Overview

As we stare down the maw of the fast-approaching future, as UX designers we have to ask ourselves where it’s all going, and how it will impact us in our daily practices.

Today, we’ll explore what UX will probably look like in the next ten years, what it means for you, and why you should care.

The future of UX

If the last two decades are anything to go by, the next ten years is promising in terms of just how many advancements we can hope to see.

Bear in mind that in twenty years we went from VHS and casette tapes, blew right through CD’s and DVD’s to a point where almost all media can be transmitted via the internet without batting a lash.

This has gross implications on what comes next, and we need to take a good, hard look at it to see where we’ll probably stand in 2032.

AR/VR

In the next decade, the prevalence of cheap, widely-available AR and VR will become the norm as phones increase in processing power and become more efficient.

This will mean that most experiences will probably happen in AR and VR where and when possible, not just as a fad, but as a default for the lion’s share of businesses.

To clarify, this won’t all happen at once. It will be gradual, with companies offering AR & VR modes of popular apps to test the waters and see how people react to it.

Spurred on by the unending waves of coronavirus, companies will look for ways to give consumers a novel, reasonably realistic shopping experience that is bespoke, while delivering the goods that people are looking for.

We will more than likely see this manifest as AR/VR applications that focus on predictive commerce, and experiences that attempt to mirror the real thing but without the lines or the problems present in traditional retail.

The metaverse

Building on top of that, we’re probably also gonna see the metaverse explode in popularity the minute that people realize that it’s largely better than real life in a variety of ways.

This is where the lines between a game and app will finally be blurred, as jobs-to-be-done give way to stories-to-be-told, adventures-to-go-on, and experiences-to-be-had.

We will more than likely see the Hook model applied to everything that it can be, as the reward centers of users’ brains are constantly stimulated via novelty and variable outcomes.

This, in turn, will usher in a new wave of UX designers who will bear a title similar to Total Experience Designer (TXD) or something of the like, whose job it will be to design experiences that lead users to the proverbial water, and compel them to drink it.

Commodification of everything

Lastly, we will more than likely begin to see the final stages of the commodification of everything.

Anything that can be transmitted via the internet will be. Anything that can’t will be shipped to your door. Traditional stores will be replaced by sprawling big-box stores that compete for the last vestiges of people who still shop traditionally.

All jobs and skills that can be automated will be automated in response to labor shortages and companies unwilling to raise wages in the wake of record profits and inflation.

This will lead to a huge surge in unemployment and will drive most people into the metaverse as a means of escape. Most jobs will be technical, human-oriented, which cannot be reliably done by a machine, artificial intelligence, or virtual intelligence.

This last part is huge because it means that the need for UX is only going to grow as companies compete harder and harder for the last bastions of consumers’ available liquidity.

What it means for you & why you should care

As a UI/UX’er, you’re probably thinking: “okay, that’s great, but what does this have to do with where we’re at right now, and why should I care?”

I’ll put this plainly: traditional UX is probably going to evolve into something much more contemporary that fills the holes demanded by the marketplace, just like we saw during the lean movement, and it will probably take the form of some kind of hybrid role.

What this means for us is that we’ll need to adjust in order to stay in the industry, and to keep pace with market demands.

Bottom-line, here’s what you’ll want to know to stay relevant:

• User research
• Concept validation
• Information architecture
• Content strategy
• Wireframing, mocking, & prototyping with an emphasis in AR and VR applications.
• Usability testing & solution validation
• UI specification
• Some HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (no I don’t mean like a front-end developer, I mean just enough to be able to talk to devs in terms of implementation & feasibility)
• Handoff practices with tools like Zeplin and other platforms that make it vastly easier for teams to collaborate.

Most of these practices aren’t going anywhere, and I’m not saying that you need to know ALL of them, but knowing most can give you a big advantage as we move forward into this brave (and somewhat horrifying) new world of UI/UX design.