It goes without saying that the days when trends could be measured in decades are gone. The pace of change has managed to accelerate tenfold and failing to keep up will only leave you lacking. As a reputable product design agency, we strive at being not only being professional but also relevant.
The successful products of today, regardless of their nature, need to differentiate more than ever.
Consumers are increasingly hungry for new technology but also for products which are more responsible. It’s obvious to anyone that the debate over climate change is soaring to a height and this will inevitably have its toll on product design.
On another front, we can see the emerging of new, contemporary and complex technology, seeking interoperability, as well as interconnectivity between different smart devices. The Internet of Things (IoT) is catching up to speed, causing designers to adjust and adapt.
With this said, we take a look at six of the trends that we believe will shape up the landscape of product design in 2019.
Product Design Trend #1 UX Will Matter More
Agile user experience was definitely one of 2018 hot topics, but we are positive that this year will also see a lot of it. Moreover, we believe that UX design will become a lot more developed and leaner.
It’s evident that UX is becoming a lot more personalized, simpler, and smarter. We’re also observing the rapid adoption of biometric authentications, in-app gestures, voice-based interfaces, and whatnot.
AR and VR are also becoming increasingly hot. They are changing user experience in a range of different ways and it’s important for any product designer to keep them well in mind.
With this in mind, we advise taking a look at some of the best UX design principles and best practices in order to stay sharp and stay relevant.
Product Design Trend #2 Modularity Will Become a Norm
One thing we’ve observed in the past couple of years is that modularity and smart design are almost going hand in hand.
A great analogy to use here is architecture. Modern-day architects have switched their focus toward the development of efficient, versatile, and sustainable spaces. The same thing applies to product design.
The need for seamless integration of various products is growing and the designers of tomorrow will undoubtedly have to have the principles of modularity incorporated.
Product Design Trend #3 Multi-Functional
There’s a growing trend in the minimalism movement: people are now more than ever inspired to do more with less.
Minimalism applies for the best practices for creating a B2B website and to a ton of other areas of product design. But why?
Well, consumers are becoming more driven to buy fewer items and to expect more performance from them. That’s natural.
This is the main reason for which you ought to ensure that your product design practices follow the trend of being multi-functional. It has begun to take place already, but we believe that it will continue to be a force to reckon with in the year to come as well.
Product Design Trend #4 Retro Shades Staging a Comeback
While it’s true that we all seem to urge for more and more advanced technology, as well as futuristic user experience, it also seems that our aesthetic needs will always tilt back to something we’re familiar with.
You know that feeling that you get when you’re a thousand miles away from home and all you can picture is your cozy sofa and home atmosphere?
In product design, that’s expressed mainly through retro shades. We can also see that the colors which were popular in the 60s and the 70s are coming back big time! These are most commonly hues of bronze, brown, gold, silver, grey, bordeaux, and so forth.
We’ve also discussed this being a hot trend in illustrations for 2019 as well.
Product Design Trend $5 We’re Going Green
We’ve intentionally started this article with the matter of climate change. It’s here and it’s here to stay. The simple fact is that our Earth isn’t getting any bigger.
On the other hand, we keep producing plastic, unsustainable products, and pretty much everything that’s simply destroying our beloved homeland.
This is growing painful and people are starting to pick up. Hence, we believe that sustainable, or green design is going to be a particularly important trend to follow in 2019.
People are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental issues and that’s one of the things which will catalyze this trend.
Product Design Trend #6 Product Design for the Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (IoT) is something you’ve probably heard on at least a few occasions throughout the past few months.
It basically predicates that smart devices will be able to communicate with each other over the internet.
Imagine this — you wake up with an alarm on your smartphone. What’s the first thing you’d do? Brew a hot cup of coffee, of course. So wouldn’t it be plainly awesome for your phone to tell your coffee maker to prepare it for you right off the bat?
That’s what IoT is all about and it will become even more prominent in 2019. Hence, product designers will most definitely need to keep it in mind when shaping up their objects of tomorrow.
Conclusion
We expect that the above will be at least some of the hot trends in product design in 2019. Besides that, we’ve also prepared a list of 10 essential tips for product designers that you might want to take a look at.
If you’d like to find out more about our work, feel free to check our product design portfolio.