User interface and user experience have made tremendous progress in the past few years. Here are some of the latest trends that are making headlines!

• Virtual Voice Assistants

Voice assistants are perhaps one of the most exciting features to have enhanced both UI and UX. Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google’s Assistant are excellent examples. With consumers welcoming this trend with open arms, designers are mulling about taking things up a notch. To enhance the experience, designers are looking for ways to make voice assistants more personal, enjoyable and efficient.

• Foldable Devices

More than the folding part, it’s the “unfolding” of the new smart phones that is the more exciting. Samsung and Huawei have rolled out phones that can be unfolded into ultra-portable and useful tablets. The UX and UI are seamless and beautifully adapt to whatever orientation within fractions of a second.

• Brilliant Animations

High quality images and videos on frameless device screens are the next big fad. Businesses are using hi-tech features to sell their products. These hi-tech features include bolder colours, accentuated typography, illustrations and micro animations. Using these features, messages can be conveyed to the consumers without using even a single word. Such profound animations have increased the UI and UX tremendously.

The above mentioned terms have been under the spotlight for quite some time now. And their popularity is growing in the digital world. Before we understand their importance, we need to understand what they are.

UI or User Interface

To put it in simple words, it is a way of telling you what your product looks like. It is the first impression you get when you open a new app, a website or an application. The engaging factors include the colors, fonts, and the overall page design.

UX or User Experience

User Experience is what you feel when you interact with the app or website. UX denotes the customer satisfaction, ease of use and the pleasure factor generated while using the product.

Determining Factors For a Successful UI and UX

• The user’s needs are taken into account at every stage of a product’s life cycle.
• The product must be simple and user-friendly. Complicated processes do not go well with end users. If the process isn’t simple, it ends with the customer being dissatisfied and the UX being a total failure. This alone can make the product unpopular with the masses.
• Going with the adage, “First impression is the best impression”, the look of the product has to speak for itself. Hence, the choice of font, size, colour ,background, etc need careful selection.

The product can be termed a success only if both UI and UX work seamlessly together.