2019 for UX
Within these last years User Experience (UX) has become one of the main drivers that help businesses succeed. According to the McKinsey Design Index (MDI) those companies who employed the proper UX procedures also saw an improvement in their financial position. So what does 2019 hold for UX?
Stories
As users are now expecting satisfactory user experience the question has shifted and morphed from one of expectation to one of quality. Rather than merely being user-friendly we need to tell stories. One of the 2019 trends will be storytelling within our apps and our websites. Stories have engaged us since we were little kids and keep doing so throughout our life. The UX challenge is to achieve a similar level of engagement whilst delivering on the premise of the app itself.
Voice
With the level of ubiquity reached by computing today UX designers need to be aware that more often than not the device available to our users might not even include a screen. These last couple of years have seen a considerable rise in smart speakers (well smart everything really…) which give us another extremely interesting way of connecting and providing a great user experience to our users, one made up by voice. Truth be told these devices are still in their infancy and need to mature but companies such as Amazon with Alexa, Google with their voice assistant and Apple with Siri are showing that they care about this mode of interaction and so should we.
Connecting everything together
Reality is that we are using more and more connected devices. With the Internet of Things (IoT) everything is receiving an online address. With this in mind one of the main trends to keep in mind for 2019 is how to enable communication with your brand across such a plethora of devices. Delivering a coherent story through the intelligent integration of different devices as users move around in their busy 2019 lives.
Steven Camilleri teaches Designing & Developing Websites, a unit which students can take either as a stand-alone Professional course or as a module within the Pathway to a Computer.
STC Training, a leading Business and ICT Training Facility in Malta, currently offers state-of-the-art training facilities and curricula to hundreds of Maltese students in partnership with world leaders such as Middlesex University, NCC Education, Cisco, Microsoft and Red Hat Linux. STC Training is now an important local hub for people who are seriously contemplating a professional career in Information Management, Systems, Technology and business.
