Did you know that your product has only 7 seconds to make the right first impression? Those seven seconds, while potential customers are looking at your product's design, are deciding factors that make or break your chances of getting through to new users.
Products are not limited to material goods in the retail store — they can also be digital creations such as websites, mobile apps or eBooks.
The one thing they have in common is design.
Appealing product design attracts customers, while a confusing or outdated one drives them away.
Product design trends are ever-evolving, but some things never change: combining the aesthetics and functionalities that suit your users' needs will produce excellent results.
This article, written by a reputable product design company, will inform you about the future of product design so you can rest assured in 2023 knowing your product design practices are up to date.
Table of Contents
Top 10 Product Design Trends for 2023
Follow the top 10 product design trends you’ll find below, modify them or use them to inspire your unique ideas. The courage to experiment can result in extraordinarily designed products that will position you as a trendsetter who influences the future of product design.
1. Typography and Word-oriented Design
We know how words are important for SEO and its benefits, but one might wonder what words have to do with product design.
Focus on words is equally represented in different print design types — for example, product and industrial design. You should include keywords relevant to your business on your website’s interface, mobile app or product packaging. It is a simple and effective way to increase a brand’s visibility and grab your audience’s attention.
Typography choice is another important factor that defines your brand's tone and helps convey your message to your target audience.
In 2023, choose modern, futuristic and geometrical fonts — if they complement your brand image. If you opt for something more traditional, go for vintage or art deco style.
2. Bold Colors
Using adequate color enhances brand recognition by 80% and improves its attractiveness by 93%. Also, 85% of customers purchasing decisions are affected by the product's color.
Color is one of the essential product design aspects, which attracts users' attention, evokes emotions, creates a strong brand association and conveys a message to the audience.
According to color experts, the new “it” color trend in product design for 2023 is “viva magenta.” However, if your brand doesn’t match magenta, be worry free — choose between lavender, bright red, emerald green, calming deep blue or warm beige.
3. Minimalism
Minimalist design is not new, but a trend that persists year after year.
Many famous brands are already using this trend — for example, Apple is considered a pioneer of “extreme minimalism,” which is part of its popularity and high prices.
A minimalist design provides a clean, crisp and uncluttered product look, allowing you to focus on the most important features.
Also, minimalism makes it easier for customers to adopt new designs and use both digital and material products, providing simple navigation and a positive user experience.
4. Dark Mode
More than 73% of young adults suffer from vision, metabolic and sleep-affecting symptoms caused by blue light, but that’s where dark mode comes to the scene.
A dark mode display setting is used worldwide because of its ability to reduce the harm constant blue light exposure can cause. It enables long-term reading without straining the eyes, gives apps a modern look and saves mobile phone battery power on certain screen types.
The dark mode is considered a major technological advancement; therefore, many websites and mobile apps have already included it in their UI/UX design — and many will in 2023.
5. Motion Design
Motion design used to be challenging to incorporate into digital products. Still, today it plays a significant part in product design by improving consumer engagement and providing a positive user experience (UX). Many IT support services companies are recognizing the value of integrating motion design to enhance usability and intuitiveness.
The effectiveness of a motion design directly influences UX — it can affect users' emotional states or distract them by shortening the waiting time until the page loads.
Besides motion design, micro-interactions will be another popular product design trend in 2023. Designers use them to simplify on-page actions, minimize errors, keep users' attention and provide an effortless journey through the user interface (UI).
6. Thumb-Friendly Mobile Navigation
People check their mobile phones on average 58 times a day. The future of product design includes a feature that facilitates scrolling mobile screen — thumb-friendly navigation.
Thumb-friendly UI has a navigation bar, menu and call-to-action buttons in the middle of the screen, where users can comfortably reach them using both thumbs. This product design trend improves accessibility for users with physical disabilities but also provides comfort to people who use phones with big screens, use mobile on the go or with just one hand.
7. Voice User Interface (VUI)
In 2022 people spent nearly 5 hours a day using mobile phones. If we add this number to the time spent using computers and watching TV, it’s clear that technology is a big part of everyday life.
Voice user interface is speech recognition technology that facilitates interactions with computers, phones and other smart devices through voice commands.
The human-like conversational experience VUI provides is the reason for its growing popularity in product design. VUI is used in chatbots and voice assistants, such as Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant and Microsoft's Cortana. Still, considering 71% of consumers prefer voice interactions to typing queries, voice-supported technology will keep expanding in 2023.
8. Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality
By 2025, the augmented and virtual reality market will be worth $571.42 billion, which means these advanced technologies are and will be hot product design trends in the years to come.
Virtual reality (VR) is an artificial virtual world that users access using VR gadgets such as headsets or haptic gloves.
Artificial reality (AR) allows seeing virtual objects in the real world using mobile devices or smart glasses.
Mixed reality (MR) combines the virtual and real world.
Examples of VR, AR and MR in product design include gaming, apps for virtual fashion, furniture shopping apps and many others.
9. Accessibility and Inclusivity
Although often used interchangeably, the terms “accessibility” and “inclusivity” don't have the same meaning. Still, they are equally important product design trends!
With 61 million people in the U.S. living with some kind of disability, it's understandable why the accessibility trend is important.
Accessible product design allows all customers to use the product efficiently, regardless of their permanent or temporary visual, motor, auditory, speech, or cognitive disabilities. Examples of accessible products are transcripts for people with hearing impairments.
Inclusive product design acknowledges people’s gender, age, sexual, ethnic, racial, sociocultural and language diversity. The perfect example of inclusive design is Apple’s wide range of emojis covering many social groups.
In 2023, companies and businesses will be more focused on creating an accessible and inclusive digital environment for all users.
10. Eco-Friendliness
One of the biggest problems the modern world is dealing with is climate change, which highlights the need for environmentally friendly solutions in all aspects of life.
Since sustainability encourages environmental protection, which most people value, it is a trend in product design that will gain more popularity in the future.
Eco-friendliness is a trend in both digital and material product designs. In the digital world, it helps spread awareness about the importance of going green, while material products focus on avoiding plastics and using recycled materials in manufacturing processes.
What Is Product Design?
Product design is a process of developing and creating products whose appearance and features attract users' attention and solve their problems while fulfilling the market's demands.
Although there are many product design types, they all involve understanding users and their pain points, expectations, desires and needs. Knowing clients' aspirations helps product designers deliver valuable and functional results.
Whether your company has an in-house product design team or you’re considering product design outsourcing, ensure designers follow product design trends and practices relevant to your brand in all phases of the design process.
That way, you’ll be able to provide a positive user experience and a competitive product.
Why Is Following Product Design Trends Important?
Product design trends are a direct response to customers’ needs and desires, as well as changes in market conditions. Companies that respond to these trends well are often able to create products that are more successful and in demand by consumers.
Constant innovations in all life spheres change clients' expectations — they want modern solutions that help them deal with their pain points quickly and efficiently. A product designer’s mission is to fulfill customers' wishes, regardless of personal preferences.
However, trends in product design can be challenging to follow because they are constantly changing, but this is the change you must embrace if you want to stay competitive. Keeping up with those trends will ensure your products are not outdated but modern and fresh.
Also, knowing what’s new in product design can help you take advantage of its benefits:
- Earn more profit by selling modernly designed products at higher prices.
- Increase sales by offering innovative solutions to your customer’s pain points.
- Build a stronger brand image.
- Improve brand performance.
- Save money on manufacturing processes.
Product Design Trends: Final Thoughts
To create an appealing product design, you must get to know your customers, their issues and their wishes.
Once you get familiar with your target audience's expectations, create a product design that provides them value — catches their attention, delivers a positive user experience, increases engagement and develops brand loyalty.
You can use our list of the top 10 trends as a roadmap for that journey.
Shooting in the dark will result in poor product design, negatively impacting even the perfect product, making it unnoticeable.
