Neumorphism – The Latest Trend in UI Design
Our world is becoming more digital every day, especially following the pandemic. There’s barely any aspect of life left untouched by digital technologies in the new normal. With our lives on the fast track, we’re now accustomed to everything being available at the click of a button. FYI, even the button is digital now.
Therefore, in this transition period, businesses need to keep up with the latest trends in their industries to ensure they can keep pace with their customers’ evolving demands. Ever since COVID-19, websites and apps are serving as digital door fronts for businesses as they look to adapt to online operations. In many cases, these platforms are the only mode of interaction they have with their target audience.
Therefore, they need to ensure they offer a beneficial and memorable experience for users to keep coming back for more. With so much emphasis on UI design to boost and maintain visual appeal, businesses are heavily investing in new development technologies and adopting new trends to stand out from the competition.
Neumorphic design has become a trending buzzword that has gained traction in the UI design industry. This visual trend has quickly become a popular aesthetic choice for websites, mobile apps, and software as it combines photorealism and 3D design to bring simulated physical design attributes like textures and shadows to user interfaces.
What is Neumorphism UI Design?
Neumorphism is essentially an iteration of Skeuomorphism – a design concept introduced and popularized by Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple to use real-life objects on a graphical user interface. A great example of this is the Recycle Bin which uses a dustbin icon to illustrate its purpose, which is to store unwanted files.
In the last four decades, Apple has mastered the art of developing catchy icons, symbols, and dropdown menus on different devices. The only problem was, as screens became smaller, it became increasingly more difficult to show minor details in icons. This is when the company introduced Flat Design – a new design concept that involves using flat lines and curves to represent symbols with a solid background color.
Neumorphism is the combination of Flat and Skeunmorphism design aimed to strike the perfect balance between minimalism and hyper-realism. It does that by blending visual elements with different colors, shadows, and textures with rounded edges and bold shapes to foster a visual design hierarchy.
The Pros and Cons of Neumorphic Design
All UI design trends have their perks and drawbacks. When used creatively and smartly, trends can enliven your user interface with stunning design patterns. However, if you force them into applications where they’re not required, users will have trouble navigating your interface. Here are the pros and cons a neumorphism in UI design:
Pros
A Fresh Look and Feel to the Interface
Neumorphisim in UI design presents elements, such as buttons and cards in a new, unique way, making them stand out from others and great for building a solid first impression. This is why the trend has gained so much traction on Instagram, Tinder, Behance, and Dribbble, among other platforms since its inception.
Perfect Balance Between Minimalism and Realism
Neumorphic design creatively utilizes lights, colors, and shadows to differentiate elements and design hierarchies in a more natural way. With this balance between minimalism and realism, designers can create highly engaging web or mobile applications to boldly display products, texts, and clickable elements.
A Consistent and Coherent User Experience
Neumorphing an interface typically involves using shadow, color, and light to create a coherent UI experience. This process helps designers improve consistency at every stage and speed up their design process.
Cons
Accessibility Problems
Using a lot of contrasting colors with shadows can often make it difficult for users to differentiate a design element from the background. More importantly, it makes it hard to determine where an interface function works or not. For instance, CTA buttons on many eCommerce stores have negligible differences between contrast and colors.
Even if they’re visible, users may not be able to differentiate what’s on the other side.
Adjustment Issues with Colors and Shadows
Creating a great neomorphic UI design interface requires a long trial and error process to find the best color and shadow combinations. For businesses and product development teams with strict deadlines, it can be too time-consuming and troublesome.
A Steep Learning Curve for Developers
Creating and implementing a neumorphic design into a website or app isn’t an easy task. Your developers may have to update their development frameworks and CSS style codes before they can start coding. This can be a complex and time-consuming process. Thus, it is not recommended for new or inexperienced developers.
Conclusion
To summarize, Neumorphism design is an intriguing design concept that is rapidly taking the market by storm. It is visually compelling and easy on the eyes when used on apps and websites due to soft textures and understated shadows. In a digital world where designs are prone to becoming relevant and obsolete overnight, neumorphism’s simplicity and perks make it well-suited to last for much longer than usual.
To create a memorable neumorphic design, you need to choose the right color palettes and design objects. You can do this with the aid of prototyping tools like Adobe XD, Webflow, Sketch, Mockplus, etc. that help developers test and adjust shadows and color contrast.
With more apps and websites picking up this trend, make sure you get on the change wagon quickly before your target audience is drawn away by your competitors.
