Where we stand: AI-ish apps and a dead simple brand experience
1. Chappy
Some of the highest paid engineers are recruited by online dating companies to try and create the ideal algorithm to match you with your soulmate™️. Chappy is a gay relationship platform for men to find their perfect match, whether they are looking for right now or something long term is up to them. I choose this experience from the online dating industry because of the specific group this company aims to serve. Not only do these designers have to create a romantic matching system but they can use the trends and desires of gay men to influence their product. I think this is an excellent example of how AI can serve an underrepresented community.
2. Tailor
Stitch your conversations, websites, emails, and more. Just take a few overlapping screenshots and Tailor will automatically detect them and create one long, seamless image. A great example of the small, mundane things where technology like AI-powered image recognition can step in and streamline the process for us. I see the future of AI and machine learning to be reached via small, pleasant steps. One day I will not be able to remember a time that I couldn’t tell my computer what to do, but to get there we have to grow comfortable giving up control and letting the machines work.
3. IFITT
A free service to get all your apps and devices talking to each other. By creating or installing “applets,” users can build custom recipes to automate physical products and services. With the IOT (internet of things) becoming prevalent in our everyday lives it only makes sense to work to integrate everything. How useful is having a connected home when you have to use 12 services to automate everything? Enter IFITT, while the service itself does not utilize AI the app teaches people how to make actionable “recipes.” This type of if-this-then-that thought process is the same way our current voice assistants work today.
4. Shazam
Discover, buy and share your favorite music and TV. Follow artists and see their Shazams, and while you’re at it, see bios, lyrics and personalized music news. Shazam has done many things right, but the best part of their experience is how the delight one feels when their query is correctly matched. Years ago Shazam was launched with one purpose, to identify music playing around you. Now the recognition empire has spread to posters, tv ads, art installations, and music videos. If Shazam has done anything right with AI, it’s reliable expansion.
Brand Experience: Chipotle
While this choice might seem pretty basic for a Texas student, Chipotle has refined their online and in-store presence to create a seamless customer journey. Store interiors, which average 2,200 square feet, can vary widely, but all Chipotle outlets share an intuitive layout free of the usual fast-food signage, which Chipotle’s Design Director Scott Shippey compares to “fingernails on a chalkboard.”
“You don’t need a lot of this busy signage to say: Stand here, order here, leave here,” he says. “The way you lay out a store can very easily guide [customers].”
Chipotle’s massive success can be credited to it’s approach to physical and experience design. Started in 1993 in Denver Colorado there are now over 2,250 worldwide. In a recent investor report, the CEO Steve Ells explained the chain is currently testing a new interior concept that he hopes will improve customer flow, provide better seating options and change how customers view the kitchen. The chain opened between 195 and 210 restaurants in 2017.
