The trends in 2020 will highlight things that we in the profession have known about for a while now – it is just that they will now finally become common practice. It will be a tidying up of sorts before we move on.

Agile as a way for clients and agencies to equally participate in projects

Agile can draw clients and the agency closer together as it requires constant involvement and understanding of the project. When well-implemented, such a process continually tests the assumptions and usually leads to a better final UX. Digital products can no longer be developed without the continued participation of the client’s decisionmakers, while developing a new product in an agency vacuum based on best practices or whatever others have done works worse than ever before. The competition in the digital space is well-organized and educated, and the market is no longer forgiving of half-finished products. Agile also brings a different structuring and evaluation of both projects and their stages.

Mobile finally to come to the foreground

Having a large screen on one’s desk for a growing number of web projects will start being an anomaly, which means that mobile context will be the issue that most discussions will center on when designing a page or a product. What those involved in the project have on their desks will need to start being irrelevant.

Content first

Content creation will start happening along with prototype development. The way something will be shown or communicated to the users, at what time and to what degree, will affect the concept, structure and design. Content is no longer something that is defined either in the middle or at the end of a project, as such a project depends on accepting the content that is developed too late, instead of depending on the users and one’s business goals.