Remember “Mobilegeddon”?

Everybody freaking out about hamburger menus and text size? That was two years ago – now look at any half-decent brand’s desktop site. There’s the hamburger menu, and isn’t that text bold and clear?

Modern desktop sites are frequently the mobile site with added extras, as opposed to two years ago when most mobile sites were desktop sites with most of the bells and whistles stripped out. The growth of mobile use means that no matter their device, people want their information clearer and their transactions faster – and those that anticipated this change have achieved best results as mobile has taken over.

Lesson learned, then – stay ahead of the curve. So what do UX designers need to be mindful of going forward as mobile technology grows more sophisticated? And what about in ten years’ time, when we’ll all be pointing and laughing at desktop computers the same way we do at chunky mobile phones and dial-up internet today?

Design

In terms of mobile UX design over the next twelve months or so, expect current design trends to continue towards further minimalism, simplicity and flatness. If you’re using more than two colours on your site or app, have a rethink; you want your product or service to be the focus, and design shouldn’t distract from it. While there is room for innovation, don’t try to reinvent the wheel; if you’ve designed an experience that’s drastically different from your Instagrams, Facebooks and YouTubes, you’re putting yourself at real risk of alienating your audience. (Fliplet)

Voice Interaction

Devices can understand what you’re saying in real time, and can infer the correct meaning no matter how something is phrased. This has huge ramifications for user experience as we know it – if I can tell a brand’s chatbot exactly what I need and have it presented to me milliseconds later, then give a one-word command to make the purchase, then why would anybody go through the rigmarole of navigating through menus and skipping over dozens of products that don’t interest them? We need to be thinking about how the different intents of just-looking browsing and get-in, get-out quick purchases can be married on one platform; chatbot integration needs to be seamless rather than an intrusive “need help?” pop-up. (Medium)

Personalisation

Apps and sites that don’t provide a dynamic, personalised experience based on usage history, data pulled from elsewhere, weather, time of day and (perhaps a little further into the future) even visual cues based on factors like pupil dilation won’t get far. If your user wants a takeaway, for example, you should know that the user’s standard order is a chicken madras with pilau rice, that they never spend more than £12 or use restaurants that charge for delivery, and present the perfect options first. If your UX doesn’t even recognise that the user loves Indian and hates Thai, then go back to the drawing board. (Forbes)

Internet of Things

Users expect seamless experiences across connected devices, and with more than two-thirds of consumers planning on buying IoT devices for their homes over the next two years, designers are going to have to consider how to provide such an experience from smartphones to fridges, kettles, toasters, heating, lighting and so on. The sites and apps which best nail their relationship with IoT devices to provide the best user experience – think push notifications perhaps saying “your boiler is reporting some issues. We’ll have an engineer over within two hours” – is likely to be among the most successful as mobile user experience becomes less of a singular concept.