“Intuitive design is how we give the user new superpowers” ~ JARED SPOOL.
Over the last one decade, the technology landscape has evolved drastically. Cloud computing has changed the paradigm altogether for all IT solutions. AI and IoT have evolved, still in a journey of exploration and innovations. 5G empowers handheld devices for data transfer over the internet at speed never before. Storing favorite songs, movies, etc., on a hard drive became the old generation habit. Now everything is accessible over a click away. Edge devices empowers compute capacity at the nearest machine, no need to depend on central servers deployed thousands of miles away. These devices are intelligent; they can learn by themselves and act wisely.
Reimagine user applications and experience considering these evolved technologies – handheld devices, edge computing powered by cloud services with applied AI solutions. Considering the aspects stated below, let’s reimagine the user journey and make it a superpower for users.
AI’s Power Play: Leveraging the Advantage
Artificial Intelligence is a widely popular term already and trending. It is pacing up hand-to-hand with the business now, not only in academic papers or science fiction. It is transforming the ways companies work and providing many innovative new services and business models to arise. This change has emerged from an amalgamation of Big Data, Cloud Computing, Automation, and Digital Transformation. Together, these technologies created a fertile soil for Artificial Intelligence.
Further penetration of AI is expected to provide a never-before user experience and journey. Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant are the enablers for mobile AI; a lot more is yet to come. Though, user journey reimagination starts with these enablers.
Getting Personal: Custom Tailored Care
Most of the new opportunities for personalized solutions lie at the ‘Edge’; companies will control user life experiences much more than they do today. This is going to be feasible with Edge computing and Edge devices. Edge cloud brings cloud advantages such as unprecedented agility, scalability, flexibility, reliability, resilience, security, and availability. Edge computing and edge cloud have given new dimensions to bring the AI running near to consumers. Solutions based on sensors and smart devices considering far edge or near edge could be leveraged. Immense research and explorations are running to penetrate edge computing.
According to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc, the global edge computing market size is anticipated to reach USD 61.14 billion by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 38.4% over the forecast period.
Life in the Fast Lane: 5G Innovation Acceleration
5G rollout will change user experience fundamentally with transformed operational efficiency. The low-latency, high-speed network would provide immersive experiences. Smart homes, Smart cities, and Smart societies will be the reality. Modernization of existing solutions and business processes/platforms will be a critical need.
Image /video classification, segmentation and object detection going to change application landscape for users. Innovative scenarios leveraging data, AI with thoughtful integration of hardware (edge devices) and software (based on edge cloud and cloud computing) provide endless opportunities for next-generation user experiences.
Manual Was So Last Season: Let’s Get Automated with Zero UI!
Seamless adoption of any solution requires a natural mode of communication support. These interactions can be via Listen, Speak, and See. Voice, facial, signature and fingerprint recognition are already getting utilized for biometrics security checks. Further, voice recognition encourages hands-free use; facial recognition can identify and use the user expressions, mobile payment with fingerprint and what not? A lot more can be done.
User flow automation with consideration of the natural mode of communication will be the driver for the next level of user experience.
The Greatest Show: Spectacular AR/VR
An augmented reality-based mobile game, Pokemon Go, has mind-blowing statistics. Remember Pokemon Go? 800 million downloads, more than 5 million daily active users, $1.2 billion revenue.
This number speaks for the popularity of augmented reality. Many popular social and e-commerce platforms are already in their journey of AR adoption.
Virtual reality is different from Augmented reality, so it is a use case for business solutions. Augmented reality modifies something on reality; Virtual reality gives a new world to experience. AR/VR is immerging rapidly to provide a spectacular experience to users.
Extreme Makeover: Continuum Edition
Latest technology innovations like wearable technologies, other IoT smart devices, location-based services such as geofencing, etc., demands a makeover of existing solutions or innovating something new. Wearable devices like fitness bracelets, smartwatches, health monitors, glasses, etc. can be integrated with mobile applications and enable many addressed / unaddressed opportunities. Fitbit and Apple Watch are good examples of technology usage and increased engagement with the user. Smart home/city solutions have just initiated their journey, a lot more yet to come.
Digital payments, security appliances, transportation applications, small/mid-size business solutions and many other domains need extreme makeover with the latest technologies to stay up to date with the competition and grab the unexplored opportunities.
The Strategies: Where to Place Your Bets
As a business owner, one needs to keep an eye on the pulse of modern technologies and trends to succeed and stay ahead in the competition. Remember Nokia? There was a time when they were the supplier of more than 70% of mobile devices across the globe. Rest all is the history now.
What next after digital transformation? Users are already empowered with different digital solutions, even digital detox. So, it’s time to move towards reimagination of user experience, whether it’s business to business, business to employee, or business to consumer applications. Technologies like 5G, Edge computing, Edge devices, Applied AI, AR/VR are opening immense business opportunities and are expected to be pervasive.
Business needs to focus on discovering hidden treasures by connecting the data dots and diving deep into data. Exploit AI solutions to understand user behavior and penetrate the offerings landscape for users. Monetize 5G / Edge as a business service platform; telcos are going to provide unmatched speed and bandwidth to consumers. Leading cloud providers – AWS, GCP and Azure, are already on their pathway to empower more and more Edge cloud services. The amalgamation with Artificial Intelligence is expected to drive market growth. An edge AI system is going to help with real-time decisions in a matter of milliseconds. The global artificial intelligence market was valued at USD 62.35 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.2% from 2021 to 2028 by Grand View Research, Inc.
So, the takeaway, “Reimagine the user journey to revolutionize the relationship between humanity, science & technology and make it a superpower for end-users.”