2014: The year for reactive designs

CONCEPTUAL/BRILLIANCE

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As we all know, and thanks to Microsoft, Apple, and Google, 2013 was the year for minimalism. Wait, let's extend that. Let's call it flat, like everyone else does. And yes, the design trend will continue for some years, and may revolutionise the user interface as we know it today. However, I think there's more to it.

I watched Jobs the other day. Steve's outlook on everything inspired me. His philosophy involves the integration of the interface with people. A thorough blend that makes people really feel like they're involved with today's technology. And I think that what he's done is great - he's inspired people to build better.

Last year proved to be the year of simplicity and pure functionality. We look at Windows 8, and see that the core to it's design is functionality - ease of use, if you will. iOS7 did the same thing, though I am not necessarily a fan. It does the job, and it functions well, but it is not as easy as Android (particularly of the Galaxy flavour). But this isn't a review, so I'll move along.

Hoping I'm right, interfaces for the next year will feel more involved than they ever were before. And I believe that they should be. Humanity has built a great eco-system on computing technology, and we live with this system every single day of our lives. We use it for almost everything. And it's because of this that I believe designers and developers the world around will start encompassing a design technique that makes us feel like we're part of it. I'm calling it Reactive Design - though I'm very sure someone else is calling it that too.

Designs of the future will start reacting to our every move. They'll begin to, almost, form a relationship with us, as it were. From a subliminal point of view, this has already happened with predictive actions. When you start scrolling, Facebook takes a wild guess as to how fast you scroll through content, and loads more at the pace you give it. (Must be honest here though - I don't think it's the greatest thing, because it forces me to use the page down key as I prefer not to use multi touch scrolling on my laptop. Those with wheel mouses are good to go, however.) I digress from the point.

Designs that react to our every move will play an important role in 2014, and I think it will be a good thing. It'll be intuitive, free-flowing, and, most importantly, fun. Let's see what happens.