In 2016 we witnessed the rapid explosion of UX in IOT and AI, bridging the gap that has traditionally existed between tech and UX, exciting times but what UX trends will we be talking about most in 2017?
Chatbots was the buzz word of 2016, with significant development and progress in this area, but clearly still a way to go, who can forget Microsoft ‘Tay’ Bot’s unfortunate launch and subsequent removal from the market.
Companies are increasingly recognizing the need to get inside their users head to ensure growth and success and with AI already functioning as an intrinsic element of our everyday life we asked the UX experts to share their opinion on what further shifts and trends we can expect to see in 2017….
Conor Ward, Head of UX Trends & Design, British Gas, @uxmuch
“My prediction for UX trends in 2017 is that AI will move us towards a zero UI environment—through rapid, contextual, personalised and smart anticipatory experience design.
For the most part, we will of course not reach Zero UI when creating our experiences this year. Some sort of interaction with our systems is still needed.
We will simply reduce our reliance on GUI design and replace it with less content, less GUI mess to wade through. Instead, we’ll craft a smarter and more human form of communication, wherever possible.”
Peter W. Szabo, User Experience Director & Evangelist, @wszp
“All smartphones will become obsolete by the end of 2018. All smartphones will become obsolete by the end of 2018. They might share their fate with the laptops, eBook readers, tablets, phablets, consoles and myriads of devices we have in early 2017.”
Read the full blog OneDevice: The next big thing to replace all other devices.
Chi Chung Tsang, Web Credible @chichungtsang
“Two things that come to my mind when I think about which UX trends will dominate in 2017:
1) There will be a strong focus on meaningful push to you information through newer technology platforms like chatbots and voice user interfaces.
2) More interesting aggregation of various types of data to create information and service ecosystems that has previously been fragmented across multiple services. For example: https://medium.com/k2-product-design/the-future-of-digital-banking-236ad65e4c76#.6ukiix99g”
Craig Pugsley, Designer, Product Research, Just Eat @craigpugsley
“Out of all the recent UX trends we have seen throughout 2016 and early 2017, the new frontier of UX is AI – machines so intelligent that we won’t be able to tell (or probably care) how artificial they are. They’re already augmenting our lives in ways we can’t discern, but they’re about to get more overt. Standalone individualist intelligences that we can engage with on demand and co-opt into our lives – making us smarter, more efficient, better informed, , more empowered, braver and more able. Ultimately, they’ll mould themselves into the fissures of our lives where we need help, making us better human beings.”
Hara Michailidou, Head of UX @ Just Giving
“Experience design is now omni-channel. Technology is becoming pervasive and intelligent. We might as well be seen to have a less command – action relationship with machines/ devices and instead find ourselves listening more to their intelligence. Designers might as well start thinking even more about all human senses, urban interfaces and the orchestration of our conversations with the machines/technology around us. I hope – above all – that we will see experience design emerging more into the areas of organisational design, politics, environmental and social sustainability.“
Richard Halford, Senior UX Designer at IBM
“I am looking forward to seeing greater momentum behind the transition from Mobile First design to Journey-Driven Design which shifts our design focus from screen size to the “journeys our users are taking and the flows they follow to complete their objectives”. Marli Mesibov & Jason Levin have written a great post on this on Smashing Magazine which is worth the read. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/02/mobile-first-is-just-not-good-enough-meet-journey-driven-design/“
Helen Nic-Giolla-Rua, Senior UX Architect at Imagination
“In 2017 I think VR experiences will get a lot more interactive and there will be an explosion of content. Obviously the most accessible way to access VR is through a mobile phone, so it’s great that Google are leading the way with Google Daydream which comes with a controller as standard. Designers no longer have to rely on the limitations of gaze control. On headsets like HTC’s Vive we are starting to put Leap Motion controllers on the front to allow users to interact in the virtual space with their hands, so it’s a much more intuitive experience. I think the quality of VR content should improve too, it’s not enough just to make something in VR, the content has to be compelling too.”