The Best UI Design Trends for 2022

In 2022 our best methods grab the attention of our audience. Even for a second we can make a lasting impression on our users. Basic principles of site design are interactive, structured and bright. Here are 7 of the best UI design trends for 2022:

1. 3D & Animations

When designers use 3D and animated imagery we can enhance visual interest and provide further understanding of the design. Animations provide a visual flow to your site aiding visitors as they navigate through your site, providing direction, context, and can highlight significant ideas.

Rather than using a still simple image, 3D and animated images provide an eye-catching visual that even if our audience quickly scrolls through they will still notice or better yet stop to notice these visuals. It’s important for your audience to take away your intended key points as they browse through your website. 3D and animated imagery provide just that.

2. Bold Typography

One of the most commonly seen trends of 2022 is bold typography. A key part of UI design is catching our audience’s attention as quickly as possible, and bold typography is a simple and efficient way of doing so.

We’ve seen it on landing pages to e-commerce product pages, when a designer wants to highlight a phrase or lead the context of a page they can make the text a featured part of the design. Oftentimes designers will use bold typography to emphasize copy that explains the overall site goals the most. For example, if a site wants to highlight their featured product for the day, the designer would bold the type for the product name and maybe the featured price, allowing for the user to quickly know what the featured product is.

3. Glassmorphism

Glassmorphism is a technique that involves creating a transparent shape but with a sheer glass-like texture or blur effect on anything underneath the shape. Typically glassmorphism shapes feature light-colored borders to add to this glass-like effect.

The benefits of using this trend provides a space to bolden information and graphics creating contrast from their background, creates a minimalistic yet dynamic appearance, and provides interesting yet subtle eye-catching dimensionality to a website’s design.

It is best to use Glassmorphism over simpler shapes and contrasting colors, if imagery behind it is too busy information above can get lost in translation.

4. Smooth Gradients

A smooth gradient is when the transition between colors is gradual and not abrupt or a stark change. Utilizing smooth gradients as text color fills to provide maximum impact and emphasis, and as a fill-in for illustration or background to create a textured depth effect.

Smooth gradients allow us to grasp the user’s attention while not overstimulating our user. It’s important to use two colors close to each other on the color wheel, but also staying away from using too many colors on a single gradient which can be overwhelming to a user.

5. Micro-interactions

The impact micro-interactions have amongst UI design is a crucial part of the overall design of a final product. Simply from the point where your user can click on a heart to show their appreciation for a post or project to a navigation drop-down button, these micro-interactions provide essential movement a user experiences throughout a site.

In some cases a micro-interaction may fail, for example, a button may not work and the user can’t click through. The inconvenience of this oftentimes leads users to lose interest or exit a site. It’s important not to overlook micro-interactions as they are essential to the overall functionality of a site.

In improving your site try creative methods in utilizing micro-interactions with innovative hover text or interactive cursors. The key to micro-interactions is keeping your designs engaging for customers, they are often the smallest details that make all the difference.

6. Augmented & Virtual Reality

In the world of augmented and virtual reality, it’s important to make certain our users are fully engaged in your content. Augmented reality allows our users to see digital things in a real-world aspect. For example, Amazon utilizes this feature with their “view in your room” feature for some of their items. In this feature, the user simply can place the item in their home through their phone’s camera lens and visualize how this item would look in their space or get a better idea of the item size.

Virtual reality is another common trend in UI design that continues to grow increasingly important as technology advances. VR has made its way into education, shopping, science, entertainment, and a variety of other applications. Due to the pandemic, this need for a more remote-friendly experience has been accelerated in recent years, and it’s essential to start applying AR and VR to your designs as early as possible.

7. Vivid Colors

Using vivid colors can create contrast and highlight key elements within your site. We as viewers are naturally drawn to vivid colors as the bolder and brighter the color the more contrast from the background and various other elements on your site.

From playful and upbeat entertainment websites to large corporate businesses, vivid color schemes have been making their way to prominence in 2022. Increasing legibility and read time, using these colors allows for users to read and understand content swiftly and in a timely manner.

The use of bold colors in UI design gives your design the chance to stand out amongst the rest, with a higher recognizability factor as opposed to more muted colors. Selecting the best colors also aligns with color psychology, how does this make our users feel visiting our site? What colors will be memorable and complement our brand’s color scheme? How do we convey the tone and mood of this site with color? All important questions to ask yourself as you design using vibrant colors, make sure there’s intention in their use.

Conclusion

Trends are constantly evolving in user interface design, as they become more bold, playful and advanced it’s important to utilize and try out new design trends to stay ahead of your competitors. Emphasizing great design with these trends will lead to new possibilities and outcomes, while not only elevating your work but allow your work to grow in a new direction. In 2022 it’s all about what can catch the attention of your audience and have a lasting impact well after.

Interested in working with WANDR? Book a free consultation call with our team.

What Questions Do You Have About the Best UI Design Trends for 2022?

Let us know in the comments below.