Every year Awwwards hold a conference in an iconic city to bring the global design community together with inspirational talks on trends, new technologies and provocative thoughts to create discussion.

Over two days we heard from designers, developers and digital experts from across the globe who gave fascinating insights on what’s happening next, here are our key takeouts from the event.

Nothing quite compares to the impact of well crafted 3D experience, be that through video or WebGL. Paired with great content and presented with compelling motion design, 3D has the power to cut through and create genuinely engaging digital experiences. But, they come at a cost.

The additional processing power to serve and run such experiences is coupled with a greater awareness that 3D and motion design are inherently less accessible.

In the same way packaging designers have evolved to consider environmental and user impact, so too should digital designers when considering what creative tools to employ and deploy.

At the same time digital designers are finding access to 3D software, motion graphics and webGL (through ThreeJS etc) is becoming easier and more ‘designer’ friendly. In addition, the spectre of the meta-verse is driving us towards more, not less 3D.

In other words, these forbidden fruits are increasingly reachable. Their demand also seems to be increasing. But just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. As always, the experiences we create must serve the brand and the message, not the latest fad or tools we have to hand.

Motion is something that can have a phenomenal impact on any website, creating focus around key areas, not only making it more interactive for the user but giving the brand life and personality to evoke positive emotion.

We like to use motion to draw users attention & provide feedback on their progress where possible, but it’s critical to ensure motion never hinders functionality but adds to the user experience.

Likha Aesthetic Clinic uses subtle motion design to build empathy with the user. This site has been benchmarked by Awwwards for mobile excellence, due to the fact whilst we had used motion design to enhance the experience, it did not affect performance on mobile devices.

Helping users think and feel by finding the balance between science and art is a topic from the event that really stood out to us as well, as it is something that we are passionate about.

We like combining science, data and creativity to create digital products that deliver for both users and brands alike.

A recent example of this was for the 11Onze El Canut App, where we utilised the latest in artificial intelligence to predict user behaviour on our proposed designs for the launch. We then correlated this data against the results of real user testing with over 1,200 people to validate, refine and ensure we had the right user experience that would deliver for everyone.

11Onze were a good example of a brand willing to be brave, as we released openly via the user test what we were going to launch into the market. We weren’t worried by the competition nor were we afraid to hear what customers would think, in fact we welcomed it and took onboard their feedback to deliver something they wanted.

Do the Unexpected

One of the key themes that really struck a chord with us was being brave by ‘Doing something unexpected’.

We strongly agree with this sentiment and why it’s in our company ethos – Clarity & Bravery.

Bravery is something we bring to every digital product we work on. As we highlighted in the case of 11Onze, you can make brave choices with confidence that they will deliver through the use of science, data & art. We always push our client partners to do what is possible and right for their customers and we try to not allow technology to limit our scope but actually empower it.

So next time you hear the word MVP (minimal viable product), try and substitute it in your mind for MLP (most ❤️ lovable product).

📸 Shots from the event