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Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

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Re: Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

#21

Post by spking »

JusticeJuice wrote: post #14
capkutay wrote: post #7

I see a couple challenges with the future of UX design. One being that everyone has an opinion as to how something should work. Unless someone has years of widely-recognized, valid experience/expertise in design, who's to say if one person's instincts are better than another's? The other issue I see is process taking over creativity. Soundcloud's iconic design was driven largely by the intuition of the designers and…

I've seen the argument of creativity vs process before, and I think it comes from a lack of understanding in the design process. Most design systems now use a 'double dimond' process. The first stage is researching the problem, and coming up with as many potential solutions as possible - no matter how crazy. That's the stage where creativity is part of the process. The second diamond is refining a concept - this is w…

Yes. a few years back I had the good fortune of participating as an embedded member of an IDEO design team when a former employer hired them. They spent an entire month exclusively on researching the specific problem area we were tackling, conducting in-home interviews with customers and even casually observing them browsing relevant aisles at retail stores.

Actual design work didn't even get started until well over halfway through the engagement, after the extensive research revealed where the big opportunities were for a new product.

Re: Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

#22

Post by wwweston »

k__ wrote: post #5

The problem I see with UX today is that there is a split. One the one hand are the people who just want to make good products people love to use. On the other hand are the corps who want to use this as a tool to direct people in a way that they spent more money for nothing gained.

There are lots of issues with UX as a field right now, but there's zero question in my mind this is the biggest one. There are incentives that are to some degree not aligned with the interests of users.

It doesn't even end at the profit interests of business owners -- career development is another one. UX workers in the field have incentives to demonstrate currency in design fashions (whether or not those fashions work well with a given application or problem domain), and the more changes you can stake a claim to, the more credit you can take.

There isn't a solution to this. The one mitigating factor is that there are limits to how badly you can misalign user incentives before many decide to go elsewhere (though there's also such a thing as monopoly power and other forms of captive audience, and there's a long tail of users who are sticky even when they technically have the ability to go elsewhere).

Re: Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

#23

Post by seanmcdirmid »

hacker_9 wrote: post #8

To be honest UI dev tools just plain suck, making everything move more slowly that it needs to. If I'm on the web it's the HTML + CSS clusterfuck, If I'm in C# I'm writing color converters for WPF, if it's Java I have to use the outdated looking Swing, if it's C++ it's QT which I need to doll out cash for. Additionally every smart phone OS has it's own groundbreaking GUI layout concepts and ideas too. Then you get th…

What do UI dev tools have to do with UX design?

Re: Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

#25

Post by cassowary »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #15

If I could express a desire rather than a prediction, it's that "undiscoverable" UIs die. I hate having to swipe and tap and generally mess with the screen in the hope of triggering some secret feature. I don't know when it became trendy to get rid of UI chrome but I really wish it would come back. (I wouldn't mind if the hamburger menu died either.)

I don't mind the hamburger menu because at least there's a consistent UI that tells me where I can click to find stuff.

Otherwise agree, undiscoverable hidden UIs must die, and so must these flat UIs (which are equivalent to undiscoverable ones). Underlined blue words are good too.

Worst ui trend ever. I eagerly await a return to the 1980s. Which is not nostalgia, because I didn't use computers then — I'm too young and my family was too poor despite being early adopters of at home computers.

Re: Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

#26

Post by crawfordcomeaux »

crawfordcomeaux wrote: post #10

UX design will start shifting toward taking human emotions into account. Our metrics will also start shifting toward reason-/need-oriented data.

Dark design will become much darker once we start designing for emotions with more intention. Emotionally manipulative UX will spread.

It will be combated by UX designed to implicitly teach emotional responsibility, regulation, and resiliency.

Re: Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

#27

Post by quickben »

zzzcpan wrote: post #16
Animats wrote: post #11

Great topic, but the article doesn't answer its own question. Predictions: - Microsoft will move the start menu to a different corner of the screen again. - Some phones will have a dedicated hardware "dismiss popup" button. - Neon colors with contrasting fringes will be used for visibility on AR displays. - Alexa will start initiating conversations. - Hyperreality.[1] [1] https://vimeo.com/166807261

"Microsoft will move the start menu to a different corner of the screen again." Aren't they transitioning to a new business model that doesn't incentivize marketing-driven design anymore?

Where did you read that? All I'm seeing is more and more ads in win 10 as time goes on.

Re: Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

#28

Post by maxerickson »

capkutay wrote: post #7

I see a couple challenges with the future of UX design. One being that everyone has an opinion as to how something should work. Unless someone has years of widely-recognized, valid experience/expertise in design, who's to say if one person's instincts are better than another's? The other issue I see is process taking over creativity. Soundcloud's iconic design was driven largely by the intuition of the designers and…

Even worse, what if someone has years of widely recognized, valid experience and is also wrong?

If that seems preposterous, I'd point to things like Helicobacter pylori causing ulcers. Decades of dogmatic thinking.

Re: Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

#29

Post by kuschku »

hacker_9 wrote: post #8

To be honest UI dev tools just plain suck, making everything move more slowly that it needs to. If I'm on the web it's the HTML + CSS clusterfuck, If I'm in C# I'm writing color converters for WPF, if it's Java I have to use the outdated looking Swing, if it's C++ it's QT which I need to doll out cash for. Additionally every smart phone OS has it's own groundbreaking GUI layout concepts and ideas too. Then you get th…

> if it's Java I have to use the outdated looking Swing

Java has JavaFX now

Re: Where will UX Design be in 5 years?

#30

Post by pavlov »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #23
hacker_9 wrote: post #8

To be honest UI dev tools just plain suck, making everything move more slowly that it needs to. If I'm on the web it's the HTML + CSS clusterfuck, If I'm in C# I'm writing color converters for WPF, if it's Java I have to use the outdated looking Swing, if it's C++ it's QT which I need to doll out cash for. Additionally every smart phone OS has it's own groundbreaking GUI layout concepts and ideas too. Then you get th…

What do UI dev tools have to do with UX design?

Designs have to be implemented in something.

Currently UX designers are often like chefs who work by drawing pictures of food and writing down conceptual recipes. When they've created a beautiful menu this way, they're surprised to find out that their recipes can't actually be made using the cooking equipment available, and some of the ingredients don't even exist. You're not going to run a Michelin-rated restaurant like that.

The industry desperately needs better UI development tools. To continue my (already strained) food analogy... Right now we are still in a "hunter-gatherer" stage where everyone does their own thing, teams are foraging and hunting, and occasionally they stumble on something great. Consistent UX will require an "agricultural revolution", a systematic production innovation that makes the essential pieces more understandable and repeatable in isolation.

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