Top 9 Mobile App UX / UI Design Trends In 2021

According to a research published by Statista Research Department, “In 2020, global Mobile app revenues amounted to over 580 billion U.S. dollars. In 2023, Mobile apps are projected to generate more than 935 billion U.S. dollars in revenues.” This can be considered as an inevitable mobile app UX / UI design trend of most large and small businesses globally when they increasingly focus on investing in developing a mobile application. So designing an interface for a mobile application allows businesses to convey all product information, business information to customers while their customers still feel comfortable in contact, manipulate the application. Mobile app design is of absolute importance in this regard.

What is Mobile App Design? 

In general, app designers are responsible for making an app look good, while the developers make it work correctly. Mobile app design includes both user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). The designers are responsible for the overall style of the app, which includes things like color schemes, font choices, as well as the types of buttons and widgets the user will use. While mobile apps have multiple uses, what unites them is the need for optimal usability, accessibility, engagement, and overall user experience. In short, Mobile app design solves all of these concerns.

What are UI / UX Designs? What’s the difference?  

“UI” design stands for “User Interface” design, while “UX” design refers to “User Experience” design. Both of these are very important to an IT product and need to work closely together. Although they are very intertwined, the roles themselves are quite different, involving separate processes.

• UI Design: If you consider an application to be an iceberg, UI is the surface of the iceberg that people can easily see and feel. It is the graphical form of an application, consisting of buttons that customers click, what they read, images, sliders, text, and effects. This includes screen design, advances, motion interface and all connected miniature. Such a visual part, collaboration, or animation design. UI design directly affects the application, it determines what the application will look like, what the button shape is, the width of the lines and the types of text to use … UI designers create a look and quality of look in a mobile application.
• UX Design: This is the sinking part of the iceberg that not everyone can see except app developers. It includes the principles, functions, which serve as the operating engine of the application. UX design was created to ensure that a product is sensible, convenient, and useful. The primary goal of UX design is to ensure that an app evokes only pleasant impressions when experiencing the app. In theory, UX design is a non-digital activity (cognitive science), UX Design does NOT involve images; it focuses on the overall feeling of the experience.

UI vs UX – What is the difference between them? 

• Different purposes: UI and UX design have completely different purposes. The primary purpose of UX design is to improve the usability, ease of use, and satisfaction that customers receive when interacting with your product. In contrast, UI considers the appearance of a product as the primary purpose. UX design, analysis, and research are the first steps in the process of creating a given product. When a prototype is in its final stages, the UI designers start their work with the visual elements.
• Different focuses: UX makes the interfaces work efficiently and a valuable product, while the UI makes the interface beautiful and easy to use. The importance of the UX research process lies in analyzing your competitors' products. Such analysis allows designers to create a valuable product for your target audience. The role of the UI designer is to make the interface aesthetically pleasing to the user.
• Different goals: UX is about customer convenience not only within the product but also the enterprise. Properly designed user experience facilitates all processes that affect customer satisfaction, whether it is a return purchase or service support. UI design in turn creates emotional connections and is responsible for shifting product development from research and layout to an engaging and easy-to-understand user experience.

Why is Mobile App Design necessary? 

“In 2020, The number of available apps in the Google Play Store was most recently placed at 3.04 million apps”. “The App Store offered 957,390 gaming apps. In contrast, as of that period, the store had 3.42 million non-gaming apps available.” Figures provided by Statista show that mobile app popularity is widespread around the world. Try to confront millions of mobile applications available on the market, what makes customers focus on your business application? It is nothing but an eye-catching interface that attracts the attention of online customers. UI / UX design plays an important role in “winning hearts” with customers to bring business efficiency in the digital era. With a large customer density worldwide, online transactions, and current consumption behaviors entirely through the internet, it is not difficult for businesses to penetrate deeply into their target groups. The rest is how to design applications that are really eye-catching and useful for customers to trust in using and replicating their smart consumption.

Why do we need to follow Mobile Design Trends?

With the growing trend of modern society, not only with other industries but also the IT industry in general and Mobile app design in particular, designers should fully update current trends and fully apply them effectively, there is always a need to innovate and upgrade to match the growing and progressive needs of the society. Either you will follow the trends or you will lead the way for your own trending.

TOP 9 Mobile App UX / UI Design Trends in 2021 

1. Neumorphic Design (3D elements)

3D elements always bring a sense of authenticity and excitement to the user. Taking advantage of that strength, Neumorphic has revamped the buttons and graphical interface experiences of the 2010s, making them more dynamic and multidimensional, bringing a transformation to the 2020s to come, together. a concept of using real-life imagery, but with new and improved 3D-like graphics. This method is called “neumorphic”, short for “new skeuomorphism”. Neumorphic often uses flat icons and buttons and gives them a lush makeup look. It retains much of the cartoon simplicity of flat design, but with the eye-catching realism that makes it jump off the screen. Not quite as realistic, but more realistic and more tactile.

2. Dark Mode

As a brand design trend in 2020, dark mode will become the UI / UX design trend with an elegant, modern and stylish interface. Besides, when using Dark mode, users can still easily read text content even in dark environments. It reduces eye fatigue, Dark mode saves the user's device battery (which also creates a better user experience for your customers), medical conditions like photophobia enabled on a much lower level with a dark background, the defective pixels can be easily hidden. Whatever pros of this dark mode appeals to you, this is the UI trend that has dominated 2020 and will surely dominate in 2021.

3. Blend Graphics and Images

Images and graphics greatly contribute to the quality of the application or more accurately, the quality of an enterprise. Graphics depict your business vision and mission. Images put your brand on people's minds. You can create graphics with augmented reality and combine them with high-definition images. When you combine motion graphics and images in your app's UI, the design becomes the perfect tool. The app design shouldn't be just beautiful, it should be a joy to use also. App designers are sensing users' desire for a more comfortable viewing experience, reducing eye strain, creating comprehensive, easy-to-reach designs that combine soft colors and easy-to-see images. These app designs use images with soft colors, natural graphics, and a simple layout that doesn't overwhelm the user, allowing them to look at the screen for longer without discomfort.

4. Content Focus Design 

Content focus design does not mean that app designers focus on cumbersome introductory lines, multi-character titles, or other content in the interface, but designers focus on meaningful content. They build a space where everything related to UX / UI app design trends provides information creatively. Content managers and designers combine to create a design that includes readable fonts, attractive formats, a responsive context menu, and a mix of fonts and sizes screen diversity. And the best part is, as users get more and more immersed in the app's content, the deeper it gets and builds their loyalty to engagement.

5. Disabled-People-Friendly Design 

When a certain threshold of customer satisfaction is reached, developers will expand to other potential audiences such as people with disabilities, vision impairments, and the hearing impaired thanks to advanced technologies. This is a groundbreaking and highly humanistic design that aims to bridge the gap between the normal person and the disabled. With this design, the screen of the blind app comes with low light levels and high levels of voice control. Designers can adjust some features in app design to make it disabled-friendly while ensuring full functionality of an app, including subtitles in videos, simple navigation, gesture control, voice assist. And as people get used to talking technology, voice-based search becomes more important not only for people with disabilities but also for those who are always busy getting to their phones.

6. Product Presentation 

The main purpose of every business is to bring quality products to customers that are profitable, so this Product presentation design directly strikes the mind of the customer by displaying a wide range of products scientifically, stimulating curiosity and excitement when customers click on product categories. The designers create a variety of images and words to tell a story and capture the curiosity of potential customers as well as increase credibility with their current customers.

7. Soft Shadows, Layers, Floating Design

Outdated 2D images and flat text. One way to achieve a strong depth effect common in application design today is through techniques like shading and layering. When we talk about user interface design and user experience design, it is important that users get an interesting experience. What started in the gaming world is now reaching mobile apps and even web development. With the advent of 3D effects, adding soft shadows, layers and floating designs will make your app designs look vibrant and attractive. User experience can become more engaging and informative. While these effects can more or less affect application performance, it is still chosen by most UX / UI designers for its aesthetics and trends.

8. FreeHand / Hand Drawn Elements

When we have access to too many digital gadgets, accidentally sketchy hand-drawn strokes on the application bring a sense of enjoyment and natural feeling to the user. This design aims to bring intimacy and friendliness to the user while ensuring modern features and preeminent utilities like other applications. This is also a factor worth considering when trying to attract customers' efforts.

9. Engaging swiping experiences 

One of the advantages of mobile devices compared to desktop computers is direct touch and swipe operations on the device's screen. While clicking is quick and easy, swiping offers a more direct and modern interaction. App design trends in 2021 encourage that advantage by making swiping more fun, engaging, and lifelike. This can be as basic as adding animations to your swipes to give the user a “page turn” experience, or a sound effect when swiping the screen, … for greater satisfaction or something more deeply rooted in the application's functionality to streamline user tasks.

Future of UI / UX design 

We cannot deny the current speed of economic development and the application of Science & Technology in each field today. The future of the Information Technology industry as well as the future of UI / UX design will also evolve to meet the rapidly growing needs of modern society. App design trends all followed the common goal of making using the app more comfortable, engaging, and enjoyable. Applications are not merely tools anymore, they are evolving into companions, attached to and playing an important role in automation, digitization and re-setting capabilities in the near future.

What makes a good mobile app design? 

An application to be called a good mobile app design will depend on the industry, business sector, business size and target customers,… but they must ensure and target the following important criteria: 

• Easy navigation, simple operation; 
• Minimalistic but delicate and harmonious design; 
• Friendly sound effects, images, graphics; 
• Responsiveness and high load speed; 

And above all, using user experience as a guideline to upgrade and perfect the application better and better. That's why Groove Technology doesn't limit to any interactive model or process – we focus on flexibility and adaptability to suit each business, and always try to be proactive in interactions with customers throughout the software development process, to create the right products, to meet the needs of the market so that companies become popular among consumers and easily expand boundaries business world.

Conclusion 

Above we have listed the top 10 Mobile app UX / UI design trends in 2021, but some other trends also have reasonable scope, for example, Voice Control, Immersion through VR and AR, Transparent Elements, Face ID, … Despite having different characteristics, in general, these design trends are not limited to bringing out superior aesthetics. In fact, it optimizes the user experience and the performance of your brand. Currently, from start-ups, SMBs, to large corporations, there is a continuous development of mobile applications on utility portals. It is hardly difficult to come across applications with sophisticated, intuitive designs that bring positive business effects, so the last difficulty of the business is how to find a developer with all-powerful application, reputable enough to support the construction and design of a trending application to keep pace with the times. At Groove Technology, we have a team of innovative, enthusiastic software engineers, experts, with modern, leading, high-performance technology solutions, and our advanced software development services can help your enterprise optimize resources, budgets and distribution to allow you to maintain your advantage in the digital transformation era.