What are the Top 12 UX Design Trends to follow in 2022?

Top 2022 UX Design trends include metaverse, screen size optimizations, inclusive design, design system, etc.

While the UX design Trends 2021 were influenced mainly by the changes in lifestyle brought by COVID-19, we are very excited that we will finally move beyond this.

Dark Mode

If a white background with lots of white spaces was UX design trend 2021, a dark mode or dark theme is making a comeback as one of the top 2022 UX Trends.

The dark mode is not something new. More apps and websites allow users to toggle between a light mode and a high contrast dark mode. For example, a rapid accessibility audit on whitehouse.gov found that the Whitehouse’s official site allows users to toggle between low contrast light mode and high contrast dark mode.

Why choose a dark theme in 2022? A dark theme with contrasting colors improves visibility for some visually impaired users. This is one of the checklist items under the accessibility audit. On top of this, a dark theme also reduces power usage for mobile phones with OLED screens.

If you have not considered creating a dark mode or dark theme for your apps and websites, it is probably time to start!

3D and Animations

The three-dimensional art of 3D design will excite your interface as one of the top 2022 UX design trends. This is precisely what your business needs as businesses gradually open up in the world.

3D wallpapers will also come to Windows 11 from 2021 onwards as new themes.

Better still, create some 3D animations! Animations hinder many designers and developers as they may slow the loading speed of websites or apps, which is data-consuming.

However, the taking off of 5G technology provides a more incredible speed in data transmissions. Users can access files, documents, and applications higher, Dincluding 3D animations, without much delay and waiting.

Optimization for More Screen sizes and Pixels

If you are new to graphic design, UI design, or UX design, a designer’s regular job is more than just creating a set of cute icons.

A designer needs to create interfaces to fit different screen sizes and pixels. In addition to the standard breakpoints of 480px, 768px, 1024px, and 1280px, designers need to cater to wearable devices, mobile devices, tablets, small screens, foldable devices, laptops, desktops, large screens, extra-large screens, and TV.

From 2022 and onwards, if you are a designer, expect to complain more often, designing and optimizing for even more screen sizes and pixels. This UI trend will likely persist with introducing more products and devices, ranging from in-car screens to AR & VR devices.

Preparing Your Apps for Large Screens

If all the screen sizes and pixels are not enough, Google tells you to prepare your apps for large screens, especially desktops.

Google has also updated Material Design to expand its adaptive capabilities to help prepare apps for all form factors.

Apps designers have been mainly focused on mobile phones when designing interfaces for apps. However, as one of the top 2022 UX design trends, it is time to start adapting your designs for larger screens, such as foldable phones and desktops.

Minimizing Complexity

Super-app used to be a thing only in Asia. Tencent’s WeChat is undoubtedly the first-mover in the race of super-app, integrating services such as messaging, social media, payment, e-commerce, food delivery, cab-hailing, and many more under one app.

Other players in Asia are utilizing their geographical advantages to replicate the Tencent model. For example, Grab in Malaysia and Singapore, Gojek in Indonesia, etc.

On top of this, we see that many mega players in the global scene are starting to create super-apps. For example, Google has integrated multiple apps for Gmail, Google Meet, and Google Hangout Chat into one single app under Gmail. Twitter adds “Spaces” while YouTube adds “Shorts” to rival Tiktok.

Similarly, many significant apps have also added collaboration features since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. All these additional features and functionalities have increased the complexities of the apps. Above all, these complexities have led to confusion and drops in user experience.

In 2022, designers will be demanded to minimize the complexity of the apps as one of the top 2022 UX design trends. While companies continue to clutter more offerings and services into their apps, it will be up to designers to keep the interfaces clean and intuitive.

Design System and Library

A design system enables designers to create work rapidly while consistently adhering to standards and quality. It makes a common library of UX design to be used by everyone within the same company or external parties.

A design system used to be only for more prominent companies as it is time-consuming to maintain a design system, mainly if it won’t be frequently used.

However, with affordable, easy-to-use, and scalable tools such as Figma, even smaller companies will start to create their design systems from 2022 onwards. Everyone in the company will benefit from a standard design system, from the product team to the marketing team.

Inclusive Design

Inclusive design is more than just accessibility. Accessibility ensures that a product or digital service is usable by as many people as possible, especially those with special needs, disabilities, or impairments.

On the other hand, inclusive design acknowledges that people are diverse and considers many human factors such as race, sociocultural background, gender, age, language, disabilities, etc., in the design process.

For example, producing a set of emojis that considers all races, gender identities, ages is an excellent inclusive design process.

While inclusive design is not something new, more efforts will be invested in 2022 to ensure that the design process considers more human factors and does not leave anyone behind, especially the minorities.

AR & VR Expanding into B2B

When we think of AR and VR, IKEA’s furniture app or gaming will probably come to mind. In 2022, AR VR will expand for B2B purposes.

The remote working trend has created massive opportunities for small AR-based or VR-based training and virtual events.

As we step by step recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, more businesses have continued to offer remote working options to their employees, further amplifying AR VR technology usage.

The Learning Experience from the Death of Clubhouse

Most UX trends for the last few years have been focusing on hero image, color, typography, video content, etc. Companies rely on these visual designs and visual content to attract users’ attention. Audio content has received little to no attention.

However, the audio-only app Clubhouse has shown that audio content deserves a relook. While we do not know whether Clubhouse will be dead or alive in 2022, Clubhouse is probably the app that gained the most attention in 2021. Read the UX review on Clubhouse.

UX designers and content strategists can learn from the Clubhouse experience and incorporate audio content to woo the users.

Accessibility in More Sectors

Are you aware that you might potentially get yourself a lawsuit for not offering adequate accessibility on your digital platform? The number of lawsuits concerning digital accessibility increased by almost 23% to 3550 cases from 2019 to 2020. That’s practically ten lawsuits every business day in 2020.

While we have seen tech companies already prioritizing accessibility in products and services, we will see more sectors investing in inaccessibility in 2022, such as the health sector and education sector.

As a start, make sure that you do the following:

• Use contrasting colors (such as dark text on a light background or light text on dark background).
• Allow users to increase text size.
• Provide captions for your videos.
• Provide descriptions for your images.

Localization in User Experience and Content

2022 will offer personalized and localized user experience and content to your users.

Platforms should allow users to customize their dashboards, notifications, and the contents they see. On top of this, research should be carried out to identify the required localization in UX for each market.

For example, the users in each market have their unique preferences in the checkout process, add to cart, and payment methods. Email is the preferred login method for most Western markets, while the mobile number is the default for some Asian markets.

In 2022 and beyond, the ongoing trade barriers and trade wars will split the markets into adopting multiple sets of standards. As a result, this will further amplify the need and importance of UX localization globally.

What is UX Design?

UX design (User Experience Design) is about how good a website works:

• How do users feel about the website?
• How easy is it for users to achieve their goals?

UX design is the first approach to web design. Therefore UX designers depend heavily on research and testing to find out:

• What does their audience need?
• What do they value?
• What may pain them?
• And then to design a suitable solution around it.

The final goal is to create a website that the user finds usable, practical, and valuable.

trends include exciting futuristic things such as metaverse, audio content, UX localization, etc.

What is the Duty of a UX Designer?

If you want to make a website that attracts exemplary visitors, it has to be made specifically for them.

The brand’s goals need to be met as well. However, those goals won’t ever be reached if the website cannot convert visitors. This is why UX designers are an invaluable part of the web design process.

They improve a brand’s chances for success by designing from the user’s perspective.

What are the Main Goals of a UX Designer?

• Design friction-free, user-first website experiences
• Help their clients achieve their business objectives through the website.

PurpleZ, as a top UX Design and Research company in Irvine, implements the most influential websites with excellent user experience for Southern California small to mid-sized businesses. We put users’ needs at the center of our efforts to design usable, delightful, efficient, and fun experiences.

A perfect UX design creates a positive experience for your user by fulfilling their needs. Any successful service, such as a website or app, needs good UX design. It aims to provide positive experiences that make a user loyal to the product or brand.

User experience is advantageous; it helps you increase conversion rates, high SEO ranking, and increase your brand loyalty. PurpleZ takes steps to better user experiences for your websites. Don’t hesitate to Contact Us.

 

Sources:

2022: Top 12 UI UX Trends to follow. Uiuxtrend

https://uiuxtrend.com/top-ui-ux-trends-2022-to-follow/

Lazarovich, N. 2021 ( September, 30). UX vs. UI Design: What’s the Difference?

https://elementor.com/blog/ux-vs-ui/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=10759652828&utm_term=&gclid=Cj0KCQiAieWOBhCYARIsANcOw0zA7DgOpZK4_KufhkRgDnPDJjqzina6JDANdt3apWDkE1U_ZIJQhgoaAn63EALw_wcB