In today’s article, UI Trends That Are Making An Impact In The Design World, we’re exploring the current UX design trends that we see online and are likely to be felt across the UI and UX real world for some time.
When the pandemic came along, we saw several demands from users to want easy-to-use technology and tools. Thus, designers shifted gear to creating user interfaces that are more accessible, with simple navigation, large texts, and clear directions to make the design good for the user experience.
Several UX designs probably made an impression on you based on their user-friendly interface and appealing layout.
This article will discuss design UI trend with UX design patterns with website examples. These UI trends are not just nice but are expected to be necessary for a website to succeed.
Here are the UX design trends or UI trend patterns for a better user experience that we will discuss:
We have seen this as one of the hottest UI trends this year: the diversity of shapes. There has been a great variety of shapes we have observed applied in different design trend.
These shapes help to add playfulness and originality to the layout. In most cases, these different shapes play as visual accents, attracting attention to specific elements or zones on the screen.
We have seen how the digital marketplace becomes more competitive each year. UX and UI designers look for varied ways to catch the consumer’s eye and retain their customs.
However, there are times when the old design trend routines are just as effective. This is true with the recent uptick in animation. This year, we’ve seen that animation is set to become one of the best ways to reach users and one of the more prominent UI trends that can be observed among UI/UX design teams is Lottie animation.
A Lottie is a JSON-based animation file format that lets designers ship animations on any platform as easily as shipping static assets. Small files work on any device and can scale up or down without pixelation.
Layered effects are design elements that stack, marge, and overlap, establishing connectivity between design elements and a depth effect.
These design elements can be obvious and direct or also can be a little more understated. No matter what, both options can work together or alone for overall impact.
This UX UI trends element surprised most designers because who would have thought that website footers, especially those with a lot of information, would be a design UI trend website UX UI design element?
This is what we call Mega footers, which is now considered one of the must-have UX UI design elements for 2022. This UX UI design element is suited for websites with a lot of information, a large number of pages, or multiple points of engagement.
Mega footers work well when there are obvious levels of elements that have distinct purposes.
Additionally, Mega footers can even take on an almost brutalist style, which we will discuss next. The goal with Mega footers is to use elements to create a distinct sense of organization so that users know how to find what they are looking for with ease.
This trend has become more popular since 2021. Several elements of UX UI design we see, such as gradients, shadows, and happy 3D characters, appear to oppose Brutalism.
Brutalism is about flat styles, powerful edges, contrasting colors, bold lettering, and real-life imagery.
But one of the key distinguishing features of this element UX UI trends is the ostensibly missing grid or, as we can describe, being absent in this new form.
This new Brutalism provides all the other characteristics but follows a more traditional layout common in other UX UI trends styles.
Glassmorphism exists everywhere. We have seen a lot of background blur and semi-transparent things like cards, “watercolor,” and glass-like spheres.
However, the glass-inspired appearance is here to remain, from basic features in Mac OS Big Sur to Windows 11 programs.
Achieving this effect isn’t difficult. However, there are a few things to keep in mind: Glassmorphism should be used at the designer's discretion. It is critical not to misuse it since this style shines the brightest when only one or two elements are used. And for everything else, it utilizes regular contrast and follows UX UI design’s best practices.
This cyber holo or neon trend appears to be most suited to the emerging Metaverse. Metaverse is a virtual reality, which is also referred to as a hologram interface design period.
The countless and new possibilities the virtual reality world offers inspire every UI and UX designer as this movement is characterized by vibrant, brilliant colors, abstract, circular shapes, and hologram-like textures.
You may elevate any holographic work to a true masterpiece by adding light as an additional element. You may also utilize some highly amazing shimmering effects. Light scatters over a changing color foil employed as a surface, it produces the best results in printed works. Thus, this UX UI trends can also be used in crypto-space to demonstrate futuristic user interface design.
The 90s era is well known as the wild west of the designing era. Back then, we saw the web was in its early inception-- no design rules, and there was no such thing as a UI UX designer as a profession back then.
This resulted in the UI UX designs of that era standing out with bright backgrounds, large fonts, bold typography, visible table layouts, and robotic typefaces like Courier.
Over time, as design rules started emerging, designs became more aesthetic, and 90s UX designs feel and look outdated when seen today.
However, this UI trends 0or UX trends is slowly making a comeback. Modern designs combine these retro UIs to create path-breaking UX UI design experiences.
It could be quite interesting to see the merging of innovation of the mixed retro era with unleashed creativity of modern design aesthetics.
The dark mode is one of the biggest trends in design. We can see dark mode elements in large brands like WhatsApp, Instagram, Google, Facebook, and Apple.
The dark mode is a low-light user interface (UI) that uses a dark color (usually black or a shade of grey) as the primary background color.
It’s a reversal of the default white UI designers have used for decades. In response to increased screen time, it has been discovered that dark theme interface helps with eye strain, especially in low-light or nighttime situations. Less eye strain meant fewer headaches and a better work experience.
The monochromatic UX UI pattern design on websites is a design trend that has gained traction recently. This trend is also expected to continue in the years to come.
The style can produce a clean, simple appearance and causes elements containing color to draw the user’s attention. This UX UI design can be very effective for an organization that focuses on generating interaction with an important call to action.
The accent line elements are another design UI trends or UX trends that smartly uses unobtrusive line graphics to provide visual accents in text groups. It can also be used to support the integrity of different sections, and sometimes, they work as directional cues attracting users’ eyes to specific UI UX design elements.
When it comes to animation in user interface, UI and motion designers push their limits in terms of creativity. This year was not an exception. We have seen many impressive new examples, such as loading animation that makes waiting easy and fun, animated hints that make important interactions clear and buttons noticeable at once. We have also seen several UI UX design animations where hero illustrations are livened up with motion and many more motion elements that contribute to the usability and emotionality of web pages and mobile screens.
Neumorphism emerged from the foundation of web 2.0 skeuomorphism design and flat design. Essentially, neomorphism (flat design) is a design element that delivers a clean, subtle visual look that remains consistent throughout the latest UI UX design.
You may observe that is mostly on a monochromatic style that relies only on shadows and slight color changes. This UI UX design, it allows the user's attention to focus on important elements while minimizing any threat of visual clutter.
While this style is arguably very visually appealing, it can produce user experience issues if not handled correctly. It can lack contrast in elements like buttons, for example.
Therefore, several latest UI UX professionals suggest avoiding this style. However, as it still provides clutter-free aesthetics, neomorphism web design can produce a wonderful look that feels incredibly fresh and clean.
These UX UI design elements we can see also growing in popularity this year until the coming years. This design style, however, can be more seen in mobile app UX UI design.
The digital age changed the way humans behave when it comes to interacting with content online. In general, we can describe today’s society as rushed since mostly have less time to spend on websites.
For this reason, the design is adapted to include large, bold titles and shortened messaging to capture the audience’s attention and decrease the time to convert. The larger heading tags are usually paired with smaller sub-text copies if more information is needed, which is similar to the minimalism approach.
Dynamic landing pages are also one of the UI trends in 2022 we see emerging. Most of modern website examples use dynamic, responsive landing pages. It is quite a difficulty to keep the audience engaged on a simple, static landing page. Thus, adding responsive web design elements such as animation and interactive features helps users engage on the page a bit longer.
Depth and dimension are also UI trends or UX trends design elements that help the website become more lively and aesthetic by applying drop shadows and varying colors to give websites some added depth.
UI and UX designers think that flat designs that are 3-dimensional are more visually appealing, which sometimes leads users to the next step of the sales process.
Some of the most common flat design 2.0 techniques to add more depth to web designs include using drop shadows, gradients, or two-tone color schemes like the website design inspiration example above.
Voice User Interfaces (VUI) allow users to interact with a device or a digital app through voice commands. These design trends in 2022 resulted from increased use of digital devices, wherein screen fatigue has become more of a widely experienced issue.
This has paved the way for more advantages to developing and using voice user interface. VUIs provide hands-free, complete control over devices and digital mobile apps without having to look at the screen.
The world’s leading companies, specifically all the “Big Five” tech and mobile firms like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple, have developed or been developing UI trend elements for voice-enabled AI assistants and voice-controlled devices.
Typography is probably considered one of the most important design elements that designers conduct several experiments to get the right look and function for the end users.
This year highlighted the following popular design solutions:
Combining different fonts or styles (bold typography to italics) of the same typeface in one piece of text
Applying original fonts to highlight some text elements (maybe in regular or bold typography)
Applying different text directions
Applying impressive typography-based motion graphics integrated into the UI
We have discussed previously about animation, and one more design trends solution for web user interface when it comes to animation is applying animated horizontal galleries of photos to set the emotional connection and make the experience dynamic without scrolling.
Applying a horizontal photo gallery instantly sets the mood and atmosphere for the home page or a website, especially those websites that present information about various art galleries
Another 2022 web design UI elements trends we love is the multiple-color branding look. Some companies are moving towards a new website design that is branded based on page or product, and the color changes when the user navigates and interacts with elements on the page. This web design helps the user navigate through the site and builds subconscious associations with products or service pages solely based on color cues.
Designers are working toward a more inclusive web, and it is showing in almost everything that’s being published. From imagery to language to alt text, there’s no reason not to try to make your projects more inclusive of all people.
Inclusivity extends to race, gender neutrality, culture, accessibility, and ability. The common theme is that your website should be put together so that anyone who wants to can get access to the content, and people also see others to who they can relate on the screen.
The fine line here is that you don’t need to be over the top with images and language that screams inclusive. This is one of those design situations where showing is more important than telling, and being true and authentic is more important than forcing it.
Natural and pastel colors are another promising UI trends we have seen UX designers adopting recently. They’re mixing it with minimalist design to create immersive user experiences.
We can check out Dropbox, which is known to use impressive pastel colors. Another example is the time tracking tool Toggl Track uses beautiful pastel colors on its website.
Here are the reasons why pastel colors are so popular:
Pastel colors have a pleasing and calming effect. Just looking at them makes people feel relaxed.
Pastel colors do not overload the design and bring simplicity and lightness.
Natural and pastel colors set the right atmosphere and emphasize the content.
Storytelling is another design element that we see everywhere. This UX design element resulted from boring user interface such as dull scrolling. Users are tired of seeing pages stuffed with endless information. This is where scrollytelling came to light, which is a form of narrative that can add a little spice to your app or website.
An acronym for storytelling through scrolling, this is a UI design trends in which we build a narrative through illustrations, fonts, and text snippets. It’s like telling a visual story in which a new chapter unfolds with each scroll. A new animation pops up, a new object appears, or a new block of text surfaces.
Google leverages Scrollytelling to make users stay on their website and read the information.
Scrollytelling is a promising UI trends, but it requires a lot of preparation. The designer must create fantastic visuals and plan the story simultaneously to keep the audience's attention in mind. Otherwise, the entire effort will be futile.
You may have also heard about Tappytelling. This is a different UX design, which is more suited for mobile applications. The approach remains the same. The only difference is that the story will be activated when you tap and open the app for the first time.
Using a video on your website homepage is one of the best web design UI trends that we have seen this year and will probably stay for a longer time.
Unless your website visitors have crazy speed-reading skills, it is a safe bet that they digest the information they see and hear faster than information they read. Because of this, a custom video is a great way to get your message across in a format visitors will quickly and easily digest. We’re not saying video should completely replace written content, but it is a great complement to your copy and will strengthen your message overall.
We recommend using videos on your homepage for new websites.
The takeaway
We encourage you to explore different websites for more modern website inspiration. Most of the websites created today display many trending design elements that could help aesthetically and create a better user experience.
You can find many engaging and functional designs incorporating many of the latest web design UI trends.
Of course, not all of these UI trends could be applied to one website. Sometimes, these design elements could also be too overwhelming. Always remember that you are designing for your audience, and the goal is to provide a better user experience.
