Leading trends in
the Digital worlds

s developers and ux ui designers in Aman’s Digital and Innovation Division, it is important for us to constantly be updated on leading trends in the digital world, as these have a direct impact on our work and provide us with valuable sources of inspiration.

Following is our review of the current trends in user experience design for 2018.

Personalization

While in 2017 personalization was mostly a buzzword, today we see a real penetration of personalization technologies into every site and application on all content worlds, with the aid of cookies, soft and hard identification.

For instance:

• Adjusting the cost of auto insurance to the user based on his driving
• UPSALE – personalized sales to users identified in E-Commerce sites
• Offering of relevant content based on previous searches
• A different homepage for each user by search history, areas of interest and previous purchases on the site

Some good examples for applications that use personalization:

STARBUCKS

flexible content by need and usage

WAZE

Knows exactly when the user travels home/to work and upon entering the application offers to navigate to that location.

Music applications:

Spotify, NETFLIX, YOUTUBE – All learn the user’s listening and viewing patterns so as to propose relevant content.

AI, Chatbot, Touchless Interface, Personal

Bots and AI: while we have seen an increase in the use of bots, at least in Israel it seems that people still don’t trust the bots, which are perceived as a component that extends the process but does not provide a real solution. This may be part of the adoption process and moreover may point to the need to improve the technology behind the bots.

A good example of the use of bots and AI technologies can be found at LEMONADE – which have successfully implemented this technology to reduce the duration of the insurance selling process.

Touchless Interface and personal assistants:

There is a slow but stable transition to transparent interfaces – the use of interfaces without physically touching or seeing them, such as Siri, Alexa, IBM Watson, OK Google and more.

E COMMERCE

There are a number of leading principles in online retail sites and applications:

• Modularity
• Minimalism
• Customer shortcuts – buying with prepared lists and wish lists
• Recommendations for improving the shopping basket to create a smart buying experience
• Inclusion of relevant value propositions (customized) within an endless feed in order to break the visual continuum and create a buzz
• Wisdom of the crowd – product reviews, ratings and comparisons
• Personalization – proposals of products you may wish to buy, based on your purchase history
• Combination between physical and digital – technology weakens the limits between the physical and the digital

For instance – Amazon Go – the application that identifies users entering a physical branch and allows them to perform various options according to their physical location.

Quick procedures and services

Transfer of funds, depositing, reporting, paying for parking and parking lots, ordering pizza and more – all these at the click of a button.

Companies who have been quick to successfully implement this idea:

Pango

Dominos Pizza

Amazon Go

Tel Aviv Municipality:

INSURTECH

There are a number of developing trends in the insurance world:

Adjusting the insurance to the client’s needs:

Insurance companies are now able to address a new need – short term insurance (sometimes even for three hours). This option is provided by a number of companies, such as CUVVA.

Adjusting the insurance to the specific customer based on his or her health or way of driving.

Quick processes – the insurance process needs to be easy, fast and simple. For instance: LEMONADE

Design trends:

Cinema4d

Typography

Large, bold and beautiful typography with extensive use of special fonts and while integrating different families of fonts.

http://www.nurturedigital.com/

https://www.interword.hu/

https://vintage.agency/

Vibrant, shiny colors

http://festival.lattexplus.com/

http://north-east-venture.com/

• Integration of various medias – photos, animation and video

https://dribbble.com/shots/3819786-Why-Slack-Motion

• Photos – a very wide range of styles, from bold set designs to real photos without makeup or lighting

https://www.niika.com.au/

NETFLIX and the culture of streaming content

Our exposure as designers to hundreds of series from all over the globe helps us get our inspiration from other cultures – the directing concept, art, colorfulness, pace of editing, frame composition, etc., all affect the way products are designed.

AR VR

AR

A good example for successful use of the AR technology can be seen in IKEA’s application. IKEA have identified a problem point in the customer’s journey – to imagine how the furniture would look in their own home, and provided a solution to help them make the best choice.

VR

“Backstage with Citi”

Viewing our bank account status in a virtual reality environment helps convert dry concepts into a meaningful experience. 

Music

Because after all, beauty and creativity are the point of all the hard work J