THE ERA OF LIVING SERVICES adfa LIVING SERVICES ARE THE RESULT OF TWO FORCES DIGITIZATION OF EVERYTHING AND LIQUID EXPECTATIONS adfa TABLE OF CONTENTS 01 05 LIVING SERVICES: PREPARE TO ATOMIZE DESIGNED FOR LIFE Page 66 Page 04 02 04 06 07 CREATIVEWHERE DESTRUCTION: WILL LIVING DESIGNINGPRIVACY FOR ONE: AND ETHICS: HOW LIVINGSERVICES SERVICES EMERGE? WILL SERVICESNAVIGATING MADE TO MEASURE OUR CHALLENGE BUSINESSES Page 74 CHANGING VALUES Page 18 03 07 05 APPENDIX A BRAVE NEW WORLD PRIVACY AND ETHICS: FOR BRANDSPREPARE TO ATOMISE NAVIGATING OUR Page 26 CHANGING VALUES Page 86 04 WHERE WILL06 LIVING SERVICES EMERGE? Page 32 DESIGNING FOR ONE: SERVICES MADE TO MEASURE 01 LIVING SERVICES: DESIGNED FOR LIFE truly transformative for business What are Living and society alike. Some call it the Services? ‘Internet of Things,’ but in our view this does not accurately describe the inherent benefits this age will bring Living Services are and its key characteristics. We think the result of two this is the era of Living Services. powerful forces: Over the next five years, sensors, the cloud, connected smart devices the digitization and realtime analytics will combine of everything and to deliver a new layer of connected intelligence that will revolutionize ‘liquid’ consumer the ability of brands and organizations to ofer interesting expectations. and increasingly indispensable digital services to consumers. Living Services respond by wrapping around us, constantly Living Services are highly learning more about our needs, sophisticated and able to constantly intents and preferences, so learn and evolve, almost as if they that they can flex and adapt to are alive. They will transform and make themselves more relevant, improve the way we live, both engaging and useful. Consumers by removing mundane tasks and demand this now as the standards ofering services that surprise and are being set by the best of delight us. By being physically close breed across the entirety of their to us and wrapping themselves experiences, not restricted by around the everyday things we do, sector—hence liquid expectations. Living Services will intuitively learn our habits, likes and dislikes and This is an incredibly exciting time, become tailored to our individual as we are on the cusp of the next and changing needs. The result is major wave of transformative digital digital services that are contextually services. We are already seeing aware and able to react in real time the integration of smart digital to changes in the environment or our technology into many inanimate patterns of behavior—creating once objects, devices and machines. unimaginable engaging experiences. Just like the previous two waves— the desktop Web in the 1990s and mobile in the 2000s—this will be LIVING SERVICES 5 A defining characteristic of Living Services of digital transformation that has been is that they will be designed around the challenging businesses for the past 20 years. needs of individuals, as opposed to generic services defined by an organization for Each digital wave has added to and built mass consumption. on the previous one. The first wave was the desktop Web. It started in the early 1990s and Living Services will profoundly afect hit the commercial mainstream in the second brands (see Chapter 3) and design (we half of the decade, triggering the dot-com consider how in Chapter 6). The challenge boom and bust. Its impact has been powerful. will be that design must become tailored, The desktop Web revolution ushered in responsive and able to adapt quickly to Internet services such as eBay and Amazon, changing circumstances. Visual, screen- which disrupted the way in which consumers based design will retain a central role, but buy and sell products. These businesses are designers will have to engage more with still powering the digital economy. Similarly, human senses including voice, gesture Google revolutionized how people searched and sensors on the body, and recognize for information, while early social media ambient circumstances such as temperature channels such as Friendster began to change and location inputs. The role of design will the way in which we connect and interact with become more important than ever. friends and family. Designers will need to focus not only on THE MOBILIZATION OF ergonomic and operational concerns (what is the user’s physical context/what do we DIGITAL SERVICES need to deliver to him now?), but also on The second wave has been happening over the emotional and physiological concerns (how past 10 years and is all about the relentless rise is this person feeling physically/what is her of mobile. The first decade of the 21st century state of mind?). This will be increasingly has seen the inexorable spread of mobile possible as technology delivers the data phones across the world and the acceptance required to understand these factors. of some mobility fundamentals, such as With so many considerations to take into texting, payments and the mobile Internet. account when designing Living Services, it’s important that designers exploit the From 2007, the launch of the iconic iPhone full capabilities of the technology at their accelerated both consumer take-up of smart disposal to incorporate elements in their mobile devices and sparked an intense period services that amaze and excite consumers, of innovation. Established handset technology and help build a lasting relationship with the and computer brands began competing with brand in question. new entrants such as Google and Microsoft, ofering alternative operating systems. LIVING SERVICES: THE THIRD Smart mobile computing is approaching WAVE OF DIGITAL ubiquity in developed markets. As of press It’s tempting to simplify the arrival of Living time, the Pew Research Internet project, Services as a single shift in technology (by reports that 64% of U.S. adults own a reference to smart devices, for example). smartphone. In fact, Living Services are the next wave LIVING SERVICES 6 In 2014, mobile firmly replaced desktop and technologies that can contextualize as the primary means of accessing digital information in real time. Most consumer service services. A U.S. study by ComScore found that sectors have been influenced by, or evolved in, smartphones and tablets accounted for 60% of what they ofer as a result of the mobile app total digital media time spent, up from 50% the revolution. previous year. In mobile banking and payments, innovative Smartphones also spawned a whole new services such as Venmo and Square are mobile software ecosystem in the form of emerging forces. For navigation, Google Maps apps, which introduced new mass-market has become indispensable, while research brands such as Minecraft and Angry Birds, and platforms Yelp and AroundMe are becoming a new tech lexicon. common location-based reference points; Dropbox is a favorite for data storage and The consumer’s love afair with smartphone sharing; Skype for low-cost calls; Evernote for technology means that social media such as personal information—the list is endless. Facebook and Twitter have become multi- channel services, and mobile has prompted the WAVE THREE: BEYOND THE creation of social channels such as WhatsApp, Tinder, Instagram and Snapchat. INTERNET OF THINGS The third wave of digital innovation has This wave has also been transformative naturally progressed to the point where through smartphone geolocation capabilities businesses are actively integrating connected technology into other objects. The ‘Internet of Things’ is the term now commonly used to describe a future where everything—from fridges to milk cartons, medicine dispensers, wearable technology and cars—will talk to us, our smart devices and each other. Some of the projections feel pointless (egg cartons? Really?) others, highly disruptive. Living Services are a step beyond the limited descriptor ‘Internet of Things.’ In efect, they breathe life into what will become a vast network of connected machines and objects, enabling branded services to flow through and utilize this connected environment. This will also accelerate the “atomization” of services, something we explore in Chapter 5. AroundMe is one of the common location-based reference points. LIVING SERVICES 7 Living Services are a natural evolution being actively discussed in the late 1990s. from desktop and mobile. It is the growing So what is new? The answer is that all of infusion of digital technology into the the concepts above are now deliverable at hardware and built environments that scale. It is not only possible to create true surround us in the modern world. Living Services, but it is becoming a business imperative that is driven by consumer WHY NOW? expectations. THE BREAKING WAVE We are very close to Living Services It is true that many of the conceptual ideas — becoming mass-market phenomena. In from challenging to pointless—behind Living the next two years we will see Living Services have been with us for a decade or Services start to transform a wide range even longer. ‘Smart’ objects that are able of industries and markets in diferent to help us by understanding what we need ways. Current investor interest in sectors and when, the arrival of artificial intelligence, like ‘wearables’ will shortly broaden into ubiquitous access to computing, the fusion sustained widespread investment in the of physical and virtual reality, and seamless services that flow through new devices supply of information are all ideas that were and a diverse mix of companies becoming involved in their development, rather than individual companies carrying out isolated experimentation. But the key driving force behind Living Services is changing consumer expectations across two areas: cultural and commercial. Culturally, consumers, particularly in the younger age groups, are placing greater emphasis on the importance of life outside work, than older generations. A report by the White House on the millennial generation (those born between 1980 and the mid- 2000s), found that a greater number of this group valued life goals such as having time for recreation and finding new ways to experience things than those from ‘Generation X’ or the ‘baby boomer’ generation.