Fantastic Digital Trends and Where to Find Them

The design of the interfaces of websites and applications is in constant development, but as always, the evolution of a single sector is rooted and entwined with distant disciplines.

In recent years, we have seen minimal and flat design trends taking centre stage. Visual quality of digital products has remained important, but new studies have looked into the user navigation habits and user psychology. At the heart of all trends, the enduring objective is to guarantee optimal user experience for its target audience.

Radical would love to share their predictions for the 2019’s significant digital trends.

In 2019, we predict that non-invasive animation will dominate digital design. We have seen this gaining a lot of traction in 2018 and loved by users.

Thanks to the advancements of modern browsers, such as full support for HTML 5, small, unobtrusive animations can be inserted to explain to the user how the interface works.

Many designers are experimenting with animated logos — to help accentuate a brand — as well as playing with fonts. For example, a title that changes in size when the mouse passes may represent an evolved call-to-action or a small animation to reveal a logo in a more dynamic way that can capture the user’s attention. The interaction created by non-invasive animations encourages the user to dynamically dive deeper into the content and play with the graphical interface. This is intriguing without being distracting.

A similar argument can be made by comparing work by the artist Ray Bartkus, who plays with the user by proposing a mural designed to be observed on a different element from the one on which it is designed… water. Whoever observes the image from the right perspective can immerse himself in an uncommon experience, thus allowing the design to take on new meaning and come to life.

3D interfaces were a trend that took off in 2018, playing on the fact that three dimensions not only recovers space, but it allows content to be presented in new and more immersive ways.

The classic example is windows and panels, a view from above allows the users to not only scroll between those open, but also to identify the one of interest quickly. We can see the influence of multi-task management in mobile operating systems.

3D is also used in flip operations, for example, to browse the products of a virtual store or to check the purchases in your shopping cart. This design principle relies on the appearance remaining as minimalist as possible.

A real-life example of 3D interfaces would be that of the FlexibleLove’s cardboard chair. A seemingly small and minimal element such as a chair can easily be transformed into a sofa or different seats.

The growing trend of flat interfaces could peak this year as we continue to see flat interface solutions striving towards minimalism, straddling the boundary of brutalist design. We are seeing elements of embellishment and additional graphics fall away, drawing the user to focus on the content and navigation.

With ultra flat design elements, the tendency is to transform the fonts into graphical elements, like any other raster or SVG element. By playing with size, colours and layout of the letters, you can end up replacing buttons, boxes and even images.

This trend is rooted in the minimalist architecture of the 60s slogan “Less is More”. This period is characterised by developing focused, functional, straightforward designs that are streamlined and free of any embellishment. Everything is simplified to achieve the essence of the product itself.

4. Gradients

With the progressive elimination of page elements, in order to achieve a deep, flat design we see the skilful use of colours becoming the design protagonist. A number of designers are beginning to use gradients to guide users, some have even suggested to stimulate unconscious emotions.

Where in the world around us can we find a similar example, which uses gradients to guide users or to stimulate unconscious emotions? The peacock uses its large and colourful tail for courtship. The chameleon can change colour with the environment that surrounds it. We know that nature has utilised gradients for evolutionary purposes, interesting how design is now starting to adopt the very same mechanisms to increase design impact-fulness.

5. Voice User Interface

“Ok, Google, what is the latest trend we will talk about on this post? “

“Alexa, can you play — This is the End — by The Doors?”

Voice assistants (VUI — Voice User Interface) are growing. We are still in the process of experimenting with this, but we predict that in years to come they will dominate online and offline interactions.

What’s more natural than talking to someone? To express a concept, a thought, to socialise or merely ask for information is imprinted into social DNA.

This technology could potentially lead to a radical change in user experience. We would be able to access various services without having to enter a password (thanks to speech recognition). We could literally talk to the machine as if we were talking to our best friend because, thanks to the progress in automatic learning, the VUI will learn and adapt to the patterns, preferences and contexts of users over time, offering a faster, enjoyable and more convenient service.

Voice is ready to be the next major disruption in the digital world. This new trend will profoundly influence the way of developing future projects. It will be a challenge for designers to take into account the new features that the VUI can bring to future platforms…at the same time, it can become an extra weapon if exploited in the right way.

What we can see is that every innovation and evolution occurring both off and online never occurs by chance. As designers, we must carefully observe what surrounds us, the environment in which we live, we must be curious, think out of the box and not only about the field of our expertise. We must never become attached to a specific style or a particular tendency because our world runs and develops very quickly and what can work well today, maybe will not work tomorrow. 2019, according to our point of view, begins with good news in terms of design and new technologies, offering us implementations of something we already know.

We can not wait to discover what other trends will take shape this year.

By Andrea Gatti

Digital Designer at Radical

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