UX in 2026

Our User Experience (UX) specialist Fredrik Håkansson looks at trends across the UX community and Aleido’s focus going forward.

In 2025, Aleido made deliberate progress in the UX field. In addition to maintaining a strong user-centered approach in all our customer projects, we focused especially on two areas: AI and accessibility.

Accessibility

To prepare for the new European Accessibility Act (EAA) introduced in June 2025, we worked actively to inform and educate our organisation across the company. We also shared our knowledge with customers through meetings and content, and supported them in making their product information EAA-compliant.

We will continue our strong engagement in accessibility to remain a trusted partner with deep expertise in the field.

Automation & AI

What a year for AI initiatives! There’s been plenty of buzz and big promises, but so far little large-scale change in our market. Within the UX competence team at Aleido, we explored new ways of working with AI, from transcribing and analysing user studies to putting generative AI and AI-assisted interaction design to use.

We’ve also discovered how effective spec-driven development can be. By carefully defining standards and clarifying what matters most in the user experience, we can guide the AI agents and generated code toward better results. This shows how some parts of the UX role are evolving, it’s an exciting shift.

Where are we heading in 2026?

A highlight of the trends we see in 2026:

AI becoming an even more integrated design partner
Interfaces adapting to behaviour rather than static choices
Clarity, trust, and transparency in AI
Accessibility as a continuing innovation driver
Design extending beyond screens into voice, XR, and physical-digital experiences

The bigger picture in 2026

Like many companies in our market, Aleido focuses heavily on AI. Two leading UX thinkers, Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman, have taken different paths in defining what’s most important in this new era.

Jakob Nielsen now focuses almost entirely on AI, warning that the UX community is too cautious. He encourages designers to integrate AI throughout the process, arguing that hesitation holds us back.

Don Norman promotes a humanity-centered approach, where humanity comes before the user: designing with awareness of social and ecological contexts, not just product usability. While his standpoint isn’t tied to AI, this is a time where the allure of possibilities and potential profits gained using AI could easily overshadow the concern about what long-term impact such fast growth might have on our world, the environment just being one example. He challenges the traditional UX goal of “making things easier and faster” when it risks driving overconsumption or harm beyond immediate users.

Though it’s hard to disagree with Jakob that UX professionals should embrace AI in 2026, Don Norman’s direction must be acknowledged: Positioning customers and their products within a broader context will lead to sustainable success and profitability, even if it takes longer to achieve. For example, creating a great product information user experience can make a real difference for a customer’s brand as ‘right-to-repair’ grows from a compliance matter into a market demand.

Exciting times in 2026

In 2026, Aleido remains committed to a user-centric way of working that delivers great user experiences and high quality in everything we do. We take big strides within AI while staying true and committed to our core values and leveraging our experience and expertise. New things are taking shape and UX continues to be our guiding star to make the advanced simply understood.

Fredrik Håkansson is a UX Lead designer and Specialist at Aleido. With the user in focus, interfaces feel more intuitive and advanced information can be simply understood.