Design trends 2024: new realities

User experience (UX) design keeps evolving as it enters the metaverse, explores and changes the design process with generative artificial intelligence (AI), and pays attention both to details and to the consequences of design choices.

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At the beginning of every year, we try to imagine what the trends in user experience will be in the months ahead. These trends are shaped by how the sector actually developed in the past year, by our own work and specialist knowledge, and by what is emerging in the network of user experience experts.

For 2024, user experience design and research will concentrate on improving people’s experience of products that bring physical and virtual reality together. They will also range from micro aspects, such as new and more engaging microinteractions, to greater attention to the wider picture of the environmental and social sustainability of the experiences we design.

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Metaverse user experience design: new frontiers of the experience

The metaverse is a system of interconnected digital worlds, in which people can interact with the virtual environment around them and with one another through avatars. As if they were in a physical world, people can manipulate objects, create, communicate, travel, take part in events and make transactions.

For several years, technologies have been developing that let us experience realities other than the physical one we have always lived in: virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality, or the more complex extended reality (XR).

These technologies are ways of entering the metaverse and they shape the experience, generating a high degree of immersion and involvement.

In practice the metaverse is still taking shape: the worlds are not yet truly interconnected. The main institutions and companies active in this field are working together in the Metaverse Standards Forum, where standards are being drawn up not only for interoperability, but also for accessibility and inclusion in the metaverse.

It is significant, though, that more and more companies are investing in the opportunities offered by the metaverse, not only in gaming, but also in retail, e-commerce and marketing.

In this context, the work of metaverse user experience designers and researchers will become essential. Specialists will be asked to design intuitive virtual environments, in which people can move and interact, and to invent new solutions that make the connection between the virtual world and the physical one more fluid and realistic.

This means designing and testing different elements, such as buttons, menus, labels, indicators and other interactive functions, that ensure accessibility and usability in the metaverse.

User experience experts will need to create a sense of immersion and presence, making the experience as realistic and satisfying as possible. They will need to design social functions that allow people to communicate and interact with one another, such as chat, icons, emoji and customisable virtual avatars.

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Generative AI design: artificial intelligence joins the user experience team

Over the past year there has been a great deal of talk about artificial intelligence, and about how its applications are influencing the evolution of different sectors.

For 2024, user experience experts will need to learn to work with generative AI in order to develop and optimise user interfaces and experiences automatically, making use of the processing power of machine learning and algorithms.

The use of generative artificial intelligence brings several advantages, which will both improve and change the process of designing the user experience, in the perspective of AI-supported user experience design.

Hyper-personalisation — Thanks to machine learning, and by accessing and processing the data that comes from a person’s interactions with the product, AI will be able to adapt the interface design and the content dynamically (AI-generated content), and to present elements differently to each person, responding more accurately to their needs and expectations in that specific moment.

More efficient user testing — Through artificial intelligence it will be possible to test prototypes before moving on to a genuine phase of user testing with real people, making this part of the user experience design process more efficient.
A generative AI system will also be able to help designers by changing the design directly on the basis of the feedback and the results recorded during the tests.

Improved accessibility — As a consequence of the ability to personalise interfaces through generative AI, it will be possible to offer more accessible products and services, creating dynamic interfaces tailored to the specific needs of each person.

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Microinteractions: details that make a difference in the user experience

Microinteractions are essential details in user experience design, and they can have a significant impact on the experience.

Examples include the scroll of a page; a loading bar; the double tap on an Instagram image to leave a “like”, followed by a heart-shaped icon as feedback; or the slight vibration of a smartphone to confirm an action or the arrival of a notification.

Microinteractions are dynamic and responsive elements that provide immediate feedback; they improve the usability of products by guiding people and preventing errors; and they help make the experience of the product or website more engaging, interesting and rewarding.

People now expect this kind of reaction when they use an interface and, for 2024, user experience and user interface (UI) designers will need to put even more emphasis on microinteractions to improve the experience, developing new and meaningful interactive elements.

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Sustainable user experience design: a responsibility for the future

The environmental question, together with social equity, has become central in public discussion. Companies can no longer ignore it if they want to remain competitive in the long term, and this means that their products and services will have to be designed in response to this new sensitivity.

When we talk about sustainable user experience design we mean an approach to designing the experience that takes into account the environmental, social and economic impact of the decisions taken in the design phase.

User experience experts will be asked to design solutions able to find a balance between people’s needs, ecological and social responsibility, and companies’ business goals.

For example, one can pay attention to energy use and adopt solutions that help reduce the carbon footprint, by choosing dark-mode interfaces or limiting video content and animations.

But the solutions cannot be limited to minimising environmental impact. As user experience designers it is possible to encourage conscientious behaviour, from an environmental and social point of view.

This means designing new functions that encourage responsible actions; improving the user experience by promoting accessibility and inclusion; and supporting informed choices, by giving people the information they need to make decisions — for example through messages, environmental impact metrics and tools for monitoring their own consumption.

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Building the future

User experience design is evolving quickly, and the trends we have discussed in this article point to the direction of change in 2024.

This year there will be particular attention to:

• designing the user experience in the metaverse, with the new challenge of usability and accessibility that comes from bringing the physical and the virtual together;
• the potential of generative AI applied to the user experience design process;
• microinteractions as essential elements of an intuitive and engaging user experience;
• the contribution of user experience design to solutions that pay attention to environmental and social questions.

2024 promises to be a year rich in opportunities for user experience design. By taking these trends into account, product designers will be able to develop new solutions that are engaging, personalised and based on data.

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