Historical brands still in the race to adapt to the upcoming “no interface” future
Last May, I addressed the underlying frustration now perceived among consumers and generated by the cross platform user experience of the GAFA (and friends). Snapchat’s navigation standards now adopted by Instagram is another proof of this convergence. See my previous post here: “We now live in an era of frustration, the rapid adoption of new standards”. These design standards rapidly expand nowadays because of this always-on consumer attention in a multi-screens ecosystem, as described by our friends from USC Annenberg below:
As technology is evolving, audiences have changed alongside. Consumers are increasingly distracted and demanding: their attention is frequently split as they move fluidly between devices, often managing multiple screens at the same time; they have access to an unprecedented catalog of content, granting them the luxury of choice and inviting them to develop finely tuned tastes when it comes to their media consumption;
In more recent years, we’ve seen the influx of new screens and technologies that bring us even closer to the realm of science fiction, with virtual reality headsets, wearable devices like Google Glass and the Apple Watch, and a rapidly growing Internet of Things changing the ways we play, learn, work, and live.
But what really matters at the end for consumers is the experience. Media ecosystems are built on UX design, not hardware, even for Apple. And the interface remains the front door of this user-centered design. While the media industry has been adopting relevant consumer-centric strategy, we’re now moving to a new paradigm focusing on human-machine interaction.
Media ecosystems are built on UX design, not hardware, even for Apple.
This is justified by saturated markets, where search and discovery is now more than ever the main challenge to generate consumer engagement. Even Snapchat is therefore going there with the acquisition of Vurb (mobile search app). Startups understand this new paradigm, a fundamental mindset to develop their presence. They invent the digital language, the new standards along GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon). And if startups can sometimes lack infrastructure and scalability, GAFA don’t.
Talking about new UX Design standards, we have to see the interface as more than the screen. Now, AI is the new UI. Not only because more and more we engage without interacting with a screen (voice with Amazon Echo, Siri and the new Google Home, as well as gesture), but also and mainly thanks to possible integration (API) and ”backend” machine learning. The rise of IoT might be the best witness of all that. The recent announcement made by IFTTT (The connector for Internet services is making itself available to more users by integrating with third-party apps) is at least aligned with this ambition of invisible machine to machine interactions.
We seem to be entering an era of worldblending: the screens, new and old, are still there, but they’re becoming increasingly conversant with and reactive to elements of the physical world. There’s media, but there’s also more, meaning that in some ways we’re returning to more timeless practices of communication and interaction, infused with an element of subtle, digitally powered finesse. Partially, this means that we’re connecting to our media and our ecosystem of devices through invisible interfaces (consider Amazon’s Echo or the automated responses described by Wilson and Daugherty), or embracing the idea that “AI is the new UI.” — Francesca Marie Smith, USC Annenberg Innovation Lab
In this context, brands have to lead the development of this new language to develop, maintain or increase their presence towards consumers. But how can brands create this post digital language? Who’s been succeeding so far? Who’s really going beyond applying analog practices to a digital ecosystem? There are not that many names we could share that we would consider really successful, even though the Disney and Nike of this world have tried hard to reach this goal. Could you quote one company of the 20th century (i.e. somehow other than the GAFA and NATU) who’s succeeded in addressing:
1. the development of a real digital interface design (and not only the on-screen replica of analog services);
2. the blending of hardware and software and the related cross device/platform integration; and
3. an adequate data backbone to develop AI-based relevant services and content.
There’s still a window for brands to own their future, before digital native players redefine the rules of the physical world as well, as it’s starting to happen. So far perceived as declining assets, physical retail spaces are key assets for brands to succeed in a world where the definition of interface is being redefined beyond the traditional definition of a screen. Think about retailers, hotels, financial institutions, car makers. Historical brands therefore have today more assets than digital players to adapt their ecosystem to current and upcoming demanding consumer needs. They have a unique opportunity to prototype new User eXperience by redefining the language of the blended physical/digital brand multi-platform ecosystem.
