The term ‘user experience’ is increasingly on the rise, as is the career of a user experience designer, who thinks and designs these valuable experiences. The trends in UX Design for 2022 show that professionals in this sector need to prepare for changes both in the technology field and in relation to the behavior of the analyzed public. In this blog, you will discover 6 UX trends for 2022.
1. Artificial Intelligence Applied to User Experience Research
2020 was a challenging year for user experience designers, after all, these professionals were used to conducting surveys with users in person and this practice became impossible in isolation. The pandemic scenario forced adaptation and boosted the use of artificial intelligence as an ally of the UX Research teams. According to experts, this is a UX Design trend that will continue into 2022.
Artificial intelligence in itself is no longer a trend, but its use is much more focused on the product area. Several products use machine learning, but how can we use this for research? If we are in need of more sources, and more databases to make strategic decisions beyond research, we have been using artificial intelligence. To make this union work and ensure more robust findings, it is important to use data collected with artificial intelligence such as the mouth of the funnel.
UX research is a funnel, so you start with a lot of data and then taper until you find specific behavioral things that will generate the insights. We started to use the data collected with AI as a first step. So everything that we learn with artificial intelligence modeling about user behavior, which is the clusters, we took that and we are doing a discovery project based on AI.
We are also able to engage AI in usability tests, doing facial recognition of people’s emotions and, with that, have insights. We can also use it for transcribing interviews, avoiding the time we spend dividing by clusters and tagging. The machines will be able to help in this kind of thing because the interview is a lot about people understanding people and we can use AI to make better decisions.
One more tip is not to ignore the many possibilities that artificial intelligence can offer to those involved in UX Research, even after the end of the pandemic. Especially in companies that already have an area focused on AI that can support, the use of intelligent technology will favor even the updating of personas in the future, making this process automated.
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2. Multidisciplinary Holistic Research Teams
Another UX Design trend for 2022, is the formation of multidisciplinary research teams in companies. Currently, it is common for UX research to be focused on the validation stage, however, carrying out research with a holistic view is strategic for a broad understanding of the business and users.
I see it as a trend that the validation research is increasing with the Product Management team, as they are closer to the solution, while the research part is more transversal and holistic, understanding that it is the user, who is in the market, what are people’s pains.”
In this way, the Research team not only includes user experience designers, but also data science professionals and market researchers. This can result in creating a unique research team with a single source of user data to inform strategic decision-makers, regardless of area. It sounds cliché but in most companies, it still doesn’t happen. So how to do this? Bring everyone who has knowledge about the user to the research team.
3. Integration of Brand & Design
Another trend for 2022 is the approach of the Brand and Design teams in companies. They must work together and “speak the same language” so that the user experience is unified.
“Why speak the same language? Sometimes companies understand Brand and Design as two different things, but an analogy I make is: if you drink zero Coke and it’s bad, who are you going to blame, the product or the brand? They will blame the brand because it is so strong behind it that you forget about the product. What I have seen as a good practice is people starting to understand that being close has made a difference in the final deliverables, in other words, how the product is interacting with users.”
This relationship can happen more organically for digital products, but it can still be challenging for traditional brands.
When I start to pick up older brands, where the branding area is very much constituted within the marketing team, we don’t see this relationship so close yet. In large corporations, the branding team is a specific team and the digital products and researchers’ teams do separate work. The integration allows for a look in the same direction, which perceives both the quality of the interaction with the product and the creation of a brand environment that generates value.
That way relevant products can be created with brands in a strategic way. It’s no use if the brand is setting up the strategy to go to one point and the product team is going in another direction. We need to understand how to do this on a daily basis to marry this conversation. I cannot drop a campaign without the product being stocked to drop that campaign. I see design professionals who have embraced these ideas.”
4. Designer Outside the Design Team
Still thinking about the integration of brand as a trend for UX Design in 2022 the participation of user experience designers in different areas of the companies. Working in teams that are not design or product teams can transform the experiences of different users who are linked to a business.
The UX designer person will play the role of not only looking at the product, but the process as a whole and worrying about that point. That’s a huge versatility of our experience. What can I do in the technology team to improve its processes, or in the finance area? The designer starts to take a much larger proportion of the company because he stops delivering canvas only and starts delivering numbers.
One of the areas that have already embraced this trend in Human Resources. A lot of people don’t understand what the designer person is going to draw. The trend is for these roles to grow in other teams, with a performance that will help in understanding the persona and developing solutions.
5. Attention to the General Law on Personal Data Protection (LGPD)
Attention to legal issues in user surveys is also one of the UX Design trends for 2022. Experts are increasingly emphasizing the need to align with the General Personal Data Protection Act, which regulates the activities of the processing of personal data and has been in force in Brazil since September 2020.
The LGPD will not only affect the retail and legal of the company. If you work with user experience design, this starts to have direct interference in what we do, especially in research. We start having to talk to legal people and understand the data we are collecting when we go to investigate.
An aspect that becomes essential in this process is the consent between the parties. In addition, it is mandatory that research professionals in UX Design know in advance which data will be collected and which will be shared, in order to communicate to users before the acceptance term is signed.
We’re talking about data processing: it’s all we’re going to get from personal data, sensitive data that have to do with production, reception, classification, use, dissemination, and processing. In practice, we need to be careful, when we talk about the individual or the analysis we did, if we are allowing this person to be identified in some way in the delivery and processing of the research. This cannot happen either in general or in the research cluster – which narrows down even more and makes who the person is even more noticeable.
6. Creating A More Possible UX Market for Everyone
Another discussion in trends is how we can have a more diverse, inclusive, and accessible UX Design market in 2022. We need to take effective actions that create a favorable environment for more people to enter the market. It’s time to get out of the speech and make it possible. It’s a matter of black people, peripheral people, people who think ‘do I have to be rich to take a UX course and get the education I need? Can I take this to the periphery and other contexts?’ I say: if there are people and there are problems, why not?”
More than paying attention to these issues, we need to identify our role in this and how we can build bridges between the market and diverse groups.
The change in the way we use technology to generate contact between people during the pandemic raises the possibility of building these bridges and reaching other places. We need to take knowledge to other spaces. If we had this great opportunity to have access to information and to be working with it today, the least we can do is share it with other people, show that it’s possible, and teach. Sometimes we think we have nothing to teach, but we need to take advantage of the tools we have today to get to a place we would never get to before.
UX Design Trends for 2022 take into account the profile of the post-pandemic user: they are more experienced in the use of digital products and more demanding in relation to the experiences they seek. Preparing with a more humanized view is essential to perform well in user experience design in 2022. Code Creators Inc, is a SharePoint development company in the USA and Canada which is dealing with software development, Power BI, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, mobile apps, IT services, and more. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, and Codecreatorsinc.com
