Recent Trends in UI/UX Design for Mobile Apps in 2021

If you are a mobile application developer or work for a Chicago or Washington DC-based app development company, you would agree that developing an application that stands out from the rest requires many strategies, research, and planning in terms of its features.

One of the salient features of your mobile application that attracts your target audience at first glance is the User Interface design. Well, there’s nothing new about it; anything that looks good becomes attractive.

Similarly, what comes next as an important feature of mobile applications is the user experience. This includes responsiveness, interactivity, and flexibility of your app. Any mobile application with greater interactivity and responsiveness enables users to spend more time on the application.  

Collectively UI/UX experience is one of those mobile app features that entirely changes the game for a mobile application; well, it already has. This article sums up the major UI/UX trends that have been making their place in the mobile app development industry. 

Also, these features have significantly gained explicit popularity, as these are innovative, creative, and have an entirely different feel. So, whether you are an app development company in Chicago or a Washington dc app developer, this list gives you a complete insight into what features you must add to your next mobile app.  

1. Dark Mode

Initially introduced in Android 10 and iOS 13, this feature allowed mobile users to change their phone’s theme to a dark background. Since the day, the trend has been growing in popularity and is probably here to stay. 

With a built-in Dark Theme User Interface, the mobile interface now allows users to have a design switch mode. This mode enables the users to switch between light and dark phone backgrounds as per their choice and preference. 

With the sudden yet consistent gain in popularity and preferability, dark mode backgrounds and themes lead this list for all the right reasons. 

2. 3D

Having to see the normal images more realistically is always more convenient and intriguing. Integrating 3D graphics into websites and mobile applications for a better user experience is the next big thing app developing companies are focusing on. 

From eCommerce and retail websites to educational and restaurant booking apps, 3D has been making its mark everywhere in the industry for the uncountable benefits it has. Majorly including better user interaction and attraction for its photorealistic look, it is a must-have trend in your mobile application if you are an app developer.  

Enabling a 360° view of the products and services, businesses opt for 3D graphics to give the users an extensively enhanced user experience.

3. Neomorphism

Another UI design trend that focuses more on providing a minimalistic yet 3-dimensional feel to users is neomorphism. With AR and VR at work, integrated with skeuomorphism, this design trend enables creating components that are more realistic and has a modern touch.

Neomorphism allows developers to play around components and develop soft interfaces that may not have as much depth as normal interfaces. Rather these interfaces have the UI elements such as buttons and tabs placed “behind” the background and not on the background. 

With the use of highlight and shadow features, neomorphism is becoming the new favorite for application developers and app users significantly, which is to grow further in 2021. 

4. Augmented Reality

Well, there is no doubt about how well-augmented reality has integrated into different features and functionalities of the application. From facial recognition features and apps to mobile gaming apps, it is certainly everywhere.

Consecutively, AR has been making its place in UI/UX as well to make the designs more functional and interactive. It is further expected for this trend to make its significant mark in the eCommerce and shopping, e-health, and online banking, etc. industries. 

The leading examples of Augmented reality at work would include Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore that consists of UI designs build on a mixed reality approach for an exceptional user experience. 

5. Voice-Based Interfaces

You must have heard about Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Siri. Well, to be honest, most of you even use it. These are the voice assistants that incorporate the use of speech recognition to control and manage various applications. 

Simultaneously, using voice recognition-based interfaces to access the application and perform tasks has inevitably grown to be a norm. Nearly 40% of adults already use voice-based interfaces to perform their daily tasks.

The trend also includes developing speech recognition features in applications that enable the app to read the written text out loud. In the coming years, the technology is to transform the UI experience into an entirely non-visual UX experience, with voice recognition becoming an integral part of eCommerce, media, sports, and so on. 

6. Chatbots

With a combination of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at work, chatbots have been changing the way users interact with businesses and service providers. Ventures that are customer-centric and focus on connecting better with their target audience use chatbots for digital communication. 

Chatbots are the amalgamation of graphical and natural language elements that incorporate human-computer interaction features into applications. What’s noteworthy is that chatbots have significantly progressed from chatbots having predefined answers and format to a more interactive and engaging chatbot. 

While the trend is constantly progressing and is consistently employed by businesses from different backgrounds, there is much more to expect from this trend in the coming years. 

7. Parallax Scrolling

Have you come across the website or application on which elements move around at different speeds in the two-dimensional space? Well, that’s a parallax scrolling effect. This works by sculpting flat pixels into image building blocks having some relative depth and dimensionality.

With so much to show in a relatively flexible and modern way, parallax scrolling is becoming an integral part of numerous websites and applications. What’s more interesting is that the trend has been gaining attention from application users. 

As the average attention span of a user on the internet has reduced to 8 seconds, having an interactive scrolling interface is undoubtedly a sight to watch for users. Therefore, the trend is expected to grow significantly in the year 2021. 

8. Megamenu

This is one of the commonly used expandable menus that allow UI designers to display a number of choices in a menu in a two-dimensional list form. Megamenu allows the designer to maintain a structured layout that displays all the information at once, without the need to scroll. 

Providing a relatively more convenient and flexible user experience, the megamenu designs have enabled the websites to have more of a navigation menu that displays all the sections and subsections in one frame. 

Growing popular specifically among retail websites, this trend is here to stay for good.  

Summarizing,

Having interactive, intriguing, and eye-catching UI/UX design has become a crucial manner to attract user attention and retain the target audience for a longer period of time. However, with the changing interests and likeability of the audience, the trends in UI/UX are also evolving and require UI designers to keep a closer look at what’s trending.