The first article I read was titled ‘The Evolution of UI/UX Designers Into Product Designers’. This article talks about how design has become the most important feature of creating a great product and how the term product has changed to be used in relation to digital products as well as physical products. The article then goes on to talk about the definitions of UI (how the product looks) and UX (how the product feels) . Then it talks about the term product designer, this paragraph goes into how a product designer is involved with the creation of the look and feel of a whole product and combines the design of UI and UX together. Many product designers think of themselves as ‘designers who design experiences’. The article also talks about how the term ‘product designer’ is used differently within companies however the general definition is a person who works to hit a user’s needs. This article was useful to read as it showed me more about the history of this industry and about terms used and how this relates to the current uses. It was really interesting to read about how design has become such an important feature in creating products.
The next article I looked at was called ‘UI/UX Design Trends for 2020’ . This article contains 20 predicted design trends for design within the coming year. The ones that stood out to me the most were ‘asymmetry & split screen’ . This part of the article talks about how with a lot of wide screen desktop displays in use the idea of blocks and split screens is a good use of space and helps combat things being too minimal. It also talks about how asymmetry, although not mainstream, can be visually appealing. Another section talked about ‘low-key gradients’. It talks about how less is more in modern design and subtlety in colours adds to the simplification of design. Softer gradients are predicted to be more popular as despite adding colour they still make things look less harsh. Another expected design trend is ‘harmonious colours’. This is talking about how colour palettes are expected to be more natural and toned down compared to previous years. It also talks about how that doesn’t mean that all colours should be the same palette just more uniform and less bold. It also suggests how a bright, sudden out of place colour within this harmonious scheme could help express meaning better within a design as it would stand out. This article was really interesting as a lot of the trends happened to be things that I was noticing in designs in my own time and aesthetics that i really liked. There were some trends that I did not know about that were really nice and things that I will further look into in my own time. The colour scheme trends are really interesting and cool to see evolve,I really like the idea of a harmonious colour scheme with one standout colour and may carry this forward into my design of the iHull app as it may help get important information across effectively to the users.