UX/UI design trends of 2024

In 2024 we will see many new design trends that can be used for apps, websites, and even graphic design. Many of these design trends were created by companies like Apple and Microsoft and are now being widely used many many UX/UI designers.

Spatial UX/UI Design - Apple Vision Pro, Oculus VR, etc.

Spatial UX/UI design has become very important ever since the Apple Vision Pro was announced. Other companies like Meta and Microsoft are investing billions of dollars in the same industry. As the AR/VR industry grows, so is the demand for designers in the space.

AR/VR design, also called spatial design, comes with a lot of new changes to the UI designs we all make for phones and laptops. Since you are designing for a new 3'rd dimension, there are a lot of new things to explore. Even the way we interact with hand gestures and finger gestures makes the interaction very unique. UI designs on AR/VR headsets are very animated, have special grids, and are focused on usability and accessibility.

Here are some resources you can learn more from:

• New principals for spatial design - Apple's Spatial Design principals

• Microsoft's AR/VR/MR design course - Microsoft learn

• Vision OS UI kit - Figma UI Kit

Bento Grids For UI Design

Bento grids are based on the popular food boxes from Japan called - "Bento Boxes". The concept splits various features and images into unique grids and layouts with creative assets and graphics (like the one shown above).

The Bento Grid was truly made famous when Apple started using Bento Grids everywhere on their websites, posters, and even commercials. Every grid block has a large and bold image with an apt title defining that image. This also helps brands easily display a lot of information in a small section/area. These Bento Grids can be made interactive with hover animations and 3D styles.

These Bento Grids can really stretch a designer's creativity. There are truly no boundaries to what you can do with Bento Grids.

Some cool resources for Bento Grids:

• Bento Grids inspiration - https://bentogrids.com/

• Bento UI kit - Figma UI kit

3D & Neumorphic Designs

A lot more websites and brands are shifting their focus from flat design to 3D designs. A big examples of this is the Reddit redesign that they recently launched, with brand new 3D logos, illustrations, and graphics. (Shown below)

This trend becomes very accessible since a lot of new 3D design tools have been launched in the market. One such design tool is Spline, which allows non-3D designers to easily create 3D graphics in just a few clicks. You can then further embed these designs to your live websites or export 3D objects.

More Animations Everywhere!

Animations are very cool and add a lot of delight to any experience. With new web technologies and animation tools, it has become easier to add animations to any design. These vary from scroll animations (when events happen when a user scrolls down) all the way to celebration animations whenever we order food online.

As the tech world keeps progressing and competition grows, websites and apps need to add more animations into their platforms to stand out and make things more interesting.