Mobile App UI/UX Design: Latest Trends and Technologies to follow in 2021

With the rapid surge in their popularity and usage over the last decade, mobile apps are shaping up to become an obvious choice for marketing this New Year. In this day and age where users expect personalization in everything - Numerous domains from education to healthcare, even retail are implementing technologies like Augmented Reality to interact virtually with applications. People ask for suggestions from chatbots and select responsive designs while using apps.

Thus, UI/UX design has become more important than ever. There are millions of apps built every day and the customer diverges to the best one that meets their requirements and at the same time is easy to use and navigate.

In this blog, we‘ll be discussing the up-and-coming trends and technologies of UI/UX which will transform the way we interact with an app this 2021.

1. Animated illustrations

By adding extra details and personality through motions and illustrations you can make your design stand out and grab user attention. Illustrations have been around for a long time. They are a crucial design element that adds attractiveness to the overall UX of a digital product. By applying additional functionalities like motion - They are a surefire way to grab the attention of the users. Their evolution in recent years has been rapid and it is expected that animated illustrations will still be in focus this year, but with some interesting additional incorporations.

2. Microinteractions

Microinteractions are UI elements that help users visualize the result of their actions. It is basically a transition in the elements when they are tapped. For example, a button changes its color when the user taps it, Or vibrations notification when a user touches the silent mode icon on the screen. Facebook’s Like feature is another perfect example of a micro-interaction. It gives a sense to users how a system is receiving their actions. Apart from the aesthetics, micro-interactions also guide users on how to interact with the UI.

Read More: How You Can Improve UX with Microinteractions.

3. Embossed typography

Embossed typography is a way to create shades in order to make the text look multi-dimensional. According to Piyush Jain, founder and CEO of Simpalm, a mobile app development company in Chicago, “Embossed typography is one of the classic and attractive mobile UI design trends that has been around for almost two decades. It makes the user focus on content and facilitates in rightly conveying the message. They also set the personality of your product and improve the overall user experience. It is widely utilized by advertising agencies who utilize them to make their content more appealing”.

4. Face identification

Facial ID is a biometric scanner that verifies a person’s identity by comparing and analyzing patterns based on their facial contours. It is being used as a primary security mechanism by most of the popular apps. It is gaining popularity because it allows one-tap login, it saves time and effort of users to enter username and password. Being a positive addition to mobile UX/UI design, Face identification is expected to be in trend in 2021.

5. The glossy and transparent element

The trend for transparent elements is on the rise, it is based on an effect called “Background Blur” which creates a “through the glass” look on elements. It was initially introduced in Windows Vista, then later in iOS7, and further picked up by other applications. It is one of the most trending mobile UI elements out there.

6. Dark mode

A dark theme is an immersive UI element that changes the theme to a dark background for better visibility and usage during the night. A major advantage of incorporating a dark mode in your application is that it reduces battery consumption by limiting bright pixels and also lessens eye strain. This UI feature has become quite a rage as consumers are becoming much more aware of their digital well-being.

7. Augmented Reality

According to Elijah Manor, software engineer at LeanKit “There have been a lot of improvements, progress, and excitement around Augmented Reality. world’s most leading tech companies are investing in AR driven products since they expect this technology to grow tremendously in 2021. In fact, Apple has introduced its own AR tool called Apple ARKit to help designers and developers build AR-based products.”

8. Neumorphism

The growth of AR and VR in recent years has created another category of UI that was earlier unheard of - Neumorphism.

Neumorphism is a design trend that involves creating realistic style elements that match real-life objects. It is expected to be the most popular up-and-coming design trend for UI/UX in 2021. In fact, recent statistics of popular design platforms depicts neuromorphic design elements being heavily searched and downloaded.

9. Passwordless Login

Let’s face it since the onslaught of multitudes of applications on mobile phones - it has become harder for us to remember the password of each and every application. Hence, passwordless login is expected to gain more traction in 2021.

Furthermore, there are numerous channels for passwordless logins, such as fingerprint recognition, face recognition, login links, and one-time passwords (OTP) which can be utilized to make the User Experience much more seamless and efficient.

Conclusion

Every new year comes with newer demands of speed and efficacy in products. This is why it is critical to make improvements in your digital products to withstand the test of time.

UI/UX design is shaping up to be a key brand differentiator in the future, building a user-friendly and useful mobile app will be a major competitive advantage this new year not only for businesses but also for individuals. Thus, it is essential to make improvements in the quality of mobile apps to stay ahead of the curve.