2020 and BEJOND.

Thoughts on which trends are going to shape business, technology, content and design in the years ahead.

The year 2019 is almost over. It felt fast. And a lot has happened.
As we approach not just a new year, but a new decade, it’s time to think about what challenges and opportunities lie ahead of us.

We have asked colleagues from all crafts to tell us what they consider to be the main trend or theme that will be shaping the upcoming months and years.

This is an invitation to a hopefully lively discussion. Please do share your perspectives, thoughts and projections in the comments.

Tim, Associate Partner

Embrace 2020 — a year in which companies end discussing design and finally start designing.

Design is a phrase known and used by everybody. From the C-level to consumers — everyone has her or his own opinion about design and cares about it in varying degrees.

If we talk about user experience design specifically (or customer experience design as a whole) the trend continues that businesses realize the importance to transform their value proposition into distinctive digital experiences.

We strive to create holistic products, from digital marketing campaigns to content individualization on a personal level — not only to increase revenue, but to boost all relevant fields of business, like employee satisfaction, service processes and more.

While „UX Design“ in general still tries to find its role in companies between the CTO, CMO and CIO, small companies just produce new „WOWs“ — not only by building mobile first, user first, or cloud first, because their latitude to fall is lower.

Let’s embrace this and keep experimenting with new ideas. Let’s be open for a culture of change and embrace the constant inconsistency of everything in life and markets. Culture will always develop and thus we in CX Design, UX Design or whatever you want to call it, will, too.

Bastian, Associate Partner

The return of reason.

Despite all the talk about brand purposes, about visions and missions, we are living in a world that mostly pushes for short-term value extraction over long-term value creation. Light-speed growth over profitability. Efficiency over effectiveness.

For many, over the last two decades “move fast and break things” has become an economic mantra. Indoctrinated by the tech companies that today are dominating online communication, information search, advertising and commerce. This mantra has served us well, especially those among us who are in the disruption business. And indeed, there is and remains a lot to be liked about it. But it has also led to some severe imbalances, misconceptions and failures.

As our understanding of the vast impact that digital technologies continue to have on economies and societies, on politics and culture — on our lives — matures, their shiny aura is getting cracks. Some of those cracks are visible. Like the WeWork disaster and the over-valuation of many startups. Or Facebook’s role in various data scandals or disinformation campaigns. Or — on a smaller and less important scale — Adidas admitting that they over-invested in performance and digital at the expense of real brand building. Others are more subtle and will require further investigation in the years ahead. Like the effects that social media have on aspects of mental health, especially among their younger users.

I believe (and hope) that next year we will see the beginning of a revaluation of reason and meaning. And, as a consequence, a more conscious and reflected dealing with digital technologies, customer data, and respective capital. More companies will adopt a slower, more considerate application of those powerful tools. This return of reason, in combination with the rather positive implications that digitalisation has undeniably had on design, on workflows and company cultures, will result in more relevant innovation and better products. Hopefully. It’s about time.

Rebecca, Associate

More companies need to embrace a culture of experimentation.

Trying out many, focusing on few and doing those things that actually create value. That’s what dealing with trends in 2020 should be about.

Smart strategies for smart devices will be even more important. Content managers should be aware of new technological developments and the challenges and chances they bring along for content distribution as they also affect media usage. However, it is not enough to deal with new topics and things only in theory. What is needed instead is a culture of experimentation to try things out and really understand them. This will be the key for keeping pace in this dynamic world of digital change and innovation. Though, keeping always in mind that not every trend is suitable for all purposes.

Sebastian, Associate Partner

Stories. Not spam.

The good, the bad and the ugly truth about content that’s automated with artificial intelligence (AI): It’s not written well — that’s good. There’s no difference to 99% of the stuff that’s written by people — that’s bad. 99% of the people will be replaced by bots — that’s ugly.

But there’s a beautiful truth as well: Creativity can’t be replaced by AI. It’s on top of the Robotic Curve by brand guru Marty Neumeier. Let’s aim for the 1%. Create Stories. Not Spam.

Pascal, Associate Partner

The future is going to be awesome.

We keep chasing new buzzwords and the next hype. In our euphoria we overestimate the importance of trends today — and their impact tomorrow. No trend from this year has saved the world or destroyed any business. So many topics will be with us in 2020.

Artificial intelligence is still in its very early stages, voice control has certainly not made any designer unemployed. And who still remembers Google Glass?

Nevertheless VOICE, AUGMENTED REALITY and VIRTUAL REALITY will get a boost when better hardware becomes accessible to more and more people, thanks to the gaming industry.

Branding in the age of “no interface” is as interesting as sound design in the age of “voice control”. “Always beta” is also exciting and the “new is always better attitude” of the last few years can now be synchronized with the ever increasing desire for purpose and sustainability.

Tim, Director

Be brave and play more.

2020 will be won by brave brands that do two things. They will use social platforms for what they were initially designed for — connecting people. And they will shift their efforts to a more community based social media marketing. That means that they will have to build conversational activities around their brands to bring their fans and customers together, creating more value for people. Overseeing the relationships that people are building and continuously learning from them will be the brands’ main duties.

The brave ones will be quick to play and experiment with upcoming platforms and social technologies (e.g. TikTok and Face Filters) to make some headway in the battle for the attention of their consumers.

Despite the fact that TikTok will need to significantly increase its efforts when it comes to security issues and data concerns, it will lead the way to how consumers engage with content over the next years.