Incorporate 2024 UX Trends in Your Designs

Keeping up with tech industry design trends — including user experience (UX) trends in website, app, and digital interface (UX) design — is always challenging. Just when you think you’ve adopted current best practices and incorporated the latest innovations, along comes something new, and you find yourself scrambling to make sure you stay ahead of the competition. 

It takes an open mind, an insatiable curiosity, and access to up-to-date sources of knowledge to keep abreast of what’s trending. But successfully incorporating all that shiny new tech shouldn’t be the end game. As exciting as innovation can be, it’s your job as a UX designer to put user experience at the forefront of all decisions about whether and when to incorporate the latest design craze into your website or app. A good designer knows how to temper the inevitable tech-induced adrenaline rush with a heavy dose of discernment.

The purpose of this article is to offer a glimpse into recent UX trends, provide resources to help you keep up with the ever-evolving digital design landscape, and furnish tips to maintain your focus on the user so you can make sound design decisions that benefit your client or company’s bottom line. 

New Feature Techniques — UX Tech Industry Design Trends for 2024

While listing all of the new features and techniques UX design trend-watchers are embracing in 2024 is beyond the scope of this article, the following offers examples of UX trends you can easily adopt into your designs right away. 

Dark mode

While not new to UX design, creating UI with darker color palettes is on trend in 2024. UX designers like dark mode because of its calming effects. It’s much less stressful on the eyes and mind to look at a dark screen for long periods of time. The big players like Apple and Google have historically defaulted to dark mode, and all signs point to an uptick in this trend. 

Turner Classic Movie’s website offers a great example of this UX trend. The site makes great use of a black background and reverse type to emphasize its black-and-white film offerings while interjecting a pop of color to draw the eye to the movie being promoted.

3D Designs

Even though three-dimensional design has been around for years, there is a new generation of easy-to-use 3D tools — drag-and-drop programs that don’t require extensive coding knowledge — that make adopting the UX trend of interjecting multi-dimensional design elements into websites and apps easier than ever. Look for 3D on steroids in the coming months as more designers get comfortable leveraging this new tech.

ExxonMobile has made great use of mesmerizing 3D animation.

Micro-interactions

Micro-interactions — like swiping and hovering — are small visual movements that are designed to keep the user interested and engaged with the site in question. UX designers are continuing to explore innovative ways to give users a dynamic experience that keeps them focused and stimulated as they interact with websites and mobile apps. 

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) uses the hover effect to invite the conservation-minded to participate in efforts to remove plastic from the oceans. 

Cursor creativity

The utilitarian value of the cursor can’t be overemphasized. It’s arguably the most important user interface (UI) tool that connects machine, software, and the user. UX designers have been adding zip and sizzle into the utilitarian cursor for years, and today’s creatives do not disappoint. 

Italian company We-Flow leverages size, shape, color, and animation to create an interactive cursor experience that is part of the website show. 

How to Keep Up With UX Design Industry Innovation

It’s important to keep up with UX trends in design. Fortunately, there are ample opportunities to network with your fellow design professionals, tap into the brain trust of experienced colleagues and influencers, and seek out formal UX design training. 

Network With Other Design Professionals

One of the best ways to stay on top of what’s happening in the UX design world is to connect with like-minded professionals on a regular basis. There’s nothing like learning from the experiences of your peers and offering up your own work for feedback. Look for local and online UX design networking events and meetups, join relevant online professional forums, and participate in online conversations about design on social media platforms like LinkedIn and X. 

Attend UX Conferences, Webinars, and Workshops

Continuing education is the cornerstone of every professional endeavor. UX design is an ever-changing dynamic and discipline, and one of the best ways to keep up with its evolution and the latest trends is by attending UX conferences. There are a number of UX design conferences held worldwide, with the annual AIGA Design Conference in New York being one of the most prominent and well-attended. 

Participating in workshops and attending a boot camp in UX design are also great ways to keep up with what’s happening in digital design. 

Follow UX Design Industry Media and Influencers

There are a number of design magazines, blogs, and podcasts — UX Magazine, Design Shack, UX Podcast, for example — that provide the latest information on what’s happening in the UX design world. Following industry media is one of the best ways to keep up with industry standards, best practices, and the latest innovations and trends. 

You can also check out the social media and videos from leading UX industry influencers and experts like Eliza Todd’s YouTube channel or uiuxdesign.trends’ TikTok.  

The Impact of Emerging Technologies on UX

There can be no doubt that the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (ER) technologies are influencing every aspect of the digital design industry, especially UX design. More and more, users of online assets are coming to anticipate and expect that AI and ER — most notably virtual reality (VR) and artificial reality (AR) — will be on hand to enhance their online experiences. 

AI in UX Design

As a designer, you’re probably already using AI tools to enhance photo images, create or refine content, and produce color palettes. Some designers turn to AI before they get started, using the technology to render lifelike portraits of the target audience or personas they’re designing. 

With the giant leap forward in AI technology, expect to start using AI tools to raise site personalization beyond target personas to the preferences of individual users. Features like chatbots, uber-personalized content, and adaptive interfaces that make on-the-spot adjustments based on user likes and dislikes will continue to be incorporated, becoming common features of websites and apps.

Extended Reality in UX Design

Immersive experiences using VR tech and interjecting digital items into real-life scenarios are no longer the stuff of science fiction. In many instances, these technologies have become so commonplace that users are starting to feel cheated if they’re not present. Eyewear shoppers want to be able to virtually try on different eyeglass frames before making a selection (an application of AR) while student pilots engage in life-like flying simulations wearing VR gear, affording them opportunities to train for all types of harrowing flight scenarios without ever having to leave the ground. 

VR and ER Tech Are Changing the UX Landscape

As VR and ER continue to proliferate in digital design, UX designers are going to have to start thinking three-dimensionally. No longer able to assume that users will interact solely or even primarily with their designs by facing a screen, they’ll have to understand how gear like VR headsets and other wearable devices like haptic suits inform and enhance the user experience. 

People are beginning to expect that their virtual experiences will mirror real life, which is why UX designers are well-advised to explore when and how to use these technologies. 

Balancing Trends with User Needs

While it might be tempting to up your game by employing as many stimulating cutting-edge elements as possible in your designs, the UX designer must always put what’s best for the user first. The goal of UX design is to ensure a positive user experience. So while it's important to keep up with what’s trending, it’s equally important to keep user needs top of mind. 

Predictions for the Future of UX Design

The dynamic nature of UX design means that as the tech world evolves to establish or catch up with consumer expectations and needs, innovation, and creativity will always follow suit. Here are a few aspects of this ever-changing landscape to look out for.

Tech will continue to evolve at lightning-fast speeds

Today’s innovation can fast become tomorrow’s snoozefest. Keeping up with the rapid-fire changes in tech design will get even more challenging. Designers must be ready, willing, and able to adapt UI to accommodate new digital device features — think folding smartphones and changing screen sizes. Users expect a seamless experience across devices. 

UX will become even more hyper-personalized  

The advent of advanced user profiles that track user behavior across platforms means that the user experience will become even more personalized. Users will come to expect that site experiences are relevant to their interests, wants, and needs. Hyper-personalization will become the new normal. 

Data security and user privacy concerns will reach new levels

The more data and information that’s gathered on consumers, the more personalized the UX. And that means designers must achieve a balance between delivering bespoke experiences and respecting users’ right to privacy. Users can be a bit fickle in this regard. While they like and appreciate the time- and energy-saving aspects of a personalized online experience, they can come to see the fact that a site knows them so well as an uncomfortable invasion of privacy. It’s the UX designer’s job to walk this tightrope between personalized UX and violations of user privacy. 

More user data also creates more concerts about data breaches. UX designers are going to have to be more aware than ever of how their actions impact security and what measures they need to take to ensure the safety of user information, as trust and transparency form the foundation of UX. 

Keep Your UX Design Work Cutting-Edge With Ideate Labs Courses

The ever-changing landscape of UX design is precisely what attracts many innovative creators to the discipline. No two projects are the same. 

It’s of paramount importance that, as a UX design professional, you keep up with what’s happening in the field. Engaging with colleagues, accessing as many online learning tools as you can, and upping your learning game with continuing education boot camps and workshops will all contribute to your success. 

Whether you’re new to UX design or have years of experience, finding the right training resources will help you stay current with UX trends. Ideate Labs, founded by two women eager to make the dream of becoming a digital design professional accessible to all, is your one-stop shop for UX design education. Whether you’re seeking intimate classroom instruction or personalized mentorship, Ideate Labs offers a UX design course to meet your needs.

All of our training is backed up by a guarantee that you’ll walk away from our UX design instruction with the tools and knowledge you need to reach your career goals

Check out what Ideate Labs has to offer, and then select the UX design course that meets your specific needs today.