UI and UX have never been as important as they are in 2022, when ensuring your digital home is top-notch is no longer optional. Users simply expect better experiences and are no longer as willing to trust brands with clunky websites.
In this post, we’ll look at six facts to bear in mind when it comes to the state of UI and UX in 2022, which will hopefully help you provide your users with the kind of online relationship they are looking for.
New Kids on the Block
UX design is now considered to be one of the best US jobs. As the position comes with an average salary upwards of $90.000 a year, it’s no wonder that more and more people are honing their skills in the UX department, looking to score a lucrative position.
As Google has also launched its UX design course (among others) on Coursera, it has never been easier to enter the field.
All of this translates to an influx of a younger workforce, ready to take on the job market and leave their mark on the industry. As a veteran UX designer (or someone who is yet looking to make a name for themselves), you need to be mindful that the competition for every job will increase and that you will need to hone your skills further in order to compete.
Speed Is King
Optimizing for website speed is another trend that we expect to become even more important. As our average attention span keeps getting shorter and shorter (and as goldfish all over the world rejoice), if a website fails to load fast and transitioning between pages takes more than a couple of seconds, most users will simply click off.
In terms of UX, this trend highlights the importance of light design, pre-loading, and on-page
optimization. UX designers will either need to become better acquainted with the intricacies of website development and technical SEO or partner up with those who are able to speed things up significantly.
Hierarchy Matters
How a website is structured impacts everything from how it will rank to how pleasant of an experience it will offer to its visitors. Gigantic menus that are impossible to navigate, pages that are important but placed too far from the homepage, and internal navigation that makes zero sense are all a thing of the very distant past.
When you begin to contemplate website architecture, you need to be extremely mindful of the tastes and needs of its target audience. What do they look for most often, and what kind of navigation are they used to?
How old a user is, the device they are using, and their search query will all play a vitally important role in navigation and page architecture. That means that there’s no embarking on a design project without proper research.
Research Is Key
That brings us to our next trend: research.
To offer good user experiences, you now need to devote a significant amount of time to getting to know your client, their audience, and their competitors. What were once considered industry standards are no longer enough, and you need to lend a personal touch to each project.
This will naturally lead to increased costs, and clients will need to be made aware of the extent of the project and what they can expect to get for the price they are paying. This means UI and UX designers need to become more adept at project management and proposal writing in order to demonstrate the value of their work and the results a client can expect.
Accessibility Matters More
The number of cases brought against companies failing to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act has been on the rise over the past couple of years. They’re especially prominent in a semi-post-pandemic world.
For a UX designer, this means that accessibility, especially in certain niches, needs to become your top priority. Considering how users with different impairments will likely use and navigate a website thus becomes paramount.
There is, however, more to accessibility to consider. Something as simple as placing a “call now” button outside the reach of a smartphone user’s thumb can result in poor UX and lose a valuable lead. Designers need to vigilantly optimize for various screen sizes, operating systems, and traffic sources.
Localization and Personalization Keep Expanding
Personalization has been a marketing trend for a while, and it will only continue to impact the way users expect to interact with a website. While it is more impactful in the world of ecommerce, even content-based websites need to consider how they serve their posts to different audience segments.
Furthermore, localization – i.e., personalizing content and other website elements based on a user’s location – will become even more important, especially for brands that have brick-and-mortar premises across a wide range of locations.
UX and UI design will thus need to dive even deeper into customer, client, and visitor psychology in order to better understand, for example, what someone from Italy is looking for, as opposed to a visitor from the States.
While certainly a lengthy and potentially costly endeavor, personalization and localization done right can significantly boost a website’s bottom line.
To Sum It Up
By taking note of these six points, you can ensure your website is the best it can be in terms of interface and experience. Your visitors will certainly appreciate it!
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