There is a reason why user interface (UI) goes hand in hand with user experience (UX). It’s not enough that the applications and websites should look good; the way users feel when engaging with digital products is essential. Mobile App Developers have started focusing on the behavioral side of design. They are looking to understand how specific shapes, colors, and other design elements make the users feel.
For 2022, we have a list of the most wanted UX trends that users are hoping to see across mobile devices. These mobile UX trends changes range from minimalism and hyper-personalization to connecting with the global community and living a shared experience.
What constitutes a good UX?
Mobile app developers have really mastered the usability aspect of applications. Over time, the improvements in hardware and software have certainly contributed to the usability upgrades. Now, developers must move beyond that. There are five attributes that experts highlight for a superior UX.
- Simplicity: Minimalism gets more relevant as time passes. Fewer design elements and blank spaces give users more freedom to perceive things their own way. The experience needs to be clear and precise. Extra steps and time taking features are not wanted.
- Accessibility: Users are living active lives and want their mobile devices to assist them in most places. Therefore, it is vital to consider if users can access the app in varying conditions the app might be helpful in.
- Affordance: The user’s app journey needs to be logical and easily understandable. Complex journeys lead to ambiguous feelings from users.
- Reversibility: If an action goes wrong or users want to go back to the screen they just came from, the steps should be the exact reverse of what they did to get to the screen. There should be a consistent logic to creating and removing objects within the applications.
- Feedback: Many activities are happening at once within the same application. Users need to be informed of what actions they have taken so that they are aware.
What are some design elements developers can focus on to improve user experience?
Here is what users think can enhance their engagement with the app.
Exciting Colors and Gradients
The minimalistic flat designs are preferred by users, but flat designs can also limit what the designers want to communicate. That’s where gradients play a crucial role in representing depth, richness, and detail to the various display items.
In addition to gradients, exciting color families like neon and pastels should be experimented with to add life to the visuals. If the goal is to energize the audience, developers need to incorporate bold colors that pop.
However, pastel shades and lighter themes will be preferred for calming experiences such as meditation apps.
There is an entire science of communicating through colors as each color automatically triggers an emotional response within users. That’s why mobile app developers need to be savvy with behavioral studies and use colors wisely and strategically.
Unique Typography
Another design element making a comeback of sorts in mobile UX trends in 2022 is typography. Developers have obviously continued to use fonts but relied on them in a practical rather than an emotional sense. Typography is an artwork in itself. Therefore, it warrants a response from the users. By choosing a font, you are trying to capture an entire audience. If the font does not resonate with the users, they might not want to use the application altogether.
Through typography, designers can emphasize critical actions, instructions, and warnings. The type of font used can help users retain information for longer too. Therefore, it comes in handy when trying to create a loop in the journey. So, users are more willing to return to the app. Developers can also tone down the font style to a bare minimum to remove clutter and just get the message across to users.
Tasteful Personalization
At this point, we have to admit that personalization is not a new trend itself. But there are modern aspects to it that developers need to update themselves on. Data and AI have become crucial for personalization in mobile apps. Previously, it was impossible to gather data on a large audience and then make edits accordingly.
Now, with the help of automatic data collection and AI processing, personalization has become much more accurate.
Developers can use the previous activity of users through cookies and voluntary data shared by users on the applications to tailor their experiences. The goal of personalization is to make users feel seen and unique. But not so much that they are wary of security concerns from over-personalized content. This is specific to the sort of ads and recommendations that users see. Personalization should feel like a friend is guiding you, not a multi-million dollar company.
One fantastic example of personalization is content curation like Netflix and Spotify perform for their clients. They use the information on what people have watched/listened to recently, apply machine learning algorithms, and provide accurate suggestions that users often like. If users start accepting recommendations, it makes the whole personalization exercise worthwhile and guarantees follow-up sessions from them.
Since 2020, the two major mobile operation platforms, Android and iOS, have undergone massive revamps for navigation. It was also a significant challenge, making users adapt to the shift in navigating actions. Some developers, such as Samsung and Sony, tried to make small changes to the new gesture navigation. Whereas Apple pushed forward at once to their new navigation.
The advantage of both these operating platforms was that the new navigation techniques were so well-thought-out and intuitive that it was not difficult for users to learn and pick them up. Rarely any complaints were made by users at a mass level, and overall, the navigation experiments were successful.
The secret to their success was framing navigation based on how people use gestures in their everyday life and implementing them within the software. Moving forward, developers will need to continue the same line of thought and provide users with the navigation functions that they expect. This includes simplicity, feedback, and reversibility considerations which we mentioned in the first section of the blog.
Another vital factor to consider for navigation trends in 2022 is that extra buttons need to go. If the clutter is removed, developers will have more ease in adapting gestures and movements. It will also create a new challenge of features designers can add to fill the blank spaces.
Conclusion
There needs to be a balance to the effort behind enhancing UI and UX for mobile apps. While developers need to up their skills in programming for better UI, they also need to advance their understanding of human behavior and psychology if they are going to deliver successful mobile UX trends. If developers follow the 5 considerations of simplicity, accessibility, affordance, reversibility, and feedback, they will undoubtedly conquer the immediate UX challenges.
Xavor Corporation understands the needs of modern mobile developers. With our own team of experts and 25 years of rich experience, our mobility team can help you create the perfect application to address your customers’ needs. To engage our team of skilled mobile development professionals, visit here or contact us now.