2021 Design Trends
only for internal use @Veeam
UX
TL;DR Pandemic boosted interest in touchless interaction (voice interfaces, air gestures). Designers want to make this world a better place to live fighting against dark patterns. AI will decide everything for you.
Be ethical, care about users, have some fun.
AI personalization
What is AI Personalization? It is an adoption of UI and content exclusively for each user. Just imagine, that every kind of Veeam's website users will have a personalized communication, informational architecture, and maybe even colors. And all of these variations...
Voice Interfaces
Pandemic, accessibility issues, and rising number of gadgets boost interest in Voice UI every year. Virtual assistants, such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa, are examples of VUIs. The primary advantage of a VUI is that it allows for a hands-free, eyes-free way in...
No passwords
This is an arguable UX trend. Some time ago passwords were really bad and this is why: Too many passwords. Passwords (like phone numbers) were a practical idea when you had to remember a few of them. Today, a personal email address is associated with an average of 130...
Gamification
Why not have some fun while you are learning, doing fitness, or even are working? Gamification is a magical process of motivating and paying attention to users. Gamification does not involve games. It is simply absorbing the fun elements in a game into real-world...
Fight against dark patterns
Back in 2010, Harry Bringull defined it as tricks used in websites and apps that make you do things that you didn't mean to, like buying or signing up for something. He created a hall of shame Darkpatterns.org to fight these bad tricks. With a rise in mindfulness of...
UX
TL;DR Pandemic boosted interest in touchless interaction (voice interfaces, air gestures). Designers want to make this world a better place to live fighting against dark patterns. AI will decide everything for you.
Be ethical, care about users, have some fun.
UI
TL;DR Nothing new, but pay attention to 3D
Advanced hovers
There are two types of advanced hover states: First you can see minimalistic UI with text only, but after you hover the text, you can see an image, that illustrates this text. Action-type cursor. You hover the object, and cursor transforms to arrow, eye or even...
Blur/Grain/Gradients
Brutalism
Ugly on purpose, brutalist websites are taking over the internet. Maybe it’s anti-trend to overwhelmed animated high-tech websites, maybe just a result of non-professionalism. Anyway, these websites are winning awards and killing people with epilepsy.Materials:...
3D
So, this day has come. Now, 3D graphics are a regular part of UI. Say thanks to these: free and powerful Blender lightweight web-based solutions like Vectary (it’s kind of Figma for 3D) constructors like Humans or Morflax Things three.js and other js libraries...
UI personalization
Widgets There is nothing new under the sun, and those who are old enough remember good old websites full of customizable widgets. So, thanks to Apple, now it’s a trend again. Users want to have an option to change a layout, navigation, and functional blocks by...
Glassmorphism
This trend is another attempt to make items in 2D space represented resemble their real-world counterparts. Skeuomorphism is in the past, neomorphism is useless, so here we go! Now we have glassmorphism.Materials: Glassmorphism in user interfaces Rules to play...
Fonts
Last year was kind of extraordinary in the typo world, I found at least three trends that will continuously grow in 2021: Ink trap fonts An ink trap is a feature of certain typefaces designed for printing in small sizes. At an ink trap, the corners or details are...
Other
AR & VR
Apparently, AR/VR/MR is one of the most significant trends for all interaction designers. It can and will redefine the design process, tools, and skills you need to do your work.Trending Industries Shopping & Retail Many retailers have made virtual fitting rooms...
Design Activism
Many designers have lent their creative skills to causes they believe in, making everything from protest graphics to campaigns calling for racial, environmental and political justice. In 2021, design will keep serving as a tool to educate, empower and raise awareness...
Design Systems
More and more companies are getting serious about unified design experience and building their design system. Material Design, Ant Design, Fluent Design System are the most popular open-source design systems. The importance of design systems In order to quickly...
No code
No code doesn’t mean the complete elimination of code. Programmers and developers will always be important. No code signifies opening up these areas of expertise to those who would otherwise be exempt. It lets anyone with an idea or vision to create. Through no code,...
Other