iF Design Trend Report 2026 Excerpt: How Travel Companions change our Experience
The iF Design Trend Report 2026 is out, and we present exclusive insights into the future of design and its impact on our lives and thoughts! In this excerpt we take a closer look at innovative little helpers for travelling - and how they might change the way we explore!
While UX design aims for “no friction,” designing offline life has brought forth the concept of “low friction.” Especially when traveling, global connectivity is desired. Aesthetic annoyances are avoided so people can feel at home in a place right away and find orientation seamlessly. The result is a standardization of design: Signposting systems around the world are giving similar pictograms, hotel chains make sure that the interior of their individual hotels look very similar around the world.
Smaller companies can also use unified design to address their target groups very specifically – these recognize the aesthetic codes and know what experience could await them. This global standardization is particularly noticeable in cafés – it seems like no matter what city a café is in, you can be certain that there’s going to be stools along the wall facing the street, banana bread, a huge monstera plant by the window and minimalist line drawings on the walls.
Low Friction makes us feel at home all over the world. It’s not only the spaces we move around in that give us this feeling, but also the design of our personal equipment. Being out and about is much easier with products that are specifically designed for this context: Wireless gadgets that don’t take up a lot of space, compact bags and products that are specifically designed for being out and about, heighten the low-friction experience in our day-to-day outside of our four walls.
This trend has made life a lot easier for digital nomads in particular: It’s not hard to be on the road anymore – in fact, it’s often easier than life at home.