Back to basics: Humans at the centre

January 2019

Experience is personal

“Expatriate Solipsism: When arriving in a foreign travel destination one had hoped was undiscovered, only to find many people just like oneself; the peeved refusal to talk to said people because they had ruined one’s elitist travel fantasy.”

– Douglas Coupland, Generation X This image was taken by Martin J.Galloway. Donated from the British Photo Encyclopedia Experience

Planning Doing Doing Sharing Work Leisure Personal Shared Digital Physical Local Global Experience economy

Accommodation Transport Unique tours Vayable Tujia ToursByLocals HomeAway 9Flats ZipCar Home-cooked meal MoBike EatWith FlipKey Neuron VizEat Lime

Designing Experiences

Understand Design People Simplicity

within Context within a System “Data” to understand people

‘Big’ data (Numbers) ‘Thick’ Data (Stories)

‘Wide Data’ (Trends) ‘Liquid’ expectations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNgNDZz © CopyrightH5o 2015 Context

Before During After EXERCISE IN CONTEXT Design Simplicity within a System Solution thinking Design outcomes Value of HCD Do Less

Minimalist design: Reduce the surface area

Frictionless design: Reduce the energy required

Introduction

Our annual Trends report is born from plenty of Post-it notes, more coffee than we care to mention, lots of healthy debate and quite a few laughs. Trends is always a labor of love, crowdsourced from Fjordians (all 1,000 of us) from around the world – from San Francisco to Berlin, Hong Kong to Johannesburg, Dubai to São Paulo, and 22 other places in between.

This process results in the trends we expect to affect business, technology and design in the year ahead. Value

Today, we stand at a technological, political and environmental inflection point. Two decades of rapid technology growth and innovation have generated enormous physical and digital clutter. The steep demand on the planet’s resources mirrors the demand on our time and attention, which leads to our meta theme this year: the search for value and relevance.

In 2019, success will lie in providing value relevant not only to individuals, but also to the world. Value creation will not come from simply growing bigger, but by being better. In busy lives and on a crowded planet, only the relevant will remain. 01 Silence is gold

02 The last straw?

03 Data minimalism

04 Ahead of the curb

05 The inclusivity paradox

06 Space odyssey

07 Synthetic realities 01 Silence is gold

Brands must find ways to connect with consumers who just want quiet in a noisy world. Fjord suggests

01 02 03 04 Be quieter Radically simplify your Invest in content design Measure the cognitive effort that feedback surveys you expect from your customers Take a lack of responsiveness as a When the number of interactions hint to be quieter, not noisier. Listen to the changing needs of you have with your consumers is Recognize the attention and effort Rethink your metrics, and find your customers and make minimal, each one of them your service expects from its new ways of measuring providing feedback as easy and counts. Change the language of users and demand it only performance of your services that instant as possible. Pay attention your messaging, and do it when it’s useful to people. are not purely engagement- to the online reviews – customers frequently. It’s not just about what related. are probably already telling you you say but how you say it. what you need to know. 02 The last straw?

Enough talk. People expect products and services to have built in sustainability, or they’ll reject those who don’t. Fjord suggests

01 02 03 04 Redesign everything Collaborate to get ahead Tell your stories Turn waste into wealth

Focus on the experience of Think beyond your brand and Brands must tell stories around Think about how to monetize and making a difference. Make the business to industry traceability, sourcing and impact extract value from something that experience of refilling, borrowing, opportunities, and shift together to cut through and differentiate. is no longer wanted, as well as returning or disposing as great as with your peers or even Help consumers navigate the how to create new value where it the experience of buying. To competitors. Join forces with complexity of promises, was previously nonexistent. View remove potential barriers to others to solve problems certifications, and what's “real” sustainability as a measure of behavior change, make your collectively. versus what’s “greenwashing.” impact and value alongside sustainable products as desirable, financial results. affordable and convenient as non- sustainable alternatives. 03 Data minimalism

People and organizations disagree on the value of personal data. Transparency is key to bridging the gap. Fjord suggests

01 02 03 Set expectations, Embrace “data minimalism” Champion trust and live up to them Ensure your data strategy follows Allow people to act when data Empower people to know how, the minimal viable data pattern about them is wrong by designing where and why their data was and collects only what’s needed transparency and enabling people used in your personalization to drive the service. Closely align to recalibrate algorithms. Prove framework, and make clear what your data collection strategy to that what you get out of using they will get in return. Gone are your business objectives. their data doesn’t outweigh the the days when users would Collection, measurement and value they get from sharing it. willingly hand over all their tailoring of services are information without clear reason intrinsically linked. or payback. 04 Ahead of the curb

Cities’ infrastructures are slowing us down. They must combat the clutter with ecosystems that meet real-time needs. Fjord suggests

01 02 03 04 Design for moving from A to B Go for gains, not pains Remember the last mile Partners trump platforms

People will soon stop thinking You don’t have to be a transport As mobility becomes an Many mobility needs are currently about transport mode and instead provider today to embed mobility ecosystem, many aspects will unmet, but anyone can remedy start thinking about simply getting in your service. Consider new connect or merge. At this point, this with the right partner. The from point A to B. Allow for business models that capitalize on the main economic and social critical mass required to deliver a customers’ needs that ebb and the benefits of adding mobility value lies in smart system working ecosystem will require flow depending on context and into your service layer. management. It’ll be critical to collaboration and white-label over time. Provide hassle-free link this mobility system to platforms, API consolidations and pick-and-choose services. Think existing infrastructures, manage partnerships, both public beyond classic market access to it and allow seamless and private. segmentation, and address connections to other adjacent regional archetypes and places service areas. sharing the same mobility characteristics – beyond borders. 05 The inclusivity paradox

People are individuals, not types. Organizations must embrace meaningful mindsets to meet demand for true inclusivity. Fjord suggests

01 02 03 Marry quant and qual Focus on mindsets Become a Living Business over segmentation When designing services, Living Services are personalized carefully mix human insights with Move away from traditional services that adapt to user needs data to breathe more color into marketing approaches that treat in real-time context. To be able to facts that are often black and people as a homogenized group deliver them, you need to rewire white. Learn the differences according to their demographics. your business by putting humans between qualitative insights and Instead, focus on the mindsets at the center and strive for quantitative statistics at scale and that group people together based ultimate customer relevance – you how each can make the other on their motivations, attitudes and need to become a Living Business. more powerful. behaviors. 06 Space odyssey

Work and retail spaces need a digital makeover. It’s time to rethink our approaches and tools for design spaces. Fjord suggests

01 02 03 04 Let online behaviors Mind the gaps Link space and Create a connected ecosystem inform offline business strategy The experience of seamlessly Look at the ecosystem of services People’s digital behavior can give moving between digital and Define the productivity you want and experiences offered in your powerful insights to what people physical channels is evolving. from your space, and design space, and link those to your want and value. Use those insights Explore the potential of new tech around it. The business purpose of customers’ mindsets. where appropriate in a physical partnerships, such as the one space is changing, and that needs This is what should drive your environment, just like Amazon did between Google and Mastercard, to be reflected in your design decisions. with their four-star physical store to make it happen. business strategy. that only stocks products that have been given four stars or more in their online reviews. Synthetic realities 07

With face-swapping and voice simulation creating more believable synthetic realities, companies must work out how to capitalize on it – and manage risk. Fjord suggests

01 02 03 04 Reframe “authentic” Be clear, be prepared Explore synthetic realities as a Harness the power of AI- creative tool generated images for learning In a world of synthetic realities, Continue to distinguish your authenticity – something brand by having a clear purpose Don’t be put off by the fear of Explore ways that this technology consumers value highly – will be and a platform that can be built being accused of bending the can be used to educate people more important than ever. from, rather than an entity that truth. Audiences already accept and other AI systems in scenarios Understand how to be authentic can be copied and manipulated. CGI in film; soon people will that were previously not possible. and communicate that Be prepared for when things do accept synthetic realities in High-fidelity simulations offer a authenticity effectively. go wrong, and have policies in everyday life. Once it’s familiar, no whole new way to test and train. place to handle them quickly. one will call it new or different or scary anymore. Parting thoughts

What are you doing to understand people as individuals in their context?

How are you reducing friction, simplifying and smoothing experience?

What is your strategy for environment, mobility, transparency and trust?

What makes you relevant? Thank you [email protected] https://trends.fjordnet.com/