What happened to the design element of our lives after Covid-19?
After a year of anxiety, fear, and chaos, we are all trying to move on. Little by little, at least. Today, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this challenging year. As the Inca tribesman once said in a well-known story, I wanted to “wait for my soul to catch up.”
Experience design for us, as the professionals of this industry, means so much. But first of all, it reminds us of a journey. Of a user, of a customer, of a client. Or, to put it even more simply, of a person’s. We try to put ourselves in the shoes of someone else every single day with the hopes that we will come up with a fruitful outcome, a solution even, to make their journey better. Smoother, easier, happier.
As we all know, the circumstances of markets constantly shape users’ behavior, and this past year did not help with that either. While we had to juggle millions of possibilities simultaneously, we barely had time to reflect on the results of those changes.
So, let me take a deep breath and start.
1. Time to re-think the outdoors.
If only there were a graph that could show you my out-of-home experiences in a location-based, categoric representation for the duration of my existence. We would see a diagram similar to what I’ve drawn below, and an unprecedented spike for the parks in the last year would be apparent.
After the prioritization of outdoor experiences, I believe now is the time to re-imagine city living. There is some supporting evidence worldwide that ‘green space’ will be taken more seriously.
For instance, the Wunderman-Thompson intelligence team reports several initiatives. From spring 2021, Manhattan will have a brand new floating island park, which will be designed by the Heatherwick Studio. Similar ventures can be found in Copenhagen and Vienna. These inspirational pioneers show that in the future of city planning, outdoor spaces have even more potential to shape our urban experiences.
On the other hand, Google’s Covid-19 Mobility Trends research brings out a different side of this issue. Without a doubt, the existence of green space affected the usage rates during the restrictions period of 2020.
To give you a clear example from my country (Turkey, -2%), my current base (İstanbul, -6%), and my hometown (Antalya, +16%), I’ve taken a little look into the park visitation trends.
Antalya is the leading city in Turkey with the most numbers of national parks when İstanbul comes last in the rate of green space when it comes to urban living around the world, according to the World Cities Culture report in 2019.
2. The correlation between mood and design
We’ve spent a whole year feeling restless, agitated, and baffled. Now, we are all looking for the willpower we had lost somewhere in the last 12 months.
A New York Times article defines this state as “languishing.” We all feel a little out of focus, joyless, and aimless. Simply put, though we are not experiencing depression, this is the absence of well-being. The fifth flavor is the main missing component in many experiences of our daily routine, and it has taken its toll on our creativity, too.
Color palette trends have a way of representing each year in their own story. Most of the time, they give us clues for how that year has been. Was it nice to the people of this planet? Or was it excruciating?
Unfortunately, this year the answer was, “yeap.”
With that in mind, I think it should not shock anyone that Shutterstock’s annual Color Trends report shows three main colors we’ll all be focusing on in 2021. Set Sail Champagne (#FAEBD7), Fortuna Gold (#DAA520), and Tidewater Green (#2F4F4F).
Trying to find some peace, I believe, we all search for the calming features of our everyday life, whether it is the colors, the habits, or the stories.
3. Re-imagining our living spaces after pandemic
As several reports worldwide and the late observations I had on social media shows, people have gotten used to staying home. Before, most of our days would be spent between traffic, commute, hassle. Now, we have time to take a minute to ourselves, cook a lovely meal, and spend time at our homes.
“One-fifth of the US workforce could be entirely “ remote after COVID-19”
says the JWT Future 100 2021 Report. This surely had and affect of the design element of interiors and it will continue to have an impact on the way we think and the way we experience our living space.
While the share of e-commerce in total trade increased from 9% to 15% during pandemic (Google trends), growing search trends and changing consumer behavior informs us about the beginning of a new era in the online shopping experience for the Home & Living category. An increase in demand is expected for home and garden subcategories such as furniture, outdoor, home decoration and textiles, kitchen appliances, food, and home renovation.
As we all continued to bring our work life to the physical boundaries of our homes, necessities have changed rapidly. The Forbes article suggests people are now looking for clever working solutions, designated Zoom areas, indoor sports activities, and much more.
To be honest, though some days I feel like I am becoming more and more aware of the impact of the pandemic in our lives, at the same time, I sometimes think that it is still relatively early to begin comprehending the outcome of it all.
However, I believe there is some value in defining the periods as you move through them. So, this is what I will do as a professional, as a designer, and as a 21st-century human being. Hopefully, the dots will connect backward.
Credits
Sezen Ahıskal
Strategy Director @Spectailor
Thanks for reading! Since you made it this far, I’ll introduce myself.
My name is Sezen, I’m a strategist and I write stuff here sometimes.
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