Experiences: Experience Trends

Technology is undergoing a revolution, as are product user experiences and even the profession of UX design. Every year brings new advances in technology and User Experience, changing the future for the better. While it’s hard to predict the future, current UX-design trends [1, 2] show some of the directions in which we’re heading. Let’s explore some of these trends.

Motion Design

Motion design is emphatically not about creating bouncy, fancy animations. Motion design is all about storytelling, as Figure 1 shows. Motion guides the user to the sequence of actions necessary to perform a task. Motion drives the user experience and acknowledges the actions the user has performed by providing feedback. Read More

In this column on the future of computing, we’ve examined how a handful of advances in technology, including the Internet of Things (IoT); along with sciences of human understanding such as neuroscience and genomics; and emerging delivery platforms such as 3D printers and virtual-reality (VR) headsets will together transform software and hardware into something new that we’re calling smartware.

Smartware are computing systems that require little active user input, integrate the digital and physical worlds, and continually learn on their own. Now, in this, the final edition of our column on smartware, we’ll consider how the powerful capabilities of smartware will enable new interactions and user experiences that, over time, will become seamlessly integrated into our digital lives. Read More

Last month in Part 1 of this Ask UXmatters two-part series, our experts shared some of their thoughts on what might be the next big thing in user experience. The discussion covered putting people first, customer experience and service design, UX strategy, and UX training. Now, in Part 2, members of our expert panel continue their discussion about what they think the future of user experience holds. The topics they’ll explore include integrating new technologies and user experience, the Internet of Things, the future of mobile design, motion design, designing physical environments, and considering the rhythm of life.

In my monthly column Ask UXmatters, our panel of UX experts answers our readers’ questions about a broad range of user experience matters. To get answers to your own questions about UX strategy, design, or research or any other topic of interest to UX professionals in an upcoming edition of Ask UXmatters, please send your questions to: [email protected] Read More