Luke Priest Magazine

The future is
Near
13 design predictions for 2017
1. Failure mapping
Journey-maps and user flows are the bread
and butter of UX design — they provide the
basic framework for understanding user
touchpoints across the full cycle of interactions
with your product or service. Over half the
world’s population will be online by 2017,
and the enormous influx of new users will
bring about a disproportionate amount of
digital-novices, such as the elderly and the
Global South, who we’ll need to specially
design for. Similar to journey-mapping, the
practice of failure-mapping will allow UX
designers to better understand, anticipate,
and model non-ideal scenarios, allowing us to
better handle incorrect usage of products and
services.
2. micro-mini interactions
The internet was abuzz with talk of
microinteractions in 2015—a term which
refers to single task-based interactions with
a product, like setting an alarm, liking a
comment, or pressing a login button. Every
time we open Facebook or visit LinkedIn, we
are subconsciously engaging in dozens of
microinteractions—many invisible, too small
to even notice.
Micro-mini interactions are fast on their way
to everyday use, the implications of which are
tremendous in scope. Firstly, the ways that we
as users and consumers experience devices
will change greatly; every touch, scroll, pinch,
zoom, tap, click and so on will be rich
with unique animations and feedback –
attention devoted to the most minute of
interactions will create far more engaging
experiences for us all. Likewise, designers
will find new ways to capitalize on newfound
user-engagement, both in terms of designing
new features around these “interactions
within interactions”, as well as devising
new interfaces for the abundance of new
interactions that the apps of tomorrow will
bring!
3. proliferation of
weather apps
For better or worse, weather is an integral part
of our world. It impacts our every experience,
however subtle, and is thus an omnipresent
variable in the way we experience everything
else in our lives – including the apps on our
phones. Rain or shine, we take great delight in
tracking its course and planning accordingly.
While weather patterns of the past have
remained fairly consistent, mitigating the need
for constant, synchronous weather tracking,
the dramatic climate shifts of the near-future
will bring about extreme environmental
conditions that necessitate the need for ever
more vigilant weather tracking.
2015 was a record year for weather apps, but
the demand for them will only continue to
skyrocket.
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