10 Mobile App Design Trends in 2021

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Mobytelab Team

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Everyone now uses mobile apps every day. Last year, mobile apps account for more than 60% of time spent by mobile users. Therefore, users are always craving for a better user experience (UX). That is why designers strive to improve an absolutely comfortable user interface (UI).

Mobile app UI design standard keeps changing throughout the years, which makes it hard to predict. Nevertheless, there are some trends growing up ahead.

The modern designing trend is leading towards simplification and minimization. In the year 2021, which are some cool design implementations we can expect to see?

MobyteLab would like to list out some app designing trends to watch out in 2021:

1. Advanced gesture interaction

We may all agree that mobile experience is only good as long as having interaction with it, and gestures contribute massively to this concept. Gesture interaction has been well-utilized last year. And 2021 is expected to be the year when app designers will implement a wider, more intuitive range of new gestures to the application design to upgrade UI for a better UX. Mobile users will have more quick and convenient interactions to app transactions, motions, and other operations. UI with a wider range of gestures will help to serve the functional purposes of mobile apps and let them be more content-focused.

Gesture interactions allow for an uninterrupted mobile experience which is way more addictive to use.

2. Effective uses of Scrolling

Out of the interactive gestures, scrolling is bliss to use. Scrolling is probably not a ‘new trend’. However, as users have become more and more comfortable using a scroll to scan large or long-form content, or to move between pages, more designers have begun to prefer scrollable interfaces in mobile app designing.

The simplification in app design is thriving these days, the act of pressing buttons has been diminished. Scrolling enables you to place multiple items on a small screen, which makes user experiences more convenient, fast and fluid without interruption. This method proved to work well across all devices and volumes of content. There are even more potential effective uses of scrolling you can think of to make your app stand out and get more users engaged with your app.

3. Micro-interactions

The icon appearance notifying that you’ve turned off the bell ring is an example of micro-interaction

App users get more and more familiar with scrolling The icon appearance notifying that you’ve turned off the bell ring is an example of micro-interaction

Micro-interactions perform useful and understandable animations or transitions, which let people instantly see the results of their on-screen interactions. In other words, they provide visual feedback in a thoughtful and entertaining way. Effective micro-interactions greatly improves the UX, especially on mobile and smaller screen devices.

Facebook famous “Like” button is an iconic example for micro-interactions: when a user clicks the thumbs-up icon, it turns blue, informing the user that he has “liked” the status.

As their innate value to users is more recognized, micro-interactions will play a vital role in UI and UX design now and in the future.

To read more about micro-interactions, follow this link.

4. Emphasis on Typography

Typography is a key factor in app design

Typography is a powerful visual medium that enables designers to make all the elements on the screen clear and easy to differentiate, while creatively implement personality and set the tone for their content. Using typography together with imagery, video, illustrations, colours and unconventional layouts will create unique user experiences within a specific app.

Due to an increasing number of web font services offering free or cost-effective font families, in 2021 we will have the chance to see more creative typefaces replacing traditional graphics and editorial design in mobile apps. With the big focus on typography, app designers hope to attract more loyal users.

5. Functional Animation

functional animation makes the app attractive

People are naturally taking notice of motion. So more and more designers realize that movement helps to tell a story, which helps for a better UX. The idea of functional animation in a mobile design can be an effective way to make your UX dynamic, interactive and significant. Functional animations are also very useful to highlight a specific product.

6. Wearable Technology Apps Designing

Wearable app design should remain the comfortability

Wearable tech trends are moving forward rapidly and will continue to thrive, as Apple has launched its Apple Watch and countless other wearable gadget introduced. Wearable gadgets provide smaller screens and allow people to use mobile technology in various situations, leading to necessary changes in the user interface. App designers nowadays race to adapt their contents to fit the principles of wearable apps to meet new consumer expectations.

7. Blank Space design

Proper use of blank space in-app can make a better UX

It may sound ridiculous as blank space seems to be meaningless in design. But recently it is being used in creative ways to simplify the user interface, as simplification is the new motto for app designers. Using blank space on screens has surprisingly become a design element itself, and turned out to give good results. By setting blank space, designers can users to focus on specific contents or features on the phone screen.

8. Gradients and vivid colours

Spotify theme options with vivid and gradient colours

Although white backgrounds and subtle colours have been in trend for a long time, as the latest statistic shows that up to 80% of all mobile apps are feature white backgrounds, designers began to push more on personality by experimenting with vivid colour palettes and gradients.

There are such brands that bravely break the ground, for example, Instagram and Spotify. In 2016, Instagram creates controversy with its rebranded logo with vivid colour and gradient. While Spotify recently moves from their ‘safe’ green colour to a more noticeably vivid hue. This fact expects more brands to go for new vibrant hues and mesmerizing gradients schemes in their app design in 2021.

9. Cards

Cards appeared in 2014 and immediately flourished during 2015. Nowadays, it still shapes the UX standards and tendencies.

The idea of cards is to group all vital and useful information in separately outlined boxes. If you want to get full access to any additional content, all you need is a single tap on the screen. Cards provide a great way to organize large amounts of content and display them on-screen effectively. This delivers an efficient and convenient interaction to users by allowing them to quickly and easily glance through what is available, sort out information in accordance with needs and preferences and make their choice of what to view. Moreover, cards offer versatility, allowing designers to flip, spin, stack and filter them for all manner of UX functionalities.

We have a good example of card layouts come as efficient and popular social network boards and feeds like Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, Trello, Netflix, Pinterest and more.

10. Break the grids

The grid has always been the base for a designer, which ensures consistency, balance, rhythm and order. It also provides users with a natural and well-ordered feeling while going through an interface.

However, it features some rigid baseline structures that restrict designers’ creativity. As a result, ‘breaking the grid’ is becoming a fresh trend for UI designers to create flexible and extraordinary user experiences.

Staying away from the grid, designers are creating more intriguing and experimental user interfaces through the use of layering, depth, motion and obvious focal points. It can create a sense of fluidity and freedom for better user experiences. However, you must be very considerate to avoid creating more complication.

Conclusion

Mobile app development is a quick-growing and competitive market, enterprises need to adopt the latest trends to take the lead in innovation.

What MobyteLab have covered above are the modern trends that have the biggest chances to take over the mobile app designing area in 2021 and beyond. These trends are all oriented to enhance the UX/UI and narrow the gap between virtual and realm.

One important thing to remember is no matter where the change in mobile app designing could lead to, usability must always be put in front. UI design will lose its main purpose if users get lost and confused with the apps’ look and navigation. Designing a better UI to build a positive user experience will bear the chance to hit the highest range of success of a mobile app.

Mobytelab focuses on software consultant, product design, UI/UX design, web & mobile application development and ASO.

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