Every year, mobile UI and UX design trends change just like fashion. These trends might seem insignificant, but once engrained in user behavior patterns; they become essential for app success. In recent years, design trends focus on simplicity and ease-of-use without clutter of old web-based UI elements. Here are some other top trends in UI and UX mobile apps design & development:
Flat Designs Replace Skeuomorphism
Skeuomorphism refers to design emulating a real button or control. Designers would use the same 3D effect that would make the control look like a real thing. This type of design has been around for years.
To keep up with a simplistic theme, designers have moved on from skeuomorphism to work with flat designs. Instead of 3D buttons, designers opt for flat square buttons with a single color that matches the theme of the screen or page.
The benefit of this design is that it takes less time to develop and fewer tools are required to create complex graphics. It also streamlines the look and feel of the screen and helps users navigate through the workflow more easily. The downside is that the design is limited to basic color schemes, and designers must avoid shadowing effects that were common in designs years ago.
Blurred or Diffused Backgrounds
Blurred backgrounds make simple, flat buttons stand out better to the user. With these flat designs, designers have moved towards blurred or diffused backgrounds to help emphasize buttons in the foreground.
Blurred backgrounds must be strategic in color schemes. Backgrounds that match the foreground font color or the control color can make it hard for the user to distinguish between usable controls and the layout. This type of confusion makes the app too difficult to work with and can actually lose user interest.
Whatever style background is adapted; remember that any calls to action must stand out. If they do not, it can have a significant impact on conversion rates.
Integration of Social Media Buttons
Social media is not just for personal communication anymore. App owners and businesses use it for customer service and feedback from users. Twitter is often used to announce downtime or critical outages real-time. Social media is a major component in marketing to end users, so it comes as no surprise that app developers integrate these buttons into app design.
The number of buttons integrated, depend on the app owner and the number of social media accounts they set up. Some owners only have Facebook and Twitter. Other visual apps use Instagram for images. The most common social media buttons integrated are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit and LinkedIn.
Wrap-Up
These three UI and UX designs are not exhaustive, but they are primary changes to older designs that most developers should implement. Mobile app design changes every year, so these changes could evolve into something quite different five years from now. Part of good app design is adapting to these changes as they happen, to create the best interface for user engagement.