Cape Town, 14 Dec 2016
The end of the year is the time to reflect on the year to come. Often any conversation about trends revolves around what will be happening in interface design. Will flat design become even flatter? Will we add longer shadows? Or are we going to come full circle and revert to skeumorphic design? These discussions, though relevant to visual design, are less useful when considering how people will be interacting with new technology in 2017, say Daran Mayhew-Ferreira, UX Consultant and Justin Evans, Head of UX at EOH MC.
As UX consultants we need to be aware of the forces at play in the broader technology space that impact how our role will change, not only in the coming year, but beyond that. We need to start understanding the future landscape so that when we get there we will be equipped to continue delivering value to our clients.
Any vision of the future is often based solely on what we can imagine now. We invariably miss the truly disruptive technologies that appear and change our daily lives forever. It feels like there has been a slowing of innovation in mobile devices where the best we can do is remove headphone jacks or put a firelighter in your pants pocket. Other technologies that were previously not mature or advanced enough for general use are now becoming "The Next Big Thing". Recently, we've seen the ascendance of augmented reality with Pokémon GO and virtual reality headsets are likely to be under many Christmas trees this year.
The last 12 months have had many indicators of what is to come. Autonomous vehicles are making their way onto the road, from driverless Uber cars to the long haul trucks making an appearance at auto shows. What happens when we no longer need to focus on the road? We have more time for advertising and shopping from our commute.
There are a few words that we're going to be expecting to hear in meetings in 2017:
Microinteractions - the term popularised by Dan Saffer in 2013, becomes a focal point for everyone this year. When your application has identical features to your competition, your competitive advantage will come not from what you do, but how you do it. Focus on the detail and subtle animation that improves user comprehension of your interface, will be big in 2017.
Omnichannel - you've likely been hearing this from marketing managers for some time now. True attribution modelling is still part science, part witchcraft. Context switching and empowered consumers means that the traditional funnel no longer applies. The rise of discussions about CX (Customer Experience) means we'll increasingly be working toward consistency across all touchpoints, online and off.
Artificial Intelligence - along with machine learning and predictive analytics, we're going to be seeing an increased focus on intelligent advisors. Alexa, Siri and even Cortana are becoming household names.
Justin Evans, Head of UX at EOH MC states: "As User Experience Champions, we are there to craft solutions to real life problems, we don't need to implement trends for the sake of it. Trends can come and go, try not to ride on the coat tails and start taking these trends and make them better, fit for purpose and build the right solution that will improve the lives of the user."
Evans sees the following traits to be visible in every trend: it's useful, it has a broad appeal and application, it's sustainable, it can be woven well with other trends, and finally it has history. When you come across a trend, research it, unpack it, dive deep and ensure that, not only has the five mentioned traits, it is fit for purpose to the user and solves their problem. Trends by its very nature has its heart in the right place, so it needs to be nurtured and grown or else like every other trend will fall away and just be another forgotten idea. Trends must evolve as the users grow.
When looking at user interface, it has always been a conversation between the system and the user. In 2017 we will see the interface as conversation and conversation as interface. We've already seen successful chatbot implementations in Facebook Messenger and elsewhere and this will only continue to grow.
We have all experienced the shift in user expectations. They demand that your interface be as immediate as Google or Facebook. The bar has been set and the UX consultant sifting through analytics data will soon be the prime advocate of reducing bloat to shave off the milliseconds. Good Performance = Good UX.
In summary, in 2017 the fundamental rule "If you aren't speaking to users, you aren't doing UX" still stands. 2017 is the year where you stop explaining what UX is to your clients, and instead answer their questions about the quality of the research and data your decision-making is based on. The future is about more than the mouse or even the fat fingertip, we're starting to focus on the entire person. And that's a good thing.
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