Top 15 Examples of Ingenious User Experience That Helped Humanity to Evolve

<span class="blog_big-paragraph">Every man is always trying to optimize his environment to make it more convenient. This inner urge has led to outstanding user-innovations that we are going to explore today.</span>

Genius UX design aims to create an intuitive and effective user experience: dealing with problems and making an indelible users’ impression.

Let’s review a few top-cases of UX design, from the greatest interactions to invisible but impressive design elements.

In this article, you'll find out:

• Industries’ transformation by 15 genius UX designs and how they changed our online-interaction
• Principles and strategies of these designs
• Applying these principles to your own projects
• UX design’s impact on business success and income growth

This post is helpful not only for UX designers, but for anyone who wants to learn how to create a better user experience.

Revolutionary Interactions: Swipe, Tap, and Scroll

Tinder’s Swipe

Tinder, in 2012, created a simply groundbreaking sign that totally changed our interaction with dating apps - the swipe.

By swiping left or right, users could easily and quickly view their potential matches.
As a result - pleasant and productive experience.

“Swipe” eased user experience and added a sense of gamification, making the app more amusing. Tinder's swiping innovation is an ideal example of how optimized interaction can create the most convenient user experience.

Tinder got rid of that traditional boring dating app experience and established the standard for modern dating apps.

Snapchat's Story

Snapchat, in 2013, created the feature of "Story”
(the ability to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours).

This innovative concept provided a new way of interacting with friends and family.

Snapchat's “Story” has become a must-have element of modern social media, by simplifying the user interaction with the content.

Later this feature has become a favorite among younger generations.

Vines

Six-second video - a new video format introduced by Vine in 2012.

This pioneering format turned the way we consume video content over and forever.

Nowadays, this format has become the base and we got used to this golden rule that videos have few seconds to attract the user.

As with the previous case, younger generations valued this format. 

The "Pull Down to Refresh"

Loren Brichter, the founder of Tweetie, in 2008, created a simple "pull down to refresh" feature. 

"Pull down to refresh" allowed users to update their Twitter effortlessly.

So, users could easily find only up-to-date content. Оbviously, this gesture has become one of the most significant components in the mobile apps’ sphere.

Invisible but Impressive: Intuitive UX’s Potency

"Skip Intro" Button by Netflix

Netflix created their famous “Skip Intro” button in 2017.
This seemingly unimportant feature changed the game.

The button enables users to skip the shows’ openings. So users are free to start watching what they need and accordingly - start saving their own time.

Just by adding this minor change, Netflix improved their rank and made the user experience more comfortable, because nobody liked to rewatch the intros and hand-skipped them.

Surely, every streaming service has this "Skip Intro" button now. 

Extreme Cases and Usability Improvements in UI Components

The building blocks of modern software are UI components, and, without saying, their design plays a significant role in the user experience. However, it’s usually small improvements that are crucial.

For example - a dropdown menu, especially the way it works when a user clicks outside of it.

Another one - the capabilities of a text field’s formatting when you work with the copied text.

Thus, designers should pay attention to these small details. Because these details, with their “external insignificance”, can create a user-friendly experience and increase productivity.

Online Payment Systems

Online payment systems have evolved significantly since the beginning of e-commerce. Nowadays, we can easily pay for everything online with various payment methods and services.

Not only has the payment process improved, but the interface surrounding it too.

The ways in which payment forms are processed, error handling and security have all been enhanced. That’s why it's essential for designers to create a great user experience in the industry of payment process.

And as a result - errors' absence and conversion rates’ increase.

UX in the Physical Realm: Lessons from Everyday Objects

ATMs that Returning Your Card Before Giving Cash

At the dawn of ATMs, people were given their card only after dispensing cash.

People had to wait and wonder if their transaction had been provided. This design omission led to anxiety, as users weren’t completely sure if their card had been returned to them.

The creation of ATMs that return your card before cash improved the UX. Now, with ATMs giving cards before cash, people feel more secure, as they see that their transactions have been successful.

This light design change led to a more user-friendly ATMs experience.
Without any negative emotion.

The Development of ATMs: A UX Success Story

The development of ATMs is a reflection of the power of UX design in the real world.

From the initial days of clunky-text-based interfaces to today's touch-enabled machines, ATMs have been transformed. Each iteration has brought improvements to the user experience, from simplified interfaces to enhanced security. In the case of everyday objects, the evolution path of ATMs shows the importance of UX design for creating convenient user experience. 

Additionally to ATMs, there exist many other usual objects that have been improved through the application of UX principles: the door handles’, light switches’ and even kitchen staff’s design have all been successfully transformed.

Take into account the needs and behaviors of users and easily create more enjoyable to use objects. 

Key Principles: Integration and Efficiency

The Assembly Line: Breaking Down Difficult Tasks

Henry Ford introduced the assembly line a century ago.
Thereby, he totally changed the manufacturing process.

Ford broke down difficult tasks into more simple steps.
This led to efficiency’s increase, by reducing production time.

Ford’s innovation improved the manufacturing industry and the user experience of his employees. Surely, his principle has been applied to different industries and continues to change the way of our interaction with products and services.

Wearable Technology: Seamless Integration into Daily Life

Wearable technology has started being very usable during recent years.

Such devices (like smartwatches and fitness trackers) play an important role in our lives. And seamless integration is the key principle behind this success. By creating devices that work in harmony with our bodies/daily routines, manufacturers have reached a pleasant user experience. This principle, obviously, has been already highly used in various industries.

Efficiency and Integration are timeless and universal principles.

They can be applied to the majority aspects of our lives. Designers and manufacturers are to create things that are more user-friendly and effective, by following these principles.

User Engagement: Push Notifications and Data Control

The Power of Push Notifications

Push notifications are an essential feature of any newest mobile app.

They can enhance user engagement and motivate them to act, due to providing current information. On the other hand, push notifications can be annoying, making a negative impression on users.

Providing users with methods of control over the notifications they receive – the key of successful push notifications.

By permitting users to shape their notifications’ preferences, apps are able to ensure that users receive only the most up-to-date information. This attitude improves not only the user experience but also the effectiveness of push notifications’ concept.

Filtering and Sorting Capabilities: Empowering Users

Filtering and sorting options play a crucial role in modern digital products.
Apps started to have the ability of empowering users.

They give them the opportunity to customize the experience - specifically, filter and sort information according to their preferences. As in the previous paragraph, this approach improves the user experience as well as increases user engagement.

Filtering and sorting options are essential parts of any social media app, where users quite often face a lot of data. These capabilities let users to quickly find the information they need  and enhance their general experience.

The Bottom Line: The Influence of Genius UX Design

Exploring the genius of UX design in this article, we realized how it changed the way we interact with technology and with each other. UX design is an essential part of our lives, from Tinder's Swipe to wearable devices. 

Is there something else? Due to technology’s tendency to progress and converge with human’s experience, we can look forward to even more groundbreaking innovations in UX design.

Rising technologies like AI, AR, and VR, UX design will become even more crucial in shaping human interactions.

Let’s review 5 key trends that are going to change the UX design:

• Voice UI: By 2025 the majority of searches are expected to be based on voice, UX designers will need to make interfaces optimized for voice interactions.
• Emotional Design: As AI becomes more common - UX designers will need to create emotionally engaging experiences. 
• AR and VR: AR market already costs $70 billion, so UX designers should remove the lines between reality and fantasy and provide users with an “absorbing” experience.
• Biometric Design: The rise of biometric devices leads to the need of creating intuitive interfaces.
• “Green” Design: The majority of consumers expect companies to be eco-friendly, so UX designers already now have to create sustainable experiences.

The future is already here - UX design has become a way of life.

A future with the mix of technology and humanity and the high level of human experience.

UX design’s future is promising but it's only up to us to create it.