UX Trends Of 2018 For Mobile Apps

If you followed our UX Trends Of 2017 For Mobile Apps presented last year you probably had one of the most attractive apps on the market. Let’s stick with this tradition and to present you the best methods for providing an amazing user experience with your app available for 2018.

Content-Based Experience

Let’s remember the basics for now. Why users download an app in the first place? You guessed that right! Because of the content provided. Before jumping to more advanced features it’s mandatory to make sure that you offer them what they want. And there are a few rules you need to follow for obtaining the wanted result.

• Clear out – remove useless content and allow customers to enjoy the essential information;
• Focus on important data – special design elements give you the power of redirecting users’ attention to key sections of your app.

Just take a look at TopBuzz Video: Viral Videos, Funny GIFs & TV Shows, a content app which was recently listed by Google among the best apps of 2017.

User Friendly – Time Saving Design

Life is already complicated! Why make users struggle even more with your app? Invite them into your app, help them by solving their problems quickly and let them know that they can come back whenever they need those services. Frankly, this is not really a strategy recently discovered. It is more like a demand when it comes to design a useful tool for your audience. There are very little chances to see those customers again after you drove them away with bright colours, confusing onboarding flow and the request of many personal details, which we are sure that were vital right after they installed your app. Keeping track of the budget is a tedious task, but designing an app able to help users with their financial plan is even harder. For this reason, PocketGuard represents a good inspiration for your future projects.

Advanced – Smarter Personalization

User personalization is a trend that never goes away. It is almost impossible not to mention this approach whenever we talk about providing the best experience for customers, especially for the loyal ones. It is useless to remind you how beneficial it is to be aware of users’ location at some point for sending them the most appropriate message. Another aspect of the whole plan to personalize users’ journey is to offer them an interface specially created for their needs. Take advantage of the profiles created (hopefully in a progressive manner) and transform the way users interact with your app. Starbucks became a real “that is how you should do it” for app designers and marketers. And that’s not because we love coffee but because we are expecting to see more of this technique this year.

Voice User Interface (VOI)

When you think about it, phones were created for conversational purposes. Therefore, it isn’t a secret anymore that chatbots and messaging apps are the most appreciated tools by mobile users. These features based on artificial intelligence technology will continue to show their power during the next 12 months. Don’t be afraid, because chatbots won’t replace mobile apps (at least not anytime soon!) which mean that you can take advantage of their popularity for attracting more users this year. Moreover, NLP (Natural Language Processing) helps app owners to expand these smart solutions to voice-activated interfaces. After all, it is easier to talk than to write, right? You can find on Business2Community a detailed article which reveals 10 Cases Of Voice – Activated Chatbot Use, for a better understanding of this technology.

Biometric Authentication

Voice recognition, facial recognition or fingerprints will have a bigger impact this year. It is more convenient for customers to use these gestures whenever they want to unlock the screen or to log in. Not only this behaviour is more secure but it is also faster and easier than manual input. Let’s face it! (get it? Face it –Face ID?) Nothing is simpler than approaching the device to your body and scanning your features. And with the release of newer and innovative devices will be easier for users and developers to adapt to the new trend. Meanwhile, you should study Human Interface Guidelines to make sure that you know the best practices for implementing this technology.

Video Content

We’ve spent an entire year telling you about the importance of video for a mobile world. And this strategy will continue in 2018. Whether we speak about designing an app or marketing it, nothing is better than video format for establishing an emotional connection with customers. But you need to pay attention to certain factors in order to reach users’ expectations:

• Keep it short – users don’t want have time to wait and see what you intended to express with your clip;
• HD videos – before adding attractive elements to a video you need to make sure that you offer high-quality product;
• Vertical orientation – more and more companies adopt this technique and allow users to enjoy the video without switching their devices (win-win situation).

As you can see, 2017 was the year video went vertical, so you should keep up with this trend.

Cashless Payment

Even though at the beginning people were suspicious about the evolution of mobile payment systems, nowadays this is a common operation especially inside m-commerce apps. We remind you that recently Google created a unique solution for its users called Google Pay which together with Apple Pay represent the most popular methods available for customers to complete their purchases. So, app designers, what are you waiting for? If you didn’t do it so far, it is mandatory to implement these options for allowing users to enjoy their shopping experience!

Final Thoughts

While some trends continue to influence the way customers use your app, others represent innovative methods for convincing users to pay attention to your product. The mobile world is very dynamic and you need to make sure that you adapt your app to these changes if you want to remain in this fierce competition!