Top 6 UX Trends to look out for in 2023

Introduction

As the digital world is going through a rapid evolution, it has given way to modern and futuristic forms of interactions & experiences in recent times. User Experience continues to play a prominent role in enhancing users’ relationship with technology. After a gradual shift from the remote culture to a hybrid working environment, 2022 was all about adjusting to recent technology advancements. Let’s now explore what 2023 has in store for UX designers.

Before we move into the 2023 UX trends, here’s a quick overview of UX trends from 2022. There was a steady rise in applications such as Spotify and Netflix, which started adopting increased personalization with spot-on suggestions. Enhanced cursors were a rather modern approach to increasing customers’ visual delight, however, lacking inclusivity. Metaverse was a huge hype during 2022, however, it faded out towards the year’s end. Micro Interactions seamlessly paved their way into the applications we use on a daily basis. There has been a steady rise in the usage of apps that evoke positive emotions among users, this has eventually led to the growth of these apps. For its implementation, UX designers have intricately focused on the aspects of Emotional Design.

Now that we’ve entered 2023, let’s take a closer look at what this year will bring for UXers, and what are the top UX trends for 2023, and how they will evolve to become integral components of the UX process.

1. Cross Device User Experience

Are you a Spotify user who uses the web player as well as the mobile application? If yes, then how often have you come across the ease of use to change the songs from either of the devices and had a smooth listening experience?

Now that is one brilliant example of cross-device user experience which has recently been adopted by users, and even Gmail offers a similar experience for its chat notification sounds when using it on multiple devices.

Consistency and continuity are important factors for a designer to consider while designing a cross-device experience to eliminate any interference in the user experience. This trend will definitely become a routine part of applications this year as it defies the mainstream purpose of standalone UIs.

So the next time you’re working on a feature to be implemented on multiple devices, remember to synthesize consistency with user interactions for an intuitive experience.

2. Increased Focus on Accessibility

In some recent developments, the European Union has mandated the adoption of the European Accessibility Act which has to be abided by the enterprises in the EU member states. Now, this development comes from a higher purpose of an equitable digital world and this is just the first step towards it.

Accessibility has been discussed numerous times, but its implementation has been less frequent. Now that governments are attaching legal parameters to their practice, enterprise UX practitioners must follow accessibility rules while building intuitive yet inclusive experiences. This demonstrates its importance for future deployment in products used around the world.

As a designer, you should focus on becoming acquainted with the accessibility guidelines, so that it will become easy for you to implement them into your designs.

3. Passwordless Access

Have there been instances when your patience peaked when you urgently needed to enter a password but couldn’t remember it? And how often have you felt the need to write down your passwords?

We all have been using face recognition and fingerprints to unlock our devices and inbuilt apps to the point where we don’t need to set a password for access anymore, this has made our lives easier. To further this idea, a similar feature is being worked upon with the aim to reduce the cognitive load of the users while dealing with passwords. A bad experience w.r.t passwords is often a make or break for any product which often gives rise to drop-offs.

According to the Psychology of Passwords global report, 57% of respondents agreed that they forget their access passwords while 65% of respondents admitted that they re-use their passwords across accounts. This UX trend might not reflect immediately, but the idea will be adopted and implemented by companies in the near future as they continue to work on their operational statistics. This is one trend that will need innumerable rounds of user testing to understand its acceptance and comfort within the customers.

4. UX in Web3

Web3 has been a buzzword for the entirety of 2022. While Web3 will have a huge impact on the internet, the possibility of it becoming a reality is a slow process due to the decentralized nature of the technology. The success of the concept will depend on collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, which is where UX designers come into play with a crucial role. While various nuances of Web3 are still being discovered, it is important for designers to equip themselves with the existing principles –

• Transparency is a part of Web3 in contrast to the current opaque backend systems.
• The decentralized nature of the technology lays a major emphasis on designing for trust.

As this is a nascent industry, the role of a designer is significant in making the users feel safe. The designers should adopt an education-centric approach during the design process to be able to design suitably for the platform.

5. Designing for Metaverse

In October 2021, when Mark Zuckerberg made an announcement of renaming Facebook to “Meta”, the internet blew up with a variety of reactions whilst Metaverse made it to the top 10 most searched “what is” question according to Google’s annual “Year in Search” report for 2022.

Augmented reality, Virtual reality, the Internet of Things, and 3D Reconstruction are just some components of the Metaverse that everyone is familiar with. The subtle rise of the metaverse has enabled users to experience real-time interactions in no time.

Although augmented reality has established itself as an effective technique for improving user experience, it will take some time before users fully embrace its potential.

Metaverse is the future, however, the concept poses some hindrances to its acceptance. This is where designers can bridge that gap by equipping themselves with the right knowledge along with practical applications to make this experience truly stand out without compromising on the comfort of the users. Hence, 2023 is the year where we can witness an expected rise in the implementation of the components of Metaverse into the daily lives of users.

6. Data Storytelling

Storytelling has been widely utilized to connect customers’ emotions to products, however, there are products with the heavy data visualization which often lead to a “dry user experience”.

Storytelling when combined with data visualization is the key to effective communication, as human beings are visual creatures and our brains are built for faster processing of visual information. This trend is especially pertinent to information-heavy financial products that overwhelm customers with stacked columns, line charts, waterfalls, and scatter plots, and lack an emotional connection. There is a good probability that this trend will transform dull interactions into enjoyable ones after several iterations of group ideation, prototyping, and A/B testing.

Conclusion

The range of UX trends that will emerge in the following months will reveal a lot about the future of UX design. As designers, we must equip ourselves with new tools and software, engage in cross collaborations, and keep an open mind about these advancements in order to allow them to be seamlessly integrated into future possibilities. As a leading design firm, we urge designers to stay up to date with the latest techniques and tools so they can create cutting-edge products that inspire “aha moments”!