appreciate the new functionality.
We’ve started to see similar styles of functionality in platforms like the form builder, Typeform too.
UX web design experiences with this sort of flow reduces the learning curve for new users, makes user on-boarding easier. It also ensures that users get the results they expect.
The way we experience services online will not just be about our overall experience but also the small experiences. In all areas of website design, it’s the micro details that add up to shape the overall experience. The term often used to describe these small UX details is microinteractions.
The smallest visual details and user interface cues are what define a truly great user experience. With things like button effects, animations and state changes all adding up to shape the ‘personality’ of an experience. These interactions, whilst already present in most UX website design, will continue to evolve and become more impressive. This forms an important part of how to differentiate a product in an increasingly crowded digital marketplace.
Check out these two examples of websites that offer multiple micro-interactions from scrolling, hovering and clicking. However, they all add up to an extraordinary website experience:
Rapid developments in AI are driving the implementation of tailored, advanced UX based on a user’s distinctive needs and preferences. That’s because AI tracks and learns user behaviour. So, in the future we think we will see this information inform content, layout and interface functionality.
We already see this happening via algorithms on social media with content. Content that is displayed varies from user to user. What’s shown depends on past interactions and time spent with certain pieces of content. We anticipate that advances in AI will help apps alter their layouts and functions in accordance with user preferences.
UX designers are already feeling the pressure to consider the social and environmental impact of their work. There may even be calls for web design agencies to attempt to use less energy when creating designs.
This comes at no surprise. By 2027, people claim that the AI industry’s energy consumption is on track to be as big as The Netherlands’. As a sister industry, businesses may start approaching UX website designers to implement more eco-conscious practices in their designs.
This is already starting to happen, but UX web design will become embedded in projects from the start. This will be emulative of how responsive design has become the standard way of designing websites. Search engines like Google are now factoring in user experience metrics into their algorithms and ranking positions.
Google already measures page speed as an experience factor. However, we expect to see even smarter, automatic ways of measuring user experience from search engines. This, in turn, will affect how your product and service attracts new users too.
UX web design is already a must, but the expanding future of UX website design is inevitable. Businesses will simply have to make it a priority. In an already saturated website game, it’s imperative for success.
Are you in need of upgrading your app or website to meet the ever growing trends in UX web design? Then look to our user experience design services. Contact the team at KIJO today and learn more about what we can create for you.
