The Future of UX Design for Websites in 2022
Source: Pixabay
The adoption of technology in various businesses and organizations was an important move. This decision offered numerous benefits to different sectors. However, the rate of technological advancements in the recent past has been a bit too much for most businesses to keep up with.
We have seen the evolution of social media platforms from an online social setting to a combination of social and e-commerce platforms. Such evolutions pose a huge challenge to website user experience (UX) designers. UX designers create interaction methods between users and websites.
UX design has advanced significantly over recent years. We have witnessed the introduction of call-to-action buttons that link to the phone dialer to make calls directly from websites. Such advancements were made to keep up with the evolution in technology.
Current UX designers or those looking to pursue UX design often find themselves trying to figure out what advancements will happen in the field. This article seeks to answer the question about the future of UX design for websites.
1. Gesture and Motion-Oriented Design
The current UX design principles largely rely on the use of pointing and typing devices as a means of interacting with the UI. UX design is now moving towards incorporating gesture and motion-oriented design.
The incorporation of these makes the user more engrossed in the best web design services offered by the user experience. As seen in the incorporation of mobile operating systems, the use of gestures to navigate applications or websites has numerous advantages.
In android specifically, the use of gestures for navigation has created more space to allow more delivery of content. For websites, the incorporation of gesture and motion-oriented design is now a practical concept due to the rampant adoption of touch screen laptops.
Web designers need to incorporate these into the websites during the web design process. The gestures incorporated into the website should be intuitive. Gestures that can be incorporated during web design are swiping, tapping, pinching, etc.
2. Field Specialization
Since the inception of user experience design as an independent field, designers have always been in a one type fits all kind of situation. The designers have not had to specialize in specific fields of UX design.
However, with the advancement of UX design concepts, professionals are slowly specializing in various fields. The specialization fields can range from UX researcher, interaction designer, voice UI designer, etc.
The specialization of UX designers is already evident in the job applications that are posted on job websites. Work vacancies are posted with the requirements stating that a UX designer has to have a certain period of experience in a specific UX field.
3. Voice Command
The future of UX design for websites depicts the use of natural language processing capabilities to make a user’s experience easier. Websites will have the ability to support voice commands as a user interaction method.
The use of voice command in UX has already shown significant advantages in the fields that have adopted it. In mobile phones, for example, the use of voice commands and input has made it easy for physically disabled people to use gadgets.
Adopting natural language processing will offer significant advantages to website users and developers. As of now, UX designers should learn to develop voice-based UI. They should also learn how to integrate voice commands with existing website designs. This will help ease the transition into voice-controlled user interfaces.
4. Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality
AR and VR are controversial topics in today’s society. Their integration in various other uses has shown a significant positive impact. In gaming, for instance, the global revenues for VR were $22.9 billion in 2020. With most of the world conducting business online, AR and VR present an avenue for customers to interact with products remotely.
Incorporating AR and VR into your website can help customers make decisions. For example, Apple has integrated AR into its website to help customers visualize their products before buying.
Real estate companies are trying to boost sales by incorporating VR into their websites. VR is being used to give house tours for both finished and ongoing constructions. This is a game-changer because it saves time and money compared to physical house tours.
5. Personalized Experiences
Source: Pixabay
Every click, search, and minute spent on a website or platform is scrutinized in today’s environment. This is to help the platform profile its users, and in essence, understand them. Once the platform has enough data, this information is for marketing purposes.
Most companies use user profile information for targeted marketing. However, platforms like Netflix and YouTube use this information to generate suggestions. The experience is different for each user, and it helps them promote the content they may like.
For an e-commerce website, profile information can promote sales. This promotion can be through offers and suggesting related items in user feeds. Doing this will encourage users to spend more time on the website and help you get more information about them for sales.
6. Incorporating Artificial Intelligence
AI technology is definitely in the future of UX design. Though there is a long way before AI can fully design UX, it will be possible in the future. Deep learning models can generate wireframes for designers based on click data.
AI models can also be used to generate designs based on information architecture. Information architecture deals with the flow of a user as they complete a task on your platform. It also deals with labelling, organization, and structuring of the content.
However, this is still in development, and it will take a while before we get to that level. UX designers will not be replaced but will have a simplified role. Though the process may be autonomous, there may be errors. The designers can also add a human aspect to the designs.
Conclusion
UX is a fundamental part of today’s online interactions. UX designers need to invest time in perfecting their craft and keep up with the latest trends in website development. This includes taking courses and spending time doing research.
As you develop your website, remember simplicity is key. Do not rush into incorporating all the knowledge into one website. It may work against you in the long run. When you finish development, be sure to conduct tests and get reviews from your team. This will increase your odds of success.
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