Attending this course and passing the exam earns 1 UX Certification credit, which also counts towards the optional Interaction Design Specialty.
Learn more about NN/g's UX Certification Program.
Innovative trends that impact the user experience
How to evaluate an emerging trend to see if it is worth following or adopting
The relationship between originality and usability
Past design trend mistakes and how to avoid costly repeats
How device-independent design is affecting interface design
Visual design trends and their impact on users and brand experience
Visual design styles and minimalist designs
Design languages, design systems, and their tradeoffs, including Material Design
Animation and moving elements on a page
Background and auto-playing video
Emerging expectations in content strategy
Leveraging artificial intelligence for tailored content
Tradeoffs of individualized content with personalization vs. customization
How conversational design can support user needs in writing (tone of voice), visual, and interaction design
Designing for complex workflows and data-dense displays
Changes in content structure and information architecture
Hamburger menus, hidden menus, and hybrid navigation
Navigation optimized for small and large screens
Off-canvas and hidden content
Optimizing for reduced text-entry input
Intelligent assistants: chatbots, voice interactions
Cultural shift towards responsible design
Inclusive design and its effect on the viability of emerging trends
Ethical approaches to designing for behavior change
Privacy considerations and disclosures
The basis of the course is a lecture format with hands-on exercises to explore how to analyze and apply emerging patterns.
The course also includes:
Note: This course was previously titled Emerging Patterns in Web Design
Attending this course and passing the exam earns 1 UX Certification credit, which also counts towards the optional Interaction Design Specialty.
Learn more about NN/g's UX Certification Program.
"This course really gives you a complete overview of current trends in web design as well as a way to evaluate each of these for your own business or clients. Highly recommended!"
Laurie Versteele
"This was way more than just an overview of design patterns. It was really helpful to see what drove those patterns, ways they worked well and failed, and how to approach evaluating those patterns for your own work."
Shaun Hartman, Exact Sciences
"It's great to see how trends actually hold up to user research. The video casts were especially helpful."
Paula Popowski, NCSA
"Loved it! Insightful and practical do's and don'ts. Walked away w/a framework for evaluating emerging technologies and it's purpose/goals."
Cindy Fong, Facebook
More Participant Comments
"This was my second class with Therese and she does an amazing job keeping us engaged. I've learned so much from my two classes from her. This course was my favorite of the week."
Megan Fletcher, TID
"I learned a lot about shifting UX trends and what to consider moving forward in my UX career. I highly recommend this course if you want to provide the best user experience for your users and stay ahead of the game. Alita made it very easy to connect and understand the material. It was a lot fo fun."
Jessica Bjoeredahl, DigiCert
"This course was excellent and refreshing, I now have material and new conversational points to utilize when it's time to push back."
Sean Godonis, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
"Loved the website comparisons and discussion of all the good, bad & ugly. Therese is awesome!"
Lynn Weiser, John Deere Financial
"Not just theory but Therese also provided great examples which helped me tie all the info together. She has high energy and a cheerful voice."
Maria Pettit, Kaiser Permanente
"Lots of interesting information to digest and consider."
Susan Carpet, Kaiser
"Really interesting insights which were strengthened by the experience of other participants. Great forum for learning."
Onnika Mitchell, P&G
"Very enjoyable and engaging course. Loved all the videos showed from tests. Really backs up the course with expertise and evidence gives a taste and reinforces how important it is to test any new trendy development."
Daria Gordeva, Visual Antidote
"Fun class! The sum is greater than its parts! This course covers a lot of trends and patterns and has applicable info on how we could use it wisely."
Tina Yiu, Wealthbar
"I really enjoyed this class. It was both fun, specific and useful. I was not super into the privacy section of the class but I understand that it is relevant. My favourites were the first half of the course. Also nice with some breakout sessions."
Maia Swenson, Volvo Car Corporation, Göteborg, Sweden
"It was a very interesting and practical course! I highly recommend designers to attend this UX conference and listen to Therese Fessenden speech about Emerging Patterns in UI."
Christophe Debauve, Daydream SRL, Brussels, Belgium
"Highly recommend this course with Therese, well crafted and communicated course with plenty of food for thought."
Karl Lam, Samsung, Vancouver, Canada
"This is a tough concept to cover. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect, but I was curious. I'm glad for it, as a framework for judging trends was very useful, kudos!"
Matt Bittner, Southern Co
"Alita was an amazing instructor. You can tell she really cares about the topics, and is very knowledgeable in them. Great flow of the class! Would definitely take a course with Alita again!"
Peter Mylonas, Area 23, New York
"Really enjoyed this — made me think more about using new tools/design ideas more effectively and objectively."
Andrew Pengelly, Wealthbar
"The course helps a lot to keep up with new trends and how to evaluate them. I liked that we evaluated a real website in class."
Carl Friedrich Huch, Inform GmBH
"Very useful. What I was wondering these days about are covered. Now I decide which I will adopt or not."
Sotoshi Kikuchi, Web Directions East ULC, Tokyo, Japan
"Course content was relevant, up to date, and informative. I felt like the activities were actually useful and valuable, as well. I'm excited to get back and share some of tid-bits with my team."
Lauren Woods, Progressive Insurance
"A perfect learner-centric structure and delivery, engaging and enjoyable. Doesn't get too caught up in any topic or minutia, would recommend 100%."
Mohammed Ibrahim, PWC
"Of all the courses I've taken, this one has been the most useful. It has innumerable real-world examples that offer quick insights into the work of industry leaders."
Griffin, Washington, DC
"Excellent course. Very relevant content to the discussions we have back in the office."
Christian Young, Aviva
"Really good summary of all things web. Never lost interest. Good pace and interesting topics/ conversations/ examples."
Kaylene Rutherford, ASIC, Sydney
"Great speaker — engaging, informative, easy to follow and communicate with. Great course speed as well."
Emily, Orchard, Sydney
"Great refresher course on UX best practice. Very good to see thoughts on all new trends."
Tim Absolon, QSuper
"Extremely comprehensive. Very relevant to applications currently in development. Katie was very personable, easy to follow, and led the class at a very good pace. Overall, very enjoyable class. Will recommend."
Felicia, GE Healthcare
"So many tangible, useful examples!! Well organized and great if you are interested in current trends for UX now and beyond. 7+++++"
Lance Bitner, Dev Technology Group
"A highly enjoyable and informative course. Katie provides several design pattern guidelines. I wish I had taken her course years ago!"
Bridget Jackson, Wells Fargo
"I appreciated that it wasn't simply facts but also teaching us how to think in the right ways. I think a great supplemental course would be on emerging technologies."
Catherine Angelini, Huntington Ingalls NNS
"I liked being brought up to date so quickly and easily."
Susan Raab, GCE, Seaside, CA
"Therese was an amazing speaker and very enthusiastic about the materials. I learned a lot! Thanks!"
Jacqueline Sullivan
"The speaker for this was flawless. Very engaging and knowledgeable. She managed to cover so many topics in such a short amount of time and she made it very dynamic. I did't disconnect or felt bored even once. Well done!"
Dafua Krauchiuski
"The selection of content and topics presented in this course was well balanced and insightful. Katie and the NNG team once again demonstrated the value in attending the NNG UX Conference."
Daniel Chaparro, New York, NY
"I really enjoyed this course! A lot of really useful information, good analysis of all of the trends that we are all aware of and some that we might weren't before. Would recommend!"
Marijana Pivac, Typeqast, Split
"It was a great refresher. When I thought of trends I forgot about all the little things that count as trends (such as UI elements) and it was good to look at these from a new viewpoint."
Tamzin Ward, Leeds, UK
"A nice way to catalyze conversation around what is new, what works and what does not work, etc."
Jim Corcoran, DefinedLogic
"Therese was extremely knowledgeable and helpful and the information shared could be actioned right away. I loved that most of the trends reviewed were done in a way whereby the learnings from the reviews were not limited to the trends being discussed. Excellent course that I would recommend to anyone involved (in any way) with web or app development. Thanks Therese!"
Dean Campbell, Catalyst Advertising Inc., Toronto
"Therese's course on Emerging Design Patterns was very engaging and informative! She covered a variety of topics, yet was able to explore the advantages and disadvantages of each topic in detail enough to be applicable. I also really enjoyed the blend of instruction and break-out application. I highly recommend this course!"
Heather, Visa
"This course was so well run — structured but with enough flexibility for interesting discussions and questions. I really enjoyed the activities which embedded what we learnt throughout the day. I have a much better idea of how to use design in an interesting but usable way."
Sophie Taylor, Sopra Steria, UK
"A good look onto what's big in the industry, and how to consider them before you dive into implementing them."
Warren Lee, Quadio
"Really enjoyed the variety of examples on various trends and how Katie addressed them with the huge breathe of knowledge/research she's done. You can definitely tell she has a passion for understanding the purpose/usability of these trends and advocating what the benefit is for the user."
Steph Chung, DisplaySweet, Melbourne, Australia
"This course highlighted so many things I thought were good, but were actually just good trends to avoid.
Wonderful. Thank you!"
Libbie Best, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
"Yet another excellent course, giving me so much to consider as well as evidence to take back to the team. Kudos to Katie for covering so much material, giving pertinent examples and reasoning, as well as responding to our questions in context and with actionable feedback. Therese also did a stellar job in support, almost felt like we were getting two for the price of one!"
Lani Raukawa Field, Signify Ltd, Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand
"I found this class really enjoyable and engaging. Seeing what new trends work, and also reviewing trends that don't — and how they arrived at these conclusions. This class reignited my interest in interaction design, for sure!"
Cristina Del Rosario, Aleph-Labs, Manila, Philippines
"Katie has helped to provide clear explanation on why UI trend is good and to be followed. Her sharing has helped to clarify my misunderstanding on some UI trends. It feels good to learn from an expert."
Chris Soh, Housing & Development Board, Singapore
"I really loved this course. I gained a lot of insights regarding current trends in UI, some of which I've never even noticed before, and how great (or bad) UI can affect the user's behavior."
Marvin Robles, Johnson & Johnson, Manila, Philippines
"Katie used her own experience from user tests, giving great insights into why an interface trend might work or not work for the user. Further more she has a great pragmatic approach and reflection on trends, making it straight forward to take the insights home and use them in your own organisation."
Marianne, Insurance business, Copenhagen, Denmark
"The course was really great and Katie was really clear on discussing each topics. I never had this level of details in some previous course that I attended. The examples used are so practical where we can relate to our work. I would really recommend this if you wanted to know the pros and cons of trendy patterns and how you will use it to your work."
Erron, TrustArc, Cebu, Philippines
"It's a great course, packed full of interesting observations about emerging patterns. Clearly detailing why some patterns work and other do not, like always with NN/g, this is all backed up by tons of user research."
Richard O'Leary, UL, Dublin, Ireland
"A very good methodology to not only identify emerging patterns but to critically evaluate them."
Felipe Reinicke, Health Initiative for Men, Canada
"Course was very well structured, the instructor gave clear and concise examples of each concept and the group activities were engaging and allowed for open ended discussions of the concepts. The final activity really brought all the concepts together and helped tie everything up nicely."
Rohit Shukla, Black Pepper Limited, Leamington Spa; England
"Katie Sherwin was great! This was one of my favourite NN/g courses so far. Sherwin did an amazing job engaging us throughout the course, getting us to reflect on the impact of past, present and future design trends. The course felt very relevant and practical, since we were analyzing specific examples. It'd be interesting taking the course again in the future and examining how things have changed. Overall, very informative, interesting, and motivational."
Flo Wong, Corporate Finance Institute, Vancouver, Canada
"Taking this course has given me a different perspective of assessing at design patterns. This is definitely going to be very useful for me and my organization when I apply them in my real projects."
Monalisa Satpathy, SAP, Ariba, Dublin, USA
"This is a great course for any designer to get updated with latest trends going on in the world related to interaction or visual design. Really love the fresh perspectives and amazing examples."
Vamsi Batchu, Truist Bank, Atlanta, USA
"I would stress that this course gave me new insights into how to identify what is the new hotness; and how to couple that with ROI on jumping in to the trend, and how it can impact usability. This is a must-take course."
Ted Sly, John Deere and Co., Des Moines, USA
"I really enjoyed this course. The discussion between the instructor and the participants was great, the breakout sessions were enjoyable, and the course content was very useful to me. Katie did an excellent job of presenting information and answering questions for everyone. Since this class is about upcoming trends, it will continue to be updated, keeping it engaging. Being in a company that does not want to be on the bleeding edge, but does want to stay relevant, watching trends and trying to determine which we should pursue is a constant discussion. This course will help me within those discussions."
Ashley McWilliams, Jackson, USA
"This course is filled with great tips and insights on everything that relates to design patterns like when to consider using one or how to go about adopting one for your own project, and highlights the fact that design trends are not a "one size fits all" design prescription."
Alexander Fredette, Salem, NH, USA
"Great course! This was my 2nd course with Therese and she was just as fabulous as before. I learned some terminologies for different trends/styles that I didn't know before, and the content was very current in regard to the trends covered and examples given. Visual designers in particular should get a lot out of this course; I'm not one but still found it useful, especially the suggestions on how to evaluate trends objectively for your users (alignment with usability heuristics) and organization (alignment with brand/goals) and find a balance between familiarity and novelty. If you've ever been tempted by the "eye candy" of a new design trend and wondered "should we jump on this bandwagon?" -- and who hasn't -- then this course is for you."
Amy Harvey, IT Consultant, Blacksburg, Virginia
"Highly recommended! Therese is an engaging and engaged instructor and she used the Zoom medium really well. In terms of content, it offered interesting insights into current and emerging trends, with useful tips on how to evaluate new patterns. I only have positive things to say about this course as delivered by Therese."
Joel Louie, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
"Comprehensive analysis of benefits and risks of all aspects of implementing trends in UX design, with some great history about why we see trends when we do, and how to decide if getting trendy applies to your project."
Mary McInnis, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA
"A lot of benefits:
- opportunity to talk and share the ideas with people from all over the world
- useful tips and a huge motivation for design
- a lot of examples regarding each trend
- clear language
- attention to all participants during the conference (feedback during the conversation)."
Daria, Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions, Russia
"I have already told people about this course! I found it especially useful as someone who is currently working as a UX/UI designer; I could take the course content and directly apply it to real situations/design problems I am trying to solve. I would imagine it being harder to keep up or fully digest all the information if I was not in the UX field, or just a beginner/student."
Marina Semez, Ripl, Inc., Seattle, USA
"This is a wonderful course that covers all the latest and relevant design patterns used on the web today. The way the information and visual examples were presented really helped solid my knowledge. Anyone who designs should be aware of these patterns as well as the pros / cons associated with the technique."
Jason Li, Northrop Grumman, Springfield, VA USA
"Definitely recommend doing it, insightful information about current trends that I will take away and implement in my own work."
Fenella, 93digital, London, UK
"The course was very helpful in validating and updating knowledge in existing trends while introducing new ones as well."
Joel Seely, First Citizens Bank, Raleigh USA
"I highly recommend people to take this course!"
Emad Khawajah, Jawwy from stc, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
"I think that everyone can really benefit from the course. There are lots of actionable learnings."
Florian Helmchen, D4L data4life gGmbH, Berlin, Germany
"Great course, especially for anyone active within any industry (maybe less relevant for academics). Great to get motivated even if you've been working for a few years, and get out of your old tracks. Fresh and inspiring thoughts!"
Andreas Andersson, Volvo Car Corporation, Gothenburg, Sweden
"I would say that this is the best pace of education you can get outside of a university without a doubt. I liked the pace of the whole course and the tone of voice of Therese."
Omar Montilla, Mctekk, Dominican Republic
"Very useful information on the Emerging patterns and technology which is govern the future of UX. This is an amazing class for people who are either engaged in interaction design or visual design."
Shilpa Misra, Metro-Markets.de, Germany
"It was great revisiting design trends I was aware of and some new ones I hadn't considered. The examples were varied and interesting. I felt really inspired after the course, and have lots of ideas for things I can apply to my work."
Audra, Baltimore, MD USA
"Love this class! This is my second time. It makes me feel like I'm on the leading edge."
Learn about new design patterns, UI trends, and the impact they have on the total user experience. Get evidence-based insights to help you decide which practices will work best for your site and how to apply them effectively. This course will look at patterns emerging from a broad range of websites and industries.
Katherine Joplin, Associate Web Designer
Blizzard Entertainment
Please note: We update this seminar continually as new trends develop. The following list gives you an idea of the areas covered, but specific topics may change.