Monday 06 April 2020, by Michael Gorman
A website can have a lot of different purposes, but the basic principle is to make it user-oriented. After all, you are building a site for customers and not for your sales and marketing teams. What this really means is that user experience (UX) becomes a fundamental aspect of web design these days.
That forces you to keep an eye on the latest solutions in the field and do all it takes to make your customers happy and loyal. We’ve been following the state of the art UX trends for a while, so keep reading to see 10 trends that dominate 2020.
The Top 10 UX Design Tips
If you want to keep improving your UX strategy, you need to understand what UX really means. The simplest way to put it is to say that UX represents a person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system, or service.
It basically means that everything you do is supposed to make website visitors feel more comfortable and enjoyable. This is exactly what the newest UX trends are trying to achieve, so let’s check out the top 10 solutions here.
1. Perfection is overrated
One thing you should know about the modern UX design is that perfection is overrated. Your website doesn’t have to be ideal in terms of typography or web elements. On the contrary, you can make it even more interesting and eye-pleasing with simple imperfections.
For instance, you can rely on a hand-written font or exotic visuals. Such details reveal the style of your brand and make it authentic, which is a highly convenient feature in the eyes of contemporary consumers.
2. UX writing is critical
The second tip perfectly corresponds with the previous one. Namely, your copywriting strategy should also reveal brand personality and make the company look more casual and natural. How can you achieve this goal? There are a few practical ways to do it:
- Write with the audience in mind
- Use actionable phrases and avoid passive voice
- Don’t run away from storytelling
- Eliminate industry jargon and buzzwords
- Try to be unique and interesting
- Don’t do what all the other brands are doing all the time
3. Publish well-structured content
Content quality is essential, but the way you structure posts is just as important UX-wise. In such circumstances, you need to know a few tricks on how to make an article or a landing page look better and more appealing.
First of all, write short paragraphs and make them easy to digest. Secondly, you should highlight the most relevant details on every page. Use lists and bulletins to help users scan your posts and make sure to break huge chunks of text with images, animations, and other visual components.
4. Less is more in 2020
A famous motto of minimalism says that less is more. Although it’s a decades-old philosophy, the trend of minimalism just keeps growing in UX design and beyond. We strongly encourage you to embrace it, particularly if you know that modern consumers are overloaded with tons of irrelevant messages every day.
There are way too many UX features to consider, but do you really need all of them? The answer must be “No.” The best solution is the simplest solution, so you better try to make the most of your UX plan by using the basic elements only.>
5. Voice optimization
Do you know that over 20% of all online searches are voice-powered? Personal assistants are getting increasingly popular and it makes a drastic impact on UX. Your job is to acknowledge this fact and optimize content for voice searches.
There are a handful of ideas to think about here, but the easiest way is to keep the content direct and straightforward. Users with personal assistants ask the so-called 5W+H questions (who does what, where, why, when, and how), so all it takes is to answer these questions clearly and concisely.
6. Experiment with VR
Virtual Reality (VR) is a well-known tech concept, but it started gaining momentum in the last few years thanks to the global accessibility of VR tools and gadgets. You could take advantage of the trend to immerse users into the brand experience and impress them with your cutting-edge UX solutions.
Countless examples prove the potential of VR platforms, but this virtual knee surgery in one of our all-time favorites. Take a good look at it and you will learn what makes VR such a powerful UX factor in 2020.
7. Accessible design
Most of the things businesses do or create are designed for typical consumers. This means that a lot of customer groups remain unserved, from left-handed individuals to persons with disabilities. It’s not only a huge social issue but also a business opportunity that you should exploit in order to grow reach and boost customer loyalty.
8. Dark mode
You must have noticed this trend on your favorite websites, tools, and apps already. It seems like the world is going crazy about the dark mode, so you cannot afford to neglect this feature anymore. You can see it almost everywhere – on YouTube, Instagram, Apple, and tons of other platforms. People seem to love dark mode because it:
- Looks trendy and modern
- Saves battery life
- Decreases eye strain in low-light environments
9. Cross-device synchronization
Way too many people own and use multiple devices, which forces UX designers to create patterns that enable cross-device synchronization. What does it mean?
The point is to develop UX experiences in a way that keeps the same level of quality across all tools and screen dimensions. That way, users who switch between different devices frequently cannot tell the difference and their experience will remain intact.
10. Balance UX and business goals
The last trend on our list is very important because we see that too many brands neglecting their business goals in an attempt to solidify UX. You should not make the same mistake, so do your best to align the UX strategy with your business objectives. The ultimate purpose of every page or piece of content is to drive action, but you must make it look natural and non-pushy in order to make it work.
Up to You!
Although UX design is one of the most popular buzzwords of the digital world, only a handful of businesses can take it to a higher level and keep it there for a long time. If you want to join the group of elite UX designers, you need to follow the latest industry trends. We showed you the top 10 trends to keep an eye on in 2020, but not it’s up to you to make a move and put those ideas to practice!
