UI & UX Trends for 2022

The design trends, for both UX and UI, have changed massively over the last 2 years. With an increasing number of designers working from home and finding more time to experiment with styles, its’ bringing out a fresh wave of new design forms.

With the recent surge of NFTs, we’re seeing gradients & 3D artwork in mainstream designs more than ever. The rise of IoTs is bringing skeuomorphic, high quality touch UIs back. As the OTTs go mainstream, we’re seeing control UIs getting less intrusive to make more space for expansive cinematic screens.

Here’s a quick run down of the emerging trends in both UI & UX design around the world.

Dark themes are making a massive comeback, especially in the blockchain & cryptocurrency domain. In the recent years the design landscape had been shifting to lighter, minimal interfaces but in the last year with the incredible rise of cryptocurrencies, we’re seeing the dark themes coming back.

Shiny, neon colours (usually around purple/violet) are the de-facto sign of all things NFTs and they’re going to grow massively this year. The NFT market is still in the nascent stage and is expected to grow exponentially in the coming year, bringing along the neon gradients everywhere they appear/

Similar to the neon artwork, the websites are also getting a facelift with bold, strong accents intended to stand out and make a solid first impact.

With the growing popularity of IoTs, we’re seeing more and more devices needing UIs, starting from home electronics to self-driving cars. We have been seeing similar interfaces in concepts, sci-fi movies and hobby projects for years and now we’re finally seeing them in functional devices. It’s a wonderful time ahead.

With the rise of on-demand services, in pretty much every industry/sector, the design languages are shifting from stable, information interfaces to fast-paces, real-time interfaces. Everything is being tracked as they happen, from deliveries to rental cars to health & fitness. Some great examples are DoorDash & Uber. The users do not expect to wait, they want to see things moving in real time.

More and more apps are embracing a UX trend where everything happens on the same screen, including the micro-actions. With time the users will get more and more impatient, making the apps squeeze as much information in as little screen as possible.

With Meta taking a lead with Oculus, wearable are finally going mainstream. This will give rise to a completely new design style and experience design will take a massive shift. With no intermediary devices or hardware to work with, it will transform the design styles to accommodate cinematic experiences.

The days of abrupt switching to different tabs/screens is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Animations are going to be everywhere, in every app, irrespective of how mundane the task is. With the increasing use of skeuomorphic interfaces, we’ll also see a surge in use of 3D in everyday visual design.

These are just a few trends which might get mainstream in the coming year. As always, never follow the trends just because they are trending.