Top UI/UX Design Trends & Tools to try in 2023

If you’ve not spent a lot of time on the UI and UX of your website throughout 2022, it’s time to change that in 2023.

Did you know that a good UI can boost your website’s conversion rate by as much as 200%?

If that wasn’t enough to impress you, a good UX design can boost your conversion rate by as much as 400%! Pretty impressive, right?

In order to maximise this and ensure you’re experiencing the full benefits of UI and UX, we’re going to explain the top UI/UX design trends in 2023 and the best tools in this post.

What is UI/UX design?

A lot of people use UI and UX interchangeably. However, they’re not the same, although they are linked.

UI design

UI stands for the user interface. UI design involves the aesthetics of your website or application. This is all about visual touchpoints, such as buttons, animation, and typography.

UX design

UX stands for user experience. UX design is all about the interaction a human user has with your website. This covers every element, from the moment they find your site to contacting a customer service representative or buying a product. Every micro-moment that makes up the experience is factored in.

While UI and UX aren’t the same, they’re often spoken about in the same breath because UI design has an impact on the person’s experience.

Importance of UX and UI in a website

There are many reasons why both UI and UX are critical in a website:

• You’ll get a better understanding of your audience – UI and UX design require a thorough understanding of your audience. You’ll assess what they want and need, as well as how they use your website.
• Save time and money – Viewers will experience fewer issues with your site. This means you don’t have to spend as much time and money on upgrades.
• Raise your brand presence – People love working with brands that make them happy. This enhances your trustworthiness and credibility.
• It boosts viewer satisfaction and enhances ROI – When your website is engaging, enjoyable, and easy to use, visitors will interact with it, and they’ll leave feeling satisfied. They’ll become more loyal and recommend you to others, which naturally results in a greater ROI.

How are UX and SEO related?

You may be wondering why the likes of eCommerce homepage design best practices matter in terms of SEO. In fact, your design has a massive impact on your ranking.

UX design has a powerful and direct influence on your SEO rankings through numerous metrics Google utilises to track user engagement.

For instance, if your website takes too long to load or the navigation is difficult, your bounce rate will be high, and this will cause your ranking to decrease.

5 UX factors that will impact SEO

1. Responsiveness – Viewers expect a seamless and smooth experience, irrespective of the device they’re using. When you consider more than 60% of site traffic comes from smartphones, responsive design is imperative when optimising your site.

2. Page speed – The Internet is supposed to be about convenience. If your website takes ages to load, people will get impatient, and they’ll go elsewhere. This means your bounce rate will be high, which isn’t a good signal to send to Google.

3. Above the fold – Above the fold relates to the content users see first when they land on your website. It needs to offer sufficient information for a visitor to determine if they want to stay on your website and engage with it. This includes your main menu, CTA, headline, hero image, website name, and logo.

4. Layout and navigation – Your website needs to be structured in a logical, clear manner. This is imperative for user-friendliness. It’s also vital because you’re giving search engines a roadmap and overview of your content and how it links together.

5. Website content – If your website content is interesting, engaging, and structured in an attractive manner, people will spend longer on your site interacting with it.

7 UI/UX Design Trends in 2023

1. Solo type – There’s an increasing trend of solo focus on websites today. Minimal, bold, and clean is the way to go.

2. Microgames – We’re starting to see microgames being used in applications and websites where we wouldn’t traditionally expect them so that users stay engaged.

3. 3D interactive objects – 3D interactive objects are much more enjoyable for users than 2D images, which are completely static. They have other benefits, too; they’re universal in style, lightweight, don’t eat up performance, and have outstanding storytelling power.

4. Handmade graphics – We all know that free stock photos do nothing for our websites in terms of originality. Brands have already started to take their own photos in light of this, but now we expect handmade graphics to soar too.

5. Neo-brutalist – Neo-Brutalism is inspired by the brutalist architectural style of the mid-20th century, which has an unfinished and raw feel. It’s all about function over form with this style. Usability and simplicity are at the core.

6. Designing for a cross-device experience – A lot of people interact with different devices throughout the day, moving from their PC to smartphone to tablet, and so on. Designs that reflect this will flourish throughout the year.

7. Anti-light mode – Switching to dark mode now and again is a thing of the past. Instead, we expect our devices to adapt to the environment.

Top 5 UX/UI design tools to use in 2023

To implement these trends, you’ll need a good UX/UI design tool. Five of the best UX/UI design tools include:

1. Figma – Build dynamic mockups and prototypes with Figma, ensure they’re usable with testing, and sync all of your progress.

2. Marvel– Marvel gives you everything you need for UI and UX in one interface, including user testing, interactive prototypes, and hi-fi wireframes.

3. Axure – Axure helps you to develop prototypes and keep track of everything in your workflow. The testing features really stand out!

4. InVision Studio – You can access a full range of UI tools to create functional and fully realised prototypes with animations and dynamic elements.

5. Sketch – Finally, Sketch makes it easy for designers to jump in and do what they do best. It comes with many integrations and third-party plugin options.

Final Thoughts

There are huge benefits you can reap by enhancing both the UX and UI of your website. If you follow the tips and advice we have provided above, you should notice some significant improvements in terms of both viewer satisfaction and your search engine ranking.