In 2019 percent of unique mobile users worldwide has reached 66% of the total population. People use mobile applications on a daily basis expecting convenience, efficiency and user-friendly interface. What trends in mobile UI and UX design will help to achieve these goals in 2020?
UI design
In 2020 user interface design relies on a combination of minimalism and impressive visuals. Trends that are worth to consider:
- 3D graphics and AR
Augmented reality and 3D graphics that are widely used in gamification and visualization solutions will become common in UI design for all industries. The use of 3D graphics and AR can help you to create impressive animation that will catch users’ attention. Implementation of complex visuals into your mobile app also gives you an opportunity to build advanced marketing strategies around them. Consider Unity 3D technology if you want to create a realistic visualization experience. - Dark mode
Dark mode option (also known as Night Mode) is not new for mobile apps and their users but its popularity continues to grow. It can be proved by the release of iOS 13 firstly enabling dark mode feature for Apple users. By the way, Instagram added this feature at the same time. Dark mode implies the placement of the light-colored content on the dark background. The usage of the night mode option may also reduce the phone battery drain. A professional tip: do not consider black and white contrast for creating a Dark Mode. It may look unpleasant and can cause eye strain. - Custom illustrations
This year you should definitely get rid of stock images in your mobile applications and change them for custom illustrations. Custom digital illustrations can help you to create a unique representation of your brand. You can use illustrations on landing pages, blog pages, contact forms or wherever you want. Consider animated ones to get an opportunity to tell the personal story of your brand in a uniquely interactive way. - White space
The idea of empty space helps to outline small groups of information making your content eye-catching. You can highlight data using empty space between paragraphs, images, navigation elements, etc. It is important to understand that the lack of data can make your application less informative. However, it is one of the best ways to draw attention to your products and services. The white space concept also supports the minimalism trend that has been on the rise recently.
Around other popular trends for 2020, you can find animation, full-screen visuals, typographic overlap and transparent gradients.
UX design
In 2020 user experience design is focused on personalization and adaptation to the technology changes. Trends that will help you to achieve tailored mobile user experience:
- Buttonless design
The advent of full-screen smartphones without home buttons has led to the new buttonless design approach. In 2020 user flow is focused on seamless interaction with an app relying on gestures and physical actions. You can already see it in Instagram stories where all the interaction is performed by swiping left, right, up and down. Buttonless design concept also optimizes space on the screen and provides engaging user experience. - Bottom navigation
Mobile screens are getting bigger and the placement of navigation elements is shifting to the bottom. Around 49% of mobile users touch their phone screens using one hand that makes use of the top navigation bar challenging. In 2020 bottom navigation is changing into bottom sheets providing a swipe-up experience. Notice that destinations of the bottom navigation bar should be equally important. - Conversational interface
The common use of voice search makes conversational interfaces one of the main UX trends in 2020. Convenient voice interaction becomes a requirement for modern mobile apps to provide the audience with fast query results. Conversational UX allows users to meet their goals without making an additional effort. They can just speak their language and enjoy your software product. Voice-assisted UX is already used in the apps by Google, Apple and Amazon. - Storytelling
Visual storytelling becomes one of the most engaging ways of communication with app users. It helps to make the content more comprehensible and memorable as well as improve your marketing strategy. Storytelling concept makes the audience a part of your app building a strong relationship with your brand. You can create a unique character representing your products and services that will provide your users with a human-like interaction. - Personalized notifications
In 2020 UI & UX design experts call for reshaping standard boring pop-ups asking for permission into personalized notifications. Experts recommend to provide necessary information in a friendly way using names, illustrations and custom insights. The main benefit of personalized notifications is seamless customization showing users their value and value of getting push notifications in an app.
In 2020 experts also recommend putting attention on UX trends like social-oriented features, simple onboarding, password-less experience and device-agnostic experience.
Exposit R&D department tracks the latest trends in mobile development and design to create up-to-date software solutions for your industry. If you want to build a mobile application meeting users’ expectations and your business needs, the Exposit team is always ready to help you.
