Graphic design is ubiquitous, from online media to physical products. The more attractive a design is, the more interesting the product to which that design belongs. You can see this, for example, in online slots in Canada: popular games always have striking and impressive designs. So, what lies in the future of graphic design? What changes can we expect in this industry in the next 10 years? We answer these questions below.
It All Depends on Technology
We can say that the future of graphic design will be determined by technology. New technologies require new design approaches, and what will happen in the future of the industry will be determined accordingly. To give some examples:
AR/VR Technology: Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality applications require a completely unique design approach. These are technologies that determine how we look at the world, and each is developed to provide an immersive experience. Therefore, the design used in them should also be suitable for this. In this context, we can say that designers will have to “get up” from their desks. Before they can design something for these products, they need to see how it looks in the real world: AR and VR are technologies that allow us to look at the world directly rather than through a screen. So, it becomes important to determine how designs will look in the real world: soon, we will see graphic designers doing “field research”.
Wearable Technologies: Wearable technologies will lead to the development of many new products. We will start using the information appearing on the lenses, the plastic panels that take the shape of the clothing, and many other “sci-fi” products shortly. All of this will require designing user-friendly interfaces. And no, none of them will look like sci-fi movies. Due to battery problems, we will start to see designs that are as simple as possible but at the same time provide as much information as possible. This will perhaps require a reinterpretation of the Metro design concept. Also, designers will need to find the best way to display information on the go: this may be the most challenging thing for them. Some companies are already talking about having the interfaces of wearable tech products designed by artificial intelligence – designers who can’t keep up with this change can be out of work.
Visual Content: There is no substitute for well-crafted content, but even the best content needs visual support. In other words, every text needs to be supported by images, videos, and even memes. This is also being done now but will be implemented much more intensively soon. The interest in visual content will increase, and we will add more elements such as infographics, quote cards, and slide shows to the content. In this context, the need for visual content design will also increase and creative designers will receive more attention than ever before.
3D Designs: Three-dimensional designs are nothing new but could become the only design concept in the future. We currently live in a paper-dependent world: designers have to think about how their creations will look on paper too. This causes them to add 2D elements to their designs, and we can only see 3D designs in certain concept products. However, our dependence on paper is gradually decreasing, and in 10 years, we may not use it at all. This will cause designers to start thinking three-dimensionally not two-dimensionally, and we will start seeing 3D designs everywhere.
Layered Designs Will Become Widespread: As technology advances, the features offered by the products increase, and it is getting harder and harder to fit all these features into a single interface. For example, if a program has 20 different functions, you don’t want to place them all on the same interface: it will look overcrowded. The solution to this problem may be the layered design approach. There, the interface does not consist of a single screen but a series of screens in layers, each of which is used for a different function. For example, the “print” button and the “print preview” are not put on the same screen: instead, you view the preview in a different layer of the same interface after pressing the “print” button.
Of course, this design concept has some problems: if you add too many layers, the user experience can be adversely affected. Therefore, it is necessary to develop solutions that make switching between layers easy, practical, and fun. Material Design developed by Google may be a solution: this approach is aimed to make the screen touch experience as similar to the real world as possible. So, for example, you can directly open a certain layer by bending or waving your fingers in a certain way. This makes user interaction more important than ever before.