The influx of new tech and platforms turned UX design into a multi-disciplinary job. Yet, 2020 is the year that changes how we understand UX completely. Teams of professionals from different disciplines have to work together creating a unique user experience for digital products.

Still, that doesn’t exclude covering the bases of your digital business. Since you are going to operate a website, you want to improve page speed and have a responsive website.

Regardless, the UX trends such as adopting new tech, reorganization of the UX community, and personalized design you want to incorporate in your product.

1. New Tech

Adoption of new tech is mandatory if you want your product to stay relevant. If designers don’t use it their product won’t be able to stay relevant. It’s even better when designers are allowed to navigate and pioneer technology as a feature of the product.

Such new tech is voice technology. Siri paved a way for other voice-interactive AI. And, even if the feature solely relies on voice-controlled actions, it’s still a step-up in tech use. Along with that, designers should get more into AI, and try to understand how to make it a part of the experience.

Yet, it’ll take a few more years before such tech becomes mandatory. The big thing right now is multi-platform integration. Users have multiple devices they use throughout the day. UX designers have to think about how to appropriate a product, app, or software across platforms without an expense on the experience. Users won’t use the product if they can’t use it at their leisure.

Digital products must be fast, easy to use, and with appropriate graphic imagery. The ease of use is the most important aspect of flawless user experience. But, there’s another problem to tackle.

2. Design For the Post-Truth Era

Companies whose business model depends on sharing news and similar data have to assure trustworthiness. Deep fakes, fake news, and cybersecurity threats transformed the internet as you knew it. We live in the post-truth era where everything we deem relevant may be a blatant lie.

That’s why users need more than a fantastic design. The design should break the doubt of the users, and pursue them that the product is safe to use, holds relevant information, and isn’t harmful.

Think about a slick, clean design with just enough copy generating a sense of a complicated product. Each section, button, feature, and option works together emulating transparency and striking trust in the first use.

This applies to SaaS products, software, e-commerce, and publishing houses. While a publishing house or a news network may be the most obvious example, digital businesses have to fight misinformation.

Today, you can consider a fake review as misinformation. Crafting a user experience for the new century requires transparency and relevance. This adds a new layer to the UX since now designers have to think about information architecture, but also how to present the information. A single person isn’t enough for the job anymore.

We are witnessing a paradigm shift, as the idea of what a UX designer does changes in front of your eyes.

3. Design Communities

Designers are abandoning the solitude-ridden mode of work. Now, they are joining forces, trying to combine disciplines and skills to improve the user experience. Professionals from different industries are sharing information, techniques, and strategies to improve products and services.

New tech develops daily, and it’s getting harder to keep up with the innovation. And, a single person can master only a few skills. You can’t be a programmer, web developer, graphic designer, and copywriter all at once. That’s why designers are forming new communities, learning from each other, and cooperating.

More than ever, they need the help of other professionals to improve the digital experience. UX isn’t about design anymore. The new approach is cross-disciplinary and requires both technical and creative skills to make it work.

Then, you have programmers, copywriters, designers, and web developers working together to discover faults and improve products. A designer may not know to code or writing a persuasive copy. However, UX designers have a different purpose.

#software #design #ux

PM – The State of UX: Top 10 Design Trends in 2020
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