7 Latest Trends in Mobile UI – Be Bold, Be Accessible

BOLD Elements

The latest aesthetic trend is to be bold. Strong graphics and strong colours attract and maintain interest. Be bold, but also be minimalistic.

Figure 1

Large Pictures

Visuals. Users are moving towards visual content (think Pinterest, tumblr), so the demand for large, good quality pictures are on the rise. This is made possible with the development of increasingly higher resolution screens of newer Apple and other smartphone devices. Figure 1 shows how important large, good quality photos are to an app’s first impression.

Blocks of Colour

Always think bold. Figure 1 shows how bold colours can not only make content visually pleasing, but how it can be an organizational tool as well.

Figure 2

Flat Shapes/Icons

Current trends favour simplicity. Shapes and icons are solid in colour, and within an icon, as few colours as possible are used. Figure 2 shows white icons on maroon circles (2 colours, simple shapes).

Organization

With a move towards simplicity and a demand for more content, organization becomes tricky. Here are some recent methods.

Alternating Sides

Figure 2 is a great illustration of alternating the alignment of mobile content. That is, the first item is aligned to the left, the second aligned to the right, the third to the left, and so forth. It breaks up the content and makes it look more interesting at a glance.

Grid-View

The trend towards visuals provides a great opportunity to be creative with arranging thumbnails. Figure 1 shows the grid-view method (Pulse, Brit+Co, for instance).

Functionality

Mobile means small screen real-estate. Functionality as well as aesthetics is still as important as ever.

Scroll-to-Load

Apps are opting to use the scroll-to-load model, as opposed to linking to a multitude of pages. That is, you don’t click to load more content, it loads as you scroll down. Examples include tumblr, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Figure 3

Pop-up Scrollable Drop-downs

An elegant solution to solving the problem of lengthy menus on a small screen is to have a menu of determined size pop-up. Within the menu, its contents can scroll upon a swipe gesture.