#50 The Top 5 Design Trends for 2024
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Hello friends and future lovers! Welcome to a new podcast episode and also happy new year to all of you. I hope you had a wonderful start into the new year 2024. 2023 has been an... how can we describe it? Let's say an interesting year but definitely not the best year for the design industry.

So what is coming this year, this new year? And this is what we will cover in this podcast episode. We are going to talk about five big trends for this year. I am also going to share opportunities that are coming with this trend and what you should do, how you should prepare yourself for the trend that is coming.

But first of all, welcome! My name is Patricia. I'm a UX and Innovation Designer based in Zurich, Switzerland. I currently moved to Switzerland, so I'm no longer based in Berlin.

I am your host for this podcast. I am sharing insights all around the future tech, the design industry to keep you up to date with everything that's going on. And I would say let's dive right in and get started with the very first trend. And this is a very obvious one. The first trend is automation and AI's impact on design.

AI is 100% streamlining and reducing the need for traditional design roles. And there it really gets interesting. So when we look back on last year, generative AI, large language models,

are still revolutionizing the design landscape within corporations. And these technologies are creating pathways for streamlining design processes and removing manual tasks, which is amazing. And the shift is enhancing designers' productivity and introducing new capabilities, what we've all tried out and experienced with this year.

But I also need to say that it points towards a future with potentially smaller design teams. When SAI takes on more of the workload, of course, there will be some work we focus at some point, right?

So AI's integration into, I would say, self-service design platforms like Wix, Squarespace, Canva, Adobe, and Bato, it's transforming the field because now a lot of users or a lot of clients can now design their own web pages, for example, right? And even those with minimal design experiences can create sophisticated design using the

simple text prompts, I would say, reducing the demand for a super skilled designer in certain sectors. So what we are seeing is AI is on the one hand supporting us designers, helping us remove the repetitive tasks, adds new skills to our skill sets, but on the other hand,

it leads to smaller design teams for sure and also to a redefinition of the designer's role. What we can say is that the role of designers is undergoing a profound transformation. It started last year and it's still going on this year. I would say, while some are definitely mastering AI from engineering and diving into AI, this is absolutely amazing.

Others are not so much focusing on AI and I'm a little bit worried about especially these people getting left behind at some point. AI is rapidly moving beyond being a tool to an omnipresent force in our devices. It will be included everywhere. So for us as designers, it's so important to understand what is going on there and also understand what is happening, right?

So what are some of the implications? What I think is really interesting is when we have a look at the design tools that we are using, like Figma, for example. So the traditional role of designers as I would call it like intermediaries in the design process is changing. A lot of the design tools, Figma is one of them and similar platforms the same, are expected to really

you have to cater to a broader audience extending beyond professional designers to an organizational member. So what we're seeing is that a lot of people are able now to design their own interfaces, their own devices using the AI tools that are integrated in those design softwares, right? And now with also code integration in those tools, yeah, the role of designers is definitely changing.

So what are some interesting opportunities? I would say the future definitely holds some opportunities in a lot of different areas. The first when it comes to automation is, of course, understanding AI, diving deep into AI, understanding the technology, understanding AI tools and implementing these tools in their own workflow to not get left behind because it's a super fast paced world.

The second thing, the second opportunity is to dive more into strategic roles, which is research, which is UX strategy, conceptual design, design thinking, visionary thinking.

So designers really must identify and leverage these applications for emerging technologies with the Apple Vision Pro, augmented reality coming with multi-model AI agents. So there's a lot going on and what the industry still needs are people who have the strategic approach. So what can you do to prepare yourself for the future?

I would say to remain relevant, you should focus on strategic design thinking and really understanding the reason behind a design decision. This sounds a little bit abstract, but this is what will definitely keeps you on the forefront of the design community.

And the second thing is definitely learn about AI, generative AI tools that are beneficial for your workflows and understand the technologies that's coming with AI.

So I feel designers can definitely navigate this evolving landscape, but there is a huge need to adapt and to innovate, of course, also to innovate their own roles and responsibilities and skills. So the traditional design skills are changing with the AI driven capabilities and will define the success of designers this new era. And one thing that I just want to add is

In two weeks, the AI for a Designer course is opening its doors. So if you are interested in generative AI, if you really want to start the year strong, learn about AI, how to integrate AI in your own workflows, learn the background knowledge to understand what is actually going on there, you can...

Simply sign up to the waiting list and then you will get informed when the course goes live and then you can hopefully join us. The next cohort starts in two weeks and I would absolutely love to have you in the cohort, see you, spend the five intensive weeks together with you where we learn about the course framework, which is Discover, Apply, Connect. First, we discover the tools, the technology and we apply it

And in the last phase, we are connecting it to the design industry, to the world, to the future that we are heading into. So I linked the waiting list in the show notes. You're free to just sign up. Also, the people who are on the waiting list get a special bonus in case they are signing up. Okay, so I would say let's move to the second super important trend. And 2023 has made that already pretty visible.

because it's super big trend variables the new frontier in tech and design this is a big shift from phones to wearable tech i would say we are moving from carrying smartphones everywhere to wearing smart devices people are a little bit sick of checking their phone constantly

So when we are looking back at the year 2023, we are seeing the Apple Vision Pro that has been announced from Apple and mixed reality glasses. We are seeing several companies who published smart glasses, right? Like glasses that consumers could wear and have an interface on the glass. We have the AI Pin, a company, or Humane, a company founded by two former Apple employees.

announced the AI pin that you can just like basically pin on your jacket device with a camera, with a smart speaker and of course AI integration. So you basically use your voice just to interact, to communicate with this tool. So pretty interesting direction where this is going.

So what designers really need to do? I would say: Think small and smart. For designers, this is a whole new playground. And instead of designing for big screens, it's about making tiny interfaces on things like glasses, watches or even jewelry. And this is super interesting. These designs need to be super interactive and easy to use while someone's on the move.

And also for us, very important to think a little bit beyond the phone, beyond your mobile devices and beyond your web pages that you are designing. So things are changing slightly and we are already seeing the direction and at where things are heading.

So what are some interesting opportunities? I would say making everyday life much more interesting with variables. There's so much designers can do with variables. They can create experiences that make daily tasks easier and more fun. Thinking about designing a watch face that helps track your fitness goals or smart glass give you directions without looking at a phone.

or helping you choose the right meal that is the healthiest, that works with your diet. All these things that are much more like knitted into our actual life. When you compare that to opening your phone, unlocking it, looking for the app that you need, typing something in, getting the results, then get distracted, checking Instagram or Facebook. So we're already seeing an interesting direction. So how can you get ready for this trend?

I would say designers should really start learning how to create for these small interactive gadgets. This means understanding how people interact with variables and how AI can make these experiences better. Keeping up with the latest trends and variable tech will be key for sure. And to summarize that a little bit, variable technologies is not just a cool new gadget.

No, it's a shift in how we interact with the digital world. So for designers, it's a chance to redefine what technology looks like in our daily lives. So very interesting and futuristic topic. Okay, let's move to trend number three, which is trust. I would say the new oil in the age of deep fakes and deception is

is trust. Trust is so important. So navigating truth in a world full of illusions. In today's digital age and especially in an era of AI, spotting the truth is becoming harder and harder.

People are increasingly falling victims to scams, deceptive websites, ads and more. And digital products are evolving rapidly, creating opportunities for dishonest practices and misleading patterns to spread any wrong information. And the question is, how much longer will users tolerate this? Some of you might remember the new...

AI model from Google, Google Gemini. I also shared that in my newsletter. In case you haven't signed up to my newsletter, I also will link it in the show notes for free to sign up. You will get the most new insights in this newsletter. I am sending it out each Friday with some tech updates, with some amazing resources. So definitely sign up if you haven't. And in this newsletter, I shared the AI model called Gemini from Google.

They announced it, I think it was around three, four weeks ago. The video they shared went viral because it was a super impressive video. They basically showed a prototype, well not a prototype, it was the actual AI model in action, which was also able to anticipate what the user wanted to do.

So for example, you had three cups and one ball and the user put one ball underneath one of those cups and then I think like we changed the position a little bit and the AI model said, hey, you probably want me to guess where the ball is underneath those cups. Anyway, long story short, the video was amazing. A lot of people were impressed. I also was really impressed.

But unfortunately, it came out that the video was faked. So not everything was how it's supposed to look like. They kind of tweaked and faked it a little bit. So the video they showed was not an actual video like a prototype, but it was like different scenarios that were basically edited together. Yeah, I mean, people were shocked and disappointed when they saw that because it

situations like these destroy the trust also from big companies like google and i think this is the worst thing that you can do tell your customers or people who are hyping you or like share this information with the people and kind of like disillusionize them in into something that's just not real so this is a problem but there's also a problem that is basically everywhere

Now with AI, everyone is suddenly capable of preparing a whole fake life around them, a whole fake story, deep fakes. Maybe some of you have seen the video that I shared on Instagram where I could just like upload a tiny video of myself.

And then made myself speak in different languages, Chinese, Spanish, English, and all with my voice. It sounds amazing, very, as a very realistic. I would say generally the design community has long been fighting against deceptive design patterns, dark patterns, for example, dark design patterns.

like tricky paywalls or complicated subscription cancellations, you know, what we call dark patterns, basically.

Social networks are amplifying harmful voices without really facing the consequences from spreading hate speech to fostering conspiracies, theories, what we are seeing on some of these social media platforms. And these issues show how our digital environment is also changing, which were meant to make life easier, is now putting users at risk. And seeing that also helps us to understand why

our user much better, right? Like what's going on there and how digital products must be structured. What does this mean for us designers? I would say upholding user trust. Designers are increasingly facing the challenge of maintaining user trust. When we confront the effects of loneliness, depression and other social issues,

On to our digital products, the role of designers is really advocating for safety, privacy and ethical practices. And this becomes crucial.

I'm seeing some opportunities, especially when it comes to the ethical design. Designers have the opportunity to lead change by addressing these deep rooted issues within an organization. They can shift the focus from merely creating visually appealing interfaces to really tackling governance problems and advocating for systematic changes that prioritize user well-being. So

You can prepare by staying informed and educated. Designers need to stay ahead of that curve, especially as emerging technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, AI introduce even more complexities. And this should actively engage with the latest technologies.

legal and societal developments to make informed design choices that prioritize human welfare over profit. Easier said than done, I know. So in summary, trust is becoming an increasingly valuable asset in the digital space.

And designers play a pivotal role in building and maintaining this trust by promoting ethical practices and prioritizing user needs in their design decision. Also, with AI, more data and easier access to data analysis, A/B testing is a thing that unfortunately for many companies is the only way to choose a design direction.

And A-B testing is not always the best way to really choose a good way for the user, for a company, for a brand. Because most of the times, although the bad decisions like dark patterns on the paper, they look great, right? Because like the business goals, the KPIs change.

are usually much better with these dark patterns. But you can, it's unportable to measure everything. And this is super important when it comes to that topic. Okay, so I would say let's move to topic number four. And this is sustainability and eco-friendly design. There is a necessity of making sustainability practical.

So, it's about emphasizing practical sustainability and design. There is a push for sustainability and design, which is more critical than ever, especially at the world's largest companies' aim for aggressive 2030 net zero targets. There is a challenge in making sustainability a sustainable practice itself.

Often initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are a sideline when they become too costly and don't show immediate financial benefits. And this reluctance to invest in sustainability, even in the face of necessary changes, highlights a significant gap in current approaches. So the reality of sustainable efforts. Yeah.

Many large corporations have made little progress in reducing their impact on global warming since 2018. And the challenges are multi-formatting energy grids to accommodate renewed sources, to finding alternative materials for batteries or solar cells.

Designers can definitely contribute to transforming energy grids, developing eco-friendly materials for tech products and enhancing transparency in carbon trading markets. How can you prepare yourself? First of all, educate yourself on the complexities of sustainable practices in the corporate world. Also had a podcast episode about sustainability and design. I will link it in the show notes, so please check it out.

So I would say understanding the balance between environmental impact and business feasibility is key here. And you might ask, okay, sustainability and UX design, it's a little bit difficult to match, but UX aligns perfectly with sustainable practices. For example,

a user-centric approach to sustainability. Really incorporating sustainability into UX means understanding and also addressing the user's environmental concerns within the design project. This is a topic, for instance, UX for an app might include features that help users track and reduce their carbon footprint. Just like some ideas, right? Or for a product, it could mean ensuring the user's interface promotes energy saving modes, things like that.

or educating and influencing user behavior, UX designers have the opportunity to educate users as well about sustainability through their designs. And by incorporating elements that inform users about environmental impact and offering sustainable choices, designers can influence user behavior towards more eco-friendly or eco-conscious decisions. And those are just like a few examples, right? There are even more.

But like summarize that sustainability will be an important topic also for a company. And I feel if we as designers have the knowledge and the insights on how to implement sustainability, we are becoming much more a thought leader also in our company to talk about these topics and drive these topics. And I think this is super important. Just wanted to emphasize that.

Okay, let's move to topic number five and this kind of aligns perfectly with what I just said earlier. We need more business focus in design. We need to focus design and business and strategic thinking. We all know design isn't just about making things look good anymore because AI can do that for us. Now we need to focus much more on the business side.

Companies want designers who don't just create pretty things, but who also understand the business goals. This means designers need to think about how their designs can make a business better, like attracting more customers or making a product easier to use. This means for us as designers becoming business smart.

So designers need to start thinking like business people. And it's not just about color and layout, it's about really understanding what a company wants to achieve. For example, if a business wants to sell more products, the designers need to think about how their design can help to do that. Maybe it's making a website easier to navigate or creating an ad that really grabs attention. And the designer has a super interesting skill set.

Because the designer also understands the user and the user will always stay the same, right? Like wherever we are in which era, there's always human being with like certain desires and problems. And the designer really understands what the user wants. And this is a very unique, interesting skill, I would say. Or skill is probably not the right word, but maybe you know what I mean.

And combine that with the business is super interesting. And this skill set is something that will bring you a bright future as well, if you really understand the business. So where are the opportunities? There's a big change for designers to step up into roles where they can make big decisions. And this could mean working closely with marketing teams or even leading projects where design and business goals come together.

For instance, a designer at a tech company might work on making an app that's not just like easy to use, but also encourages more people to sign up. Right. And really understands what to do, what are the right methods, the right tools. A little bit what I mentioned in the very beginning of how to behave to this new era. Right. Like how to prepare yourself for this new era of AI. Right.

So preparing yourself looks like that you really learn the language of business. So a designer should start learning about how businesses work. This could be basic stuff like how companies make money or more complex ideas even like market trends. You should also practice talking about their design work in a way that shows how it helps the business. When you present your designs,

Don't only talk about the user and your design decision, but also about the business. What is the impact? What are the KPIs? These things like that. For example, instead of just saying, yeah, this design looks good. I chose this color and this is the grid, this design library. You could also talk about how it could help to get more customers, more sign up, make the product stand out from competitors.

So in short, designers are becoming more important in business decisions. They are not just making things look nice. It's really about helping companies achieve their goals and moving more into the strategic position. This is a really big shift from traditional design roles and a great opportunity for designers to grow their career in new and exciting directions. Okay, so let's summarize the four points real quick.

Number one is the evolution of design in the age of AI, so automation basically, right? We are seeing that Gen-AI and large language models are revolutionizing the design landscape. And what designers need to do now is to really understand AI, the data, what is going on with Gen-AI, how can I actually use that to support my design workflows, and how can I get my mindset more in those strategic directions.

Number two are wearables from phones to wearable tech. We're seeing that with the Apple Vision Pro, with a lot of smart glasses, with the AI pin. This is super interesting trend for this year. Number three is trust. Trust very important for companies thinking about dark patterns, about deep fakes. So trust is a super important topic and we as designers are at the forefront when it comes to building trust.

Number four is sustainability and making sustainability sustainable again, making it easier for people to make the right decision and also helping companies to invest in sustainability.

And number five is the business topic. So the better, the more designers are able to understand business needs, to speak business language and to combine business with user needs, the better. And the easier it is also to step up into business positions. Okay, so a super exciting year ahead of us, I would say.

2024 will be very interesting. I hope these five trends were interesting and helpful to you. Feel free to give this podcast a rating. I am always happy about a five-star review. So in case this was helpful to you, I would definitely appreciate a rating. It helps the podcast grow. This helps me to work on it, to share the learnings each week.

And besides that, I wish you a wonderful new year full of success and happiness. Only the best for you. And yes, I would say thank you so much for listening and hear you in the future.