Trends say a lot about the times we live in. Technology has probably the most impact on all aspects of our lives than anything else today. Many of us are eager to keep their ears to the ground, while for professionals it’s simply vital to align their efforts with actual trends not only to succeed, but just to survive.

In 2016 we spoke about material design, atomic design and design driven by users. What styles, concepts and approaches will dominate in 2017 for UI & UX design? What technology trends will shape the year 2017? To investigate these topical questions, we asked professional designers all over the world to share their expert thoughts and predictions.

Editor’s note: The original post will be updated with forecasts from more and more UI & UX designers whom we expect to join this initiative by the end of 2016. So keep checking it once in a while.

JESSICA ZHANG

Los Angeles, USA

What UI/UX design trends will dominate in 2017?

I think minimalism will dominate 2017. Simple icons, photos, and videos will replace long copy writings. Other long writings will be condensed into short easy to understand sentences. Designers will try to decrease the clicks/presses needed for each task by merging a few similar functions into one.

What tech trends in general will shape the year 2017?

Companies will invest more in virtual reality related hardware and software developments. Consumers will see more ads in VR gears.

FIRMAN SUCI ANANDA

Medan, Indonesia

What UI/UX design trends will dominate in 2017?

Well, this is a brightest year of minimalism, all the interface will clearly be focusing on the eye of human. We will see a lot of the visual layout from magazine transforming into the digital world, web and mobile app. The combination of the print layout system with the digital interface will be quite challenging next year. We will see brightest colors on UI/UX, white still being the main based on the colors system, but it will be combined with the vibrant color. How about Pastel? I think this would not be used again for the web. Big image, big typography, less touch. After Oculus released the VR device, a lot of designers will think about “How to put the web available in VR?” It’s hard, but now we are in the future. We will see this.

How about the 2016 trends? They still exist in 2017, big hero images, video background, shiny colors, dynamic transitions, parallax etc. All this still exists next year. I’ve been thinking about the checkout system for e-commerce, about the checkout process having only 2 steps maximum in every application.

Last one, Interaction. This will be a huge issue for the next year, because now users not always want to see the easiest steps when they browse the web or install the app. They need the interactions featured without making the web or app slow. The sounds or audio of the web or app, I think it will be popular again next year. I have analogy for this, “Silent web without a great design will not impact users. Great design with tiny audio/sound effects will make a direct impact on users.”

What tech trends in general will shape the year 2017?

Absolutely, VR. We will definitely see many startups and agencies focusing their works on this. Like I mentioned before, VR is the new way to showcase a brand, an app. Also in extreme way (but it’s still possible), I think we will see a hologram featured on mobile devices. Welcome to the future. “Smart technology, Less social”.

VICTOR ERIXON

New York, USA

What UI/UX design trends will dominate in 2017?

I believe complexion reduction is going to be a big hit. Focusing more on bringing forth the user content rather than the UI. We are going to see bigger bolder headlines, big text overall, more monochromatic designs that strips away some of the distracting brand identity. This in the end creates a universal pattern that will become the new standard and thus easily be understood. Hopefully we will still see some companies breaking out of the standard, stand out, come up with something even better and be the pioneers of the design industry.

What tech trends in general will shape the year 2017?

I believe VR is going to be the big new thing that designers will obsess about. It’s a whole new challenge to design UI for a virtual world.

BALRAJ CHANA

London, UK

What UI/UX design trends will dominate in 2017?

UI design is a very progressive field and it’s moving faster now than ever before. Companies will begin to adopt a more holistic approach to the face of their products. Trends come and go and it’s not just about designing for mobile viewports and progressive enhancement anymore. Virtual reality, bots and wearables will pave the way for a refined minimalistic style, requiring a more a discrete approach to relaying information to the user in the right context.

In the realm of UX, interactive prototyping will gain more ground as it’s becoming easier now than ever to demonstrate the inner workings of a product without the excessive overhead in terms of resources. The barrier to entry for designers learning to interactively communicate their ideas to stakeholders is rapidly declining.

I also believe design thinking will begin to gain more ground as it’s a system that encourages innovative thinking and not just from the designer. Compared to the traditional lean system, design thinking allows you to think outside of the box and employ empathy which is a critical skill for any designer working with real people.

What tech trends in general will shape the year 2017?

Virtual and mixed reality will provide new and exciting experiences like never before. It’s not just for gamers. Interacting in a whole new world can provide brands with a new level of immersive engagement regardless of whether it’s for the education, medical or entertainment industry.

Health and well-being is important to everyone and wearable technology will continue to aid in tracking our habits to analyse our progress and offer improvements where needed. AI bots will assist in taking the load off the user when performing general tasks. We could be seeing a shift in providing direct and personalized support for users using personal assistants.

TIMOTHÉE ROUSSILHE

Brooklyn, USA

What UI/UX design trends will dominate in 2017?

Under the influence of tech giants the UI/UX world is becoming more mature and UI Patterns and Framework more common. GFAAM (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft) are dominating the tech worlds, and they now take design pretty seriously. Being such big companies they need to have design rules and guidelines for their entire ecosystem. They need to approach design in a more systematic way, with the help of user research and testing at their scale. And the influence of their work is getting more and more important to the whole industry.

People will pay more attention to design thinking and decisions than just the aesthetics. Well researched and thought out experiences will be appreciate than the ones who have a pretty interface.

I believe we will see more and more design resources emerging from big tech companies (such as material design, the Facebook design initiative etc…). They can’t afford to take major risks in their user’s journey, and need those tried-and-tested patterns and design principles, and UI and UX patterns will emerge and try to lead the web to become a more consistently user-friendly place to be.

Unique art direction. Like an opposition to all those Defined Design rules and patterns I believe that in 2017, we will start to see more unique are direction and the retro style will be a hit. The designers are going to take inspiration from the beginning of high-tech and the further like the 70s and bring a unique and fresh style to UI.

I see two big trends of the movement in terms of UI. Extreme minimalist and retro style like what we call “the brutalism” where minimalist is going to be king, with bold typography, minimal interface, black and white layout, inspired by style like the Bauhaus or the beginning of the techno/tech era. The other style in term of UI will be more inspired by pop culture, with shiny colors scheme, vintage, arty, electro themes.

More micro interactions and prototypes tools. 2017 won’t see the stop of the boom of prototyping. New tools will emerge and the actual ones will become more complex and specialized. I think there will be more design role in the intersection of technology, interaction and design, and with the evolution of those prototyping tools, it will be easier than ever to bring ideas to live and prototyping will become part of every design flow. For example, i really like using Framer that allows us, with the help of code, to create rapid prototype and really complex micro-interactions, but more generic tools like origami sound really promising.

More Immersive web. I don’t know if it’s a trend or more of a personal wish. But I hope immersive experiences will keep becoming more interested and present on the web. The use of the web in a freely way to purely immerse the user into great content and story offers more and more possibility. And even if “Flash is dead” now, I believe that interactive technologies are mature enough to allow the possibility of creating unique rich and immersive experiences. This will translate as HTML 5/Javascript for interactive projects, Intense use of videos, Webgl Mobile experience keep getting more powerful, VR storytelling…

What tech trends in general will shape the year 2017?

Big year for VR and all AR in general. This year will be the year of VR. On one side the hardware is getting ready and VR/AR headsets from Oculus Rift to the Hololens are becoming available to consumer. It’s exciting because it’s still the premise of those technologies and there are still many challenges to face, including a lot of design challenges.

In terms of software and content I believe this next year is going to key and mark the beginning of the rise of VR, more specific content is going to be produce and with the rise of consumption and many experiences we are going to be able to define more precisely what VR can be and impact people’s life. For example the social aspect of VR has just started to be explore but there is a lot of potential, going from connecting stranger in virtual world to being able to see hologram of a family member in the same room as yourself. We can also start to see VR as a tool, I have been really impressed by Tilt Brush from Google, seeing artists using it as part of their workflow to literally “paint” 3D models and then use them in their game etc…