7 Creative App Design Trends for 2020

The development in technology is rapidly changing the way we interact with Mobile Apps. The need for designers and technical professionals to stay updated with the creative app design trends to create user friendly apps is undeniable. The modern app user has also developed, rather than taking what is served, the modern user demands everything to his taste. The rapid changes to mobile app design trends happen each year, and 2020 is the year for some really great changes to the way apps are designed.

Mobile apps now are way more responsive, and do a lot more than before. They take note of your likes and dislikes and show you the content that you want to see.

So, in order to keep you updated, we have come up with 7 Creative App design trends for 2020 that will change the way your customer interacts with your business.

  1. Use Illustrations and Micro-Interactions
  2. Experiment with Futuristic Colour Tones
  3. Choose Transparent Design Elements
  4.  Rounded Shapes is the Hype
  5. Dark Mode is a Must
  6. Play with Retro Vibes
  7. Try Augmented Reality

1. Use Illustrations and Micro-Interactions:

Illustrations and micro-interactions in app design trends 2020

2020 is all about apps having Illustrations and Micro-interactions. Illustrations now play more of a functional role than a design role. They make the brand messaging and interaction way more clear. Some of the ways to use illustrations for mobile apps can be themes and mascots, infographics, marketing and rewards.

Micro-interactions are basically tiny design elements through which the user interacts with the apps without going through the main purpose. They can be used to gather feedback, provide ratings and clear navigation and so much more. The only limitation while using illustration and micro-interactions is the lack of Imagination.

They are one of the major app design trends in 2020 that provide a better user interface and enrich the overall customer experience. It shows that an app thinks about the user more than anything and creates a better understanding between the brands and their customers.

2. Experiment with Futuristic Colours:

colorful app design trends

We think it’s time to give a go to your colour combination experiments! Mobile phones of today contain extremely amazing displays and using enriching colours can enhance the overall experience of the user. While this depends majorly around the kind of business that your app is conducting, trying different colours helps in fine-tuning into your customer’s likeliness.

Right color tone sets the mood of your app thus creating better communication and better user engagement. We recommend you to experiment with various colors and consider going for colors that provide a futuristic look for your app because 2020 is all about being modern and trendy.

Many app designers are using purple, blue, pink, green and neon colours to create that modern look and a better appeal as these new screens really help in showing those colours.

3. Choose Transparent Design Elements:

Color Pop in App Design

Imagine opening an app, and as soon as you open it, you see a huge block of text and nothing else. How do you think it’s going to look? Obviously nobody likes it! There was a time that people used to use apps that showed plain text over a solid background and it used to work then. But this year, it’s time to show some creativity and some depth to it.

For this, you can choose to use transparent design elements such as gradients, overlays and colour pops to showcase a picture behind your text or well, text behind your picture.

You can play along with the opacity to adjust the depth and to maintain the focus without breaking the flow. Transparent design elements usually help in fitting more information in a confined space. It helps in preserving the background for any pop-ups so that they feel more natural and comfortable. While using an app, the consistent color tones creates a sense of familiarity in the mind of the user and the transparent design trend actually helps maintain that.

4. Rounded Shapes in the new Hype:

Naturally, pointed shapes or shapes with corners seem a bit displeasing to the eye. Recent study shows that humans are technically more comfortable with rounded corners than pointed corners. So another 2020 App Design trend is to use rounded shapes in place of pointed shapes. So, no more of those boxes and rectangles that make your user uncomfortable, instead go for more rounded shapes and corners. It will definitely drive up user engagement with the app. Also, now more and more mobile phones are reducing the bezels and thus creating a rounded display at the edges. So inserting similarly rounded features will surely make the app design look more consistent with the display design.

5. Dark Mode:

dark mode mobile app design

We cannot stress on this app design trend enough. Dark mode is hands down one of the most important design trends this year. All the cool apps have dark mode and now that more and more mobile operating systems are also using this feature, we believe it becomes important for your app to have a dark mode as well. Infact make it automatic, so that it can detect the default mode in the user’s OS and adjust itself according to it. We recommend using neon colours with the dark mode as they stand out the most and look really futuristic. Dark mode increases the app usage time as the user’s eyes don’t wear out and it’s also a relief for the mobile’s battery.

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6. Play with Retro Vibes:

retro app design trends 2020

If you want to play against the trend, you can also consider going all retro with your mobile apps. People in 2020 really love nostalgia, especially the 90s Kids.

It has been trending so much that it has become a design trend of its own kind! Simple graphics, pixelated and blocky text and some new cool features can create a really good mixture of old-school vibes which will be the new hype. However, playing with retro vibes has to be really effective. You need to assess your app purpose and the kind of people you’ll likely be serving with the app.

Suggested Article: How to design mobile app websites: 23 best app websites

7. Try Augmented Reality:

Augmented Reality mobile app design trending in 2020

This 2020 App Design Trend is the newest kid on the block! It’s going to be one of the most widely used tools in the near future and we have just begun to understand its effectiveness. Till now, it was mostly used for entertainment as snapchat filters or the ‘Pokémon Go’ game but now many app designers are choosing to use AR.

Brands are using more and more AR features to create a striking experience for a new user. It is used to create product demos, interactive advertising and provide real-time information to customers. Recent studies on App attributions reveal that if a user gets to interact with the product at his comfort, chances are he’ll likely be interested in it.

Big corporations like Facebook, Apple and Google are already using AR for their apps and it’s only imperative for other app developers to follow the same route.

So, now that we have listed out some of the most amazing 2020 app design trends, all you need to do is to implement those on your app and you’ll be all set to get trending again!

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Henny Darwin is a content strategist and moderator at Designfier, one of the leading graphic design marketplaces.