The UX/UI of your website or mobile app makes the first impression of your business on the customer. Today, customers will be motivated to buy your products or services only if they have an intuitive and smooth initial experience. UX or the user experience includes well written content, interactive design, typography, and visualization of data, basically everything you put on the platter for your customer to see or do.
Qualities of Good UX/UI Design
A good user experience adds credibility to your business and 75% of users admit to using design to form a judgement. The design should allow the user to locate and utilize the interface fully. It should be clutter free. The UX/UI must allow users of all age groups, backgrounds, and understanding levels to effectively navigate the website or the webpage. Additionally, a website or an application should offer a cohesive experience across devices.
Does a UX/UI Design Really Affect Your Business?
Certainly! A customer who has a great experience has a higher probability of recommending your products or services to others. And those who has a poor experience are more likely to let everyone know what to avoid!
Here’s a snippet from an in-depth study by Marketing Charts depicting experience sharing trends among today’s customers.
The 2023 UX/UI Design Trends
The user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design are two co-dependent aspects, requiring specialists to design and deliver impactful experiences. Partnering with an experienced team can help you leverage the benefits of making the best possible first impression on customers. Here’s a look at the UX/UI trends that are likely to rule in 2023:
1. Motion Design
The most basic yet effective UX design element is motion design. It involves interesting transitions across frames and pages. It also includes the scrolling experience of a webpage, regardless of screen size. So, movement across the site or app should be smooth and flow effortlessly, without glitches.
2. Immersive Experience
Adding augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) elements through plug-ins gives an edge to the UX. Although this can prove expensive, businesses involved in robotics and AI can hugely benefit from showcasing AR/VR capabilities through their UX/UI design.
3. Clever Cursor Usage
Specific to webpages for personal computers, cursor design is impactful in enabling the user understand the change in content they are being served. A cursor may change its shape or color to emphasize important parts of the webpage. Also, unique icons, such as a bookmark while reading, a slide-mark for turning pages, etc., are small but noticeable features that add to the user’s delight.
4. Micro-Interactions
Adding simple responses like change in color or animation as a user switches between parts of a page generates interest. They may be implemented as the page loading animation, pull to refresh, notification, or an emoticon to respond to a user action. The choices are almost limitless
For ease of implementation, micro-interactions can be structured and applied through the below 4-part model:
Image Source: https://www.wyzowl.com/how-to-use-microinteractions/
5. Neumorphism
Neumorphism is a hybrid technique that involves adding subtle details to the look to make the UI more impactful, without being too obvious. It implies adding shadows and highlights to give a layered look. It adds depth to the UI to present a naturally flowing UI for the customer. Additionally, it involves going beyond traditional layouts and telling the brand story in an engaging manner.
6. Gesture Control
Customers like to see 3D views on mobile devices while changing directions or just switching hands while scrolling. Static 3D graphics tend to be as impactful as animations in enhancing user experience. Having gesture-based transitions especially for mobile devices can make the customer feel connected to your brand.
7. Time-Based Theme
Today’s user is online most of their free time, irrespective of the time of day. Adding this simple transition or offering the user the ability to change themes or day/night modes adds to the personal connect. Research shows that 81.9% of users use their smartphones only in the dark mode, while 64.6% want websites to automatically switch to the dark mode when required.
8. Resonating Aesthetics
The most important feature of UX/UI design is the aesthetics. The color scheme, images and component placements, transitions, etc., should tie the whole application or website together. Using bold colors oozes confidence, while gradients emphasize experience. Ensure that images also follow the color palette and a scheme to convey the brand message uniformly.
UX/UI design may be minimalist or elaborate, depending upon what your brand voice and offerings. Make sure to experiment and analyze what works best for your business and stay updated on the latest trends to deliver exceptional user experiences.