UX professional: 3 action points for 2016
As a user experience (UX) professional you know it’s important to stay up-to-date on topical and upcoming UX trends. As a UX designer one of my favorite sources for this are the year-end articles and blog posts from top UX influencers reflecting the past year and anticipating the next. The following two were among the best I came across this time.
The state of UX in 2015 / 2016 by uxdesign.cc
The first article, titled “The state of UX in 2015 / 2016” from uxdesign.cc is written by by Fabricio Teixeira and Caio Braga with great illustrations by Ferran Torras. From the plentiful content uxdesign.cc has published and curated, they’ve gathered 9 trends in user experience + their highlights of the year.
They make many excellent points. I especially enjoyed reading that since there are already so many established interaction patterns, there is less focus for interface design and pixels, and more focus on people and their contexts, wants and needs. User research is key. Also, more and more companies are realizing that UX is everyone’s business. UX designers can take more central role in coordinating this effort and work in collaboration with others.
UX professional focusing on the user. A cartoon by Satu Kyröläinen
6 Web Design Trends You Must Know for 2015 & 2016 by UXPin
The second article “6 Web Design Trends You Must Know for 2015 & 2016” from Awwards.com is written by Jerry Cao from UXPin. Cao also mentions the current wealth of UI patterns – everything looks similar nowadays. The article goes on listing some of the key patterns you should be familiar with: the hamburger menu, account registration, long scroll, card layouts and hero images. In addition to the common UI design patterns, Cao mentions rich animations, microinteractions, material design, responsive design and flat design.
UXPin also has a extensive free ebook “UX design trends 2015 & 2016” with more advice on the most important wed design trends. I recommend reading it, it’s good stuff!
3 action points for better user experiences
Having read these articles, I recommend these 3 things you should do as a user experience professional in 2016:
- Use UI design patterns – But don’t use common UI trends just because they’re trendy – pick the right ones for the job
- Focus on people, not pixels – research users’ contexts, wants and needs. Designing successful products rely on this deep understanding of users
- Be a UX coordinator – if your company already understands the value of UX, step up and coordinate this collective effort
Let’s make 2016 the best UX year yet!
