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2.8 Design Trends

Learning objective

In completing this checkpoint, you will be able to discuss current digital design trends and their impact on UX/UI design.

Key terms

  • Skeuomorphism
  • Minimalism
  • Flat design
  • Material design

Overview

As a new UX/UI designer, you can benefit from knowing popular digital design trends as well as digital design principles. Many visual design trends have been created to make digital products easier for people to use, and in some cases, easier for companies to build.

In this checkpoint, you'll learn about current digital design trends. You can keep these in mind as you work through the program, your projects, and your new career.

Skeuomorphism

Skeuomorphism

Skeuomorphism is a type of visual design that mimics elements of real-life products or features. This involves a variety of textures—like wood, stone, and velvet—applied to interface elements or static graphics. The style also relies on shadows and highlights, which are used to imply depth.

In the early days of the web, skeuomorphism was first used to help people understand how to interact with user interfaces. It was impossible to know what to click, so designers made clickable elements look like buttons. The design taught people how to use the site intuitively; it built on knowledge and schemas that users already had.

When skeuomorphism helped people learn how to interact with user interfaces, it became possible to diverge more from the physical world. This development opened the door for minimalism.

Minimalism

Minimalism

Minimalism is another style of visual design. This style strips designs down to their essentials.

Minimalism still uses stylistic choices like shadows and highlights, but only if the design absolutely calls for it. This style inspired both flat design (introduced by Microsoft and further developed by Apple) and material design (developed by Google).

Flat design

Flat

Flat design is a minimalist design style that removes all stylistic textures that imitate the real world. Instead, it relies on color and shape to depict the separation of elements.

International typographic style, text-based user interfaces, Modernism, and the styles emerging from Bauhaus all influenced flat design. Flat design was first introduced by Microsoft with its Metro design. Since then, many companies, including Apple, have adapted the style. In 2013, Jakob Nielsen, an expert in user interface design and usability, described flat design as a "threat to tablet usability." Flat design is popular in iOS apps.

Material design

Material

Material design was created by Google in 2014. Material design is considered an evolution of flat design; it uses minimalistic shapes and colors, but it also suggests "material" or physical layers.

Material design uses shadows and highlights to create depth in visual designs and helps to establish a consistent UI library across all devices. It is popular in Android apps.

A little note from Dieter Rams

Rams calculator

Dieter Rams was a notable industrial designer who worked for Braun from 1955 to 1995. He designed the classic calculator shown in the image above, an alarm clock, and a T3 Radio that inspired the design for the first generation iPod.

One can even say that Dieter Rams still inspires the look and feel of Apple products, IKEA products, and other big brands to this day. As one of the more notable designers, he created his own set of design principles. Many contemporary designers reference these when creating good design. Keep these in mind as you create and improve your design thinking and skills.

Dieter Rams' 10 principles for good design are summarized in the list below:

  1. Good design is innovative.
  2. Good design makes a product useful.
  3. Good design is aesthetic.
  4. Good design makes a product understandable.
  5. Good design is unobtrusive.
  6. Good design is honest.
  7. Good design is long lasting.
  8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
  9. Good design is environmentally friendly.
  10. Good design involves as little design as possible.

Summary

In the role of a UX/UI designer, it is important to be aware of current digital design trends, where they came from, and what is to come. This context will help drive your design decisions, and adds to the different tools you can draw from when designing engaging and effective products.

Supplemental resources

  • Principles of design
    • Design Principles: An open-source library of principles and methods.
    • IDEO Design Thinking: A blog from thought leaders at IDEO. It includes contributions from Tim Brown and John Maeda, to name a few.
    • Design Principles FTW: Another open-source library of principles, methods, and articles sharing thoughts and practices.
    • Grid Systems by Josef Müller-Brockmann: A book that acquaints designers with the concept of using the grid as a form for composition. This book is also helpful for those looking to hone their web design skills.
  • Color
    • Color by Adobe: This tool will help create color palettes, harmonies, and even translate your chosen colors to Pantone swatches.
    • Color Tool by Material: This tool is most useful when designing with Material. It lets you sample colors that you wish to use with the Material UI design.
  • Typography
    • The Interaction of Color by Josef Albers: A wonderful resource for inspiration for creating color harmony, palettes, or choosing a spot color for your design.
    • Thinking with type by Ellen Lupton, a book and website: Another wonderful resource to help you grasp the concepts of typography.
    • Typewolf: A resource that showcases beautiful type pairings across the internet. There are guides available to purchase if you want to dive deeper into understanding type pairings.
    • 10 Font Pairing Tools by StyleShout: A list of tools for picking and matching fonts and typefaces.

Activity

Now, you'll further explore the design trends discussed in this checkpoint. Find one site or app that uses each of the design trends listed below:

  1. Skeuomorphism
  2. Minimalism
  3. Flat design
  4. Material design