5 Trends That Will Shape Digital Products In 2013
What will the key changes be in
business and design during 2013, and what should you do about it? Here are five
predictions from the design firm Fjord.
At Fjord, we work across domains
like media, health care, retail, education, and banking, and the work always
involves an element of “new.” A new platform or technology, a new business
proposition, or new target users. We work at the front edge of mainstream,
where innovation meets mass-market appeal. The constant presence of “new” in
our work feeds our curiosity, and makes exploration a necessity.
In order to guide our work and
inspire our clients, we constantly think about what tomorrow will bring. Each
year, we ask teams at Fjord to predict the major trends that will impact
businesses and society next year. Here, we delve into five of our predictions
for 2013 and share our thoughts on what designers should be doing to make sure
they stay ahead of the curve.
1.
Dawn of the “Personal Ecosystem”
Connected objects start to take
their place--right by your side.
The growing number of devices and
sensors that we incorporate into our lives will set the scene for what Fjord
calls “living services”--the point at which individual smart objects
interconnect to form a support network for their owner. This is when a set of
connected objects becomes greater than the sum of its parts: your “personal
ecosystem.”
The past 18 months have seen the
beginnings of mass-market adoption for a select few connected objects, driven
by the services that make them meaningful. Nike+ FuelBand, Jawbone UP, and the
Nest self-learning thermostat are early pacesetters. The “battle for the wrist”
will hit the mainstream in earnest in 2013, with a variety of approaches coming
to market focused on everything from health and wellness to information and
entertainment.
We’ll soon start to see connected
devices infiltrating more areas of our lives. As we are confronted with more
data visualizations about our homes, jobs, and health, we are likely to develop
what we’re calling “chart fatigue,” where information overload makes it
difficult to extract meaning from data that should be valuable to us.
How to get in on the personal
ecosystem:
• Increase focus on designing for
the glance as wearable tech becomes more mainstream.
• Help users tie together elements
of their object ecosystem to extract further value from a service.
• Segment interactions into things
that are best seen and done on small dedicated devices, and things best done on
the smartphone that they inevitably will connect to.
• Design for adaptability. Services
that fit naturally into people’s lives and adapt to their habits and priorities
will be the big winners in 2013.
2.
KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
How good old-fashioned K.I.S.S.
principles are making a comeback.
As digital progress marches on, so
does complexity. A growing family of personal devices, and ever-increasing
volumes of data, constantly threaten the efforts of service designers to create
elegant, focused, and simple solutions.
But at the same time, more
organizations are finding that a focus on simplicity can have a transformative
effect on services and businesses alike. As Albert Einstein said, “Everything
should be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.”
Simplicity has a long track record
of success and disruption. IKEA and Zipcar are good examples from the physical
world. In the digital world, Skype was able to gain global market share with a
very simple proposition, and Google disrupted the search-and-portal world with
its singular focus and excellence. Other examples include Amazon’s one-click
shopping, and Apple’s touch-focused iOS.
Now we’re seeing single-purpose apps
and services gaining ground, feeding a desire for simplification. The payments
startup Square is a good example: By simplifying the bureaucratic process of
becoming a credit-card merchant, Square has managed to become a $3 billion
company in under three years. Bank Simple has also changed the conversation in
the financial-services sector with its radical approach to making finances
transparent and easy.
Leaders in simplification will
continue to disrupt and transform. As choices and options multiply, companies
with solutions that can guide users through the mess will have an opportunity
to become trusted advisers.
Simple rules for a K.I.S.S. world:
• Focus on what can be removed,
rather than what could be added. Make sure every single feature, element, and
interface drives real value for the user.
• Bravely go to the pain threshold
that separates “extremely simple” from “plain dumb.”
• Use mobile as a primary tool to
drive simplicity across products and services.
• Apply the principles of simplicity
internally: How could your teams and your structure be leaner and more
effective? Taking action to simplify internally will enable you to reflect that
simplicity outward as well.
3.
Access will Supplant Ownership
What does it mean to own something
in the digital age?
We’ve seen seismic shifts in the
area of digital distribution of music, movies, and every other form of media.
Users now expect their purchases to be portable and consumable on multiple
platforms. We crave flexibility, and the way we buy and “own” is changing
accordingly.
Spotify has proved that consumers
are willing to pay to rent music if they feel they’re getting a valuable
service. Services like AirBnB, 9flats, Getaround, and Lyft are making
flat-sharing and car-sharing mainstream. The new competitor Jetsetter is
helping to turn the concept of a luxury second home or family holiday on its
head.
In the past, we projected our status
and success through the things we owned--the car in the driveway, the vacation
house, the books and the CDs that we displayed in our home. But increasingly
status is now projected through our experiences and pursuits, and consequently
the desire to “own” material objects fades.
Innovative new services will see
companies generate increased revenue based on usage. For example, Microsoft’s
Kinect technology could be used to charge for movies based on the number of
people in the room.
As the focus shifts from ownership
to access, these are key implications:
• Companies should design clear access
models like renting, trading, and leasing. Ownership could simply become a
standard “upgrade” function across categories.
• Include a variety of
status-boosting elements in “access” services. For example, one-click ways to
capture experiences and share them through social media networks, as well as
“insight” sharing for those who prefer to project their intellectual pursuits.
• Create an “API for commerce” by
atomizing your catalogue or offering. This could allow third parties to
distribute your content, and it should also allow more flexibility, for
example, by giving someone who’s bought a physical book the ability to take
digital chapters along with them on their smartphone or tablet.
4.
I Belong to Me
How to survive if you find yourself
on the personal data battlefield.
In 2012, the argument around use of
personal data got heated. As users become more aware of what can be done with
their information, they are beginning to demand access--and real value--in
return for their data. With so many alternatives available for virtually any
service, users are increasingly walking away from experiences that they find
creepy or uncomfortable, and taking their business elsewhere.
At Fjord, we expect the wave of data
visualization to continue to grow, driving value and building relationships
between individuals and those who help them to extract value from their own
behaviors.
How you can survive the personal
data battle:
• Make the most of aggregated data.
It can go a long way to improve your product and customer service without
demanding hyper-personal information.
• Work to turn your customers’ data
into actionable insights--for them. Fjord’s work with the Scandinavian mobile
operator 3 is a good example here. We helped them to create an app that makes
the phone bill understandable and beautiful through data visualizations.
Transparency builds trust and lasting relationships.
• Be the one who makes sense of big
data for the little guy. When Fjord worked with Citibank to design its iPad
app, the bank recognized the importance of creating a service that would give
users more value from their own data. Elegant data visualization became a key
part of the app to help customers get a better picture of their finances.
5.
A Personal Shopper for Everybody
The coming revolution in retail
Personalization is nothing new in
the digital world, but in the world of retail, users often find that
comparatively few services actually meet their needs. This is likely to change
in 2013, as the online and offline retail environments merge, creating a more
holistic and immersive customer experience.
A statistic to strike fear into the
heart of any retailer: Almost half of U.S. smartphone users have used their
devices in-store, and more than half of those have gone on to abandon their
in-store purchase. For smartphone users, the distinction between online and
in-store shopping has all but disappeared.
The key to retail success lies in
creating experiences that make customers feel better. A shopping experience that
feels smarter or easier can be more valuable for many customers than simply
getting the best deal. Key factors that ensure success are increasingly going
to be based on recognition, recommendation, follow-through, and support.
Services like Intuit GoPayment and PayPal Here (both of which Fjord helped to
design) are already revolutionizing commerce for small retailers by simplifying
payment, and the next natural step is to offer digital customer relationship
management for these small merchants.
Shop staff will increasingly be
equipped with tablets or smartphones to deliver improved individual service,
and opt-in location-based services will help customers find precisely what
they’re looking for, when they’re looking to buy, and will enable them to pay
on the spot without queuing. Virtual shops, in other words, will also take hold
in the physical world.
Suggestions for the shopping
services of 2013:
• Design commerce services that make
use of smartphone sensors and contextual data--camera, gyroscope, time of day,
and location.
• Design innovative and simple
solutions for small merchants. This is a big group of merchants, yet they are
not digitally savvy at all. Inventory management, customer relationships,
loyalty solutions, digital storefronts--these can be life-changing services for
small retailers.
• Re-imagine the boring things and
make them engaging. As PayPal and Square have shown, even something as painful
as paying can be pretty cool.
Making
Sense of the Road Ahead
These trends give a glimpse into the
dramatic changes in people’s expectations, habits, and relationships that are
being driven by the fast-changing digital service landscape. They have affected
both people’s personal relationships and their interactions with services and
brands. There is undoubtedly more change and transformation to come. Looking
ahead, we believe that these are the fundamental lessons that designers need to
embrace to have a real impact on business and society in 2013:
Design for a growing range of
devices and a growing range of interaction modes. The new form factors include
a much broader range of tablets, phablets, and hybrid devices (pc/tablet
combos). They also include a fast-growing range of wearables--wrist bands,
wrist watches, and much more. The interaction modes move from purely the
graphical touch paradigm to include additional modes like voice and ambient
information. Flexibility and adaptability will be key properties for successful
designers.
Data is the currency of today, and
data visualization is all about meaning. Designers will hold a key role in
designing not just beautiful but also sharp and actionable insights. They will
design data visualizations for large corporations, and make sense of big data
for the little guy.
The digital/physical divide is
disappearing. Bits and atoms used to be competing enemies; now they’re becoming
friends that hang out together. Examples include digital real-world shopping,
digital payments, wearable fitness and health technology, the ubiquity of
mobile map usage, the connected car, etc. Designers need to be very thoughtful
when designing things that people wear (comfort/fashion/durability
considerations) and that affect people’s "real"-world experiences.
We know that trends can inspire and
at the same time strike fear in the hearts of those responsible for shaping the
next wave of products and services. So with this, we hope we’ve given not just
a showcase of predictions but also actionable insights that will help both
designers and business leaders understand how to interpret the exciting
opportunities that lie ahead in 2013.
Olof Schybergson
Olof Schybergson is co-founder and
CEO of Fjord. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671418/5-trends-that-will-shape-digital-products-in-2013#1
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