As user experience and user interface are vital for increasing user engagement, the current UX/UI trends are definitely something to watch. But what exactly should we have on the radar? What may the near future hold for UX and UI design trends?
A precise design style and strong visual storytelling, with a fully immersive experience provided, are what corporate decision-makers, as well as UX and UI designers, strive for. But there are more and more ideas on how to achieve this goal, and visions change quite often. And so are the fashions. Websites viewers’ and mobile device users’ need for novelties and exciting experiences is and will inevitably stay strong. And it can certainly be fulfilled with some new developments and tendencies visible in this area.
But what exactly is en vogue now? What are the UX/UI design trends to look out for in 2023?
Table of contents:
Why is UI/UX important?
But before we take a look into the future of UI/UX design trends in 2023, let’s dive into the ins and outs of both user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design aspects. How do they differ, and what do they have in common? And why should we keep track of UX and UI trends?
In short, UI stands for the overall layout of the website or an app, with all the graphic elements (like colors, typography, or interactive elements such as buttons) included, while UX is all about creating a website’s or app’s structure and design – to make it intuitive, functional and seamless.
Eye-catching user interface and impeccable user experience can give web pages or mobile apps a substantial competitive advantage lightning-fast. Brilliant design and intuitive usability are getting more and more critical, as they can make it or break it in terms of user engagement.
But what exactly makes the design perfect? Some of the basic prerequisites include being:
- functional and foolproof not to cause viewers’ frustration;
- aligned with a particular organization’s mission and business goals;
- well-suited to the clients’ needs (doing thorough research and learning about the brand’s ins and outs is essential);
- clear, understandable, and even self-explanatory, with the intuitive look and feel provided;
- innovative and, at the same time, long-lasting;
- accessible for people with various kinds of disabilities – enabling them to understand and navigate the product so that it can be used by everyone;
- fitted to mobile devices, including foldable ones, which may be quite a challenge but is a must in 2023.
Top UX/UI trends of 2023
Providing a more seamless, immersive experience with the use of innovative technologies and advanced user interface design elements is what UI and UX design trends for 2023 can be boiled down to. But what do they look like in detail? Let’s single out the most promising tendencies in UX/UI to look for in 2023.
1. More immersive scrolling
A scrolling experience that is adjusted to users’ expectations and entices them to keep scrolling is something worth fighting for. And scrollytelling – a combo of storytelling and scrolling – that enables telling immersive, engaging, enjoyable stories may be a powerful means of achieving that goal.
One of the techniques used is parallax scrolling, which means adding depth and motion to the UI and UX designs. It offers viewers interactive, adjustable possibilities, such as using animated elements, changing picture shapes, or zooming in and out. With parallax scrolling on board, home pages and landing pages simply come to life.
This trend has been here for a while, but in 2023, it’s going to be even more influential as brands tend to look for ways of making content and design more exciting. Viewers are to be engaged – and wonder what will be revealed next. Real photos and asymmetry – other major UX/UI trends – will also be used with immersive scrolling.
2. A bold and dynamic color palette
Color palettes are where we can trace more than one UX or UI trend easily. Bold, bright, invigorating, and sometimes even neon colors draw viewers’ attention at the very first glance, so it’s worth giving them a try – especially since they are trending. The vintage color-blocking style reminiscent of the 90s, 80s-style aurora gradients, or happy hues coming from the 70s are all booming now.
Another strong tendency in the world of digital colors is adopting a dynamic – or customizable – color palette. For example, it can be adjusted to the wallpaper on the user’s device – in terms of shade or tone, making both UI and UX more personalized and valued.
3. Dark themes and anti-light modes
But making bold color choices is just one of the UI trends for 2023. Another one is using dark themes and anti-light modes – and creating darker, less saturated user interfaces. Such a dark background is perfect for trendy minimalist interfaces and is to provide a less overwhelming and soothing experience for viewers.
Switching to a dark theme may be beneficial at night, before going to sleep – as looking at darker themes may simply have a calming effect on the users, helping them relax. That’s especially important in digital times when people spend long hours in front of various types of screens – either working or having fun.
The self-care and well-being trend is one of the reasons why anti-light modes will be in higher demand in 2023 and beyond. Another one is the urge that many people share to relieve the planet by reducing power consumption – as using dark themes may help extend the device’s battery life.
4. 3D imagery and animated elements
3D graphics and animated elements make websites and apps look modern, and seem engaging, sometimes even mind-blowing. The term can embrace things like 360-degree presentations, online portfolios enhanced with the 3D movement, or 3D product models, to name but a few examples of how 3D imagery is and will be used within UX/UI design aspects.
However, staying up to date and adopting this trend may be quite demanding in 2023. Attracting the audience with such advanced graphical elements and, at the same time, decreasing the application start and website uploading times is probably one of the biggest challenges UI and UX designers will have to face soon in the 3D area.
5. Virtual and Augmented Reality, applied
Using 3D elements in apps or websites is often paired with making use of the possibilities provided by Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. These technologies can bring products closer to the customers – by letting them „try on” some clothes or check if the sofa coming from the online furniture retailer is the right fit for their living room.
Of course, this is just an example of how VR and AR can be used within UI and UX. Merging physical and digital worlds can also be seen in areas such as e-commerce, fitness, or banking. On top of that, a big number of AR/VR UX design courses is offered, reflecting the growing importance of AR and VR in creating modern websites or apps – in 2023 and beyond.
6. Imperfect illustrations
More and more often, it’s illustrations – and not photos – that act as hero images, or oversized banner images. Eye-catching digital illustrations can be found not only on homepages, or landing pages, but also on blogs, in various reviews, career tabs, and sometimes even throughout whole applications.
Such hand-drawn illustrations are functional, but also stylish, and can make a website or an app look very trendy and modern, and the design – clean and clear. They may be imperfect but are live and artistic, and thus often give a website or an app a unique touch, something very desirable in 2023.
7. Bold fonts and new typography
Increasingly, we can see websites with typography or fonts that are far from the classical rules of using them. This may cover things like hard fonts, huge fonts, ink-trap fonts, translucent fonts, words divided into multiple lines, different fonts used in one sentence, as well as italics and bold.
And that’s what typography and fonts will often be in 2023 – something eye-catching, extravagant, and rule-breaking. The bold approach to fonts, however, should be well-thought, not to make viewers overwhelmed and to keep the message clear, and the text readable – and not only avant-garde.
Of course, a lot is going on in the UX/UI area right now, and we may easily indicate other interesting trends in these fields. Web3 aesthetic, AI-generated design, advanced personalization, accessibility, and inclusiveness are just some of them.
UI and UX design trends – key takeaways
In the digital world, the visual layer of a website, if it’s captivating enough, can catch the clients’ attention and tip the scales in terms of user engagement. Great UI/UX design interfaces can truly be head-turners and, eventually, end up as trend-setters.
Certainly, both UI and UX aspects can be the brand’s best ambassadors, showing their creators’ impeccable taste and the product’s high quality. Interestingly, UX and UI design skills are something required not only from creative teams’ members but – more and more often – from full-stack developers. And there are some vital questions regarding the future of UX and UI. Will voice-user interfaces (VUI) – that use speech recognition to understand spoken voice commands given to a device – dominate the world of UI design? Will UX design be automated?
As for today, we need to have both of these design aspects on the radar as they are very close to our everyday lives – making them simpler or causing serious usability issues. For sure, they are not just a UX or UI designers’ business, and as for the UI/UX revolution – we’re all in this together.
Want to make the most of the current UX trends? Interested in the UI design vs visual design opposition? If you need further advice on the ways UX/UI trends may enhance your business and accelerate its growth, contact Codete now.
In our extensive portfolio, we have an interesting product design project, carried out in collaboration with the world-famous American football NFL league. Codete’s experienced development team created an impressive landing page for a Super Bowl-related video contest, together with an efficient social media post tracking system.
