Hi Folks, it's been some time. Somethings happened, but I’m back.
Let's have a brief recap. In the last chapter, I wrote about the transformation of the designer's role in a new technological context.
In the previous chapter, I dep dive into six paradigms:
A New Product Baseline
Designing a new product baseline means how the product interacts and communicates with the end-user; we talk about digital interaction through physical artifacts. The "intangible" digital interface and services are the ones that create differentiation and value for humans.
Gig Service Experience
We saw the rise of platforms like Uber, Airbnb, and Amazon disrupting the way we consume and what we expect from organizations. The era of "the digital servitization" of traditional products and assets brought a new economic model.
Seamless Interactions
Integrating different artifacts and systems allows multiple experiences to feel just like one. At home, at the supermarket, wherever you are. IoT allows humans to mandate, manage, and decide their experience journey.
A Robotic Friendship
It's getting common to see a robot serving people's food in a restaurant, making food, parking your car, or even cleaning workplaces. Though the scope is practical, those "new vivid species" are being developed to understand us and are capable of generating a conversational language with us.
Augmented Journeys
We see the rise of virtual and simulated worlds that create new authentic/meaningful human experiences. The Metaverse creates sophisticated simulations involving social dynamics, objects, and complex situations. Somehow we are going to be involved in a "mirror world."
Decentralized systems
Web3 is a new era of decentralized economic models and power. The idea behind Web3 is decentralization and the governance of communities of people who will own/have rights of shared data.
When we talk about technology, we are talking about artifacts, automation, networks, etc. Also, we are talking about new human behaviors and expectations; and the coexistence among these elements and beings. Behind all this technological disruption, the most essential and functional component is the one that is “hidden” and “complex,”; and it’s called data.
Welcome to coexist_chapter 2:
The intangible becomes tangible.
So what is data?
The word data means "known Facts." Data is different types of information that are usually formatted in a particular manner and could be translated into a form that is efficient for movement or processing.
There are three types of data in the digital world: Big Data and Small Data. And then, there is Wide Data, a pretty new definition in the world of information technology.
Big Data refers to "quantity" because it is the sum of information from large data sets.
Example: Organization's CRM or Operations data sets.
Small Data refers to "humans" because it is the information that is readable and insightful for people.
Example: App Health from the iPhone.
Wide Data refers to "intersections" because it is the process that enables to find correlations between different kinds of data that could come from various sources (inside or outside the organization), and don't need to be specifically big data.
Example: An algorithm that intersects and creates insights of existing customer data (inside the organization) plus unemployment rate data (outside of the organization).
The setting and reliability of these types of data define the quality of experiences. Data has become the fuel of today's interactions.
But how all this data is processed? And how are they delivered?
The enablers of these interactions are Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Blockchain. Those technologies are the “translators” of tangible and intangible innovations. AI, ML, and blockchain gather, process, and create outcomes that allow the delivery of new technological experiences (es. IoT, virtual reality, etc.).
Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI refers to intelligent behaviors by machines. The source of intelligence relies on data sets.
Machine Learning (ML): ML refers to mathematical models based on data, known as "training data," in order to make predictions or decisions.
Blockchain: Blockchain refers to a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets (tangible and intangibles) in decentralized networks.
We, as designers, are used to designing experiences through customer journeys. We are used to mapping the different steps, touchpoints, etc., and collocating them as pieces of a puzzle. Mainstreams technologies might not be a piece of the puzzle; they should be the broadest framework that coexists in our customer journeys and, per default, in today’s experiences. We might need to acknowledge technological concepts and theories to create efficient and seamless interactions.
For example, facial recognition, smart contracts, augmented reality, etc., are ways to deliver experiences; and they could be in one point or many points of a customer journey. To design these experiences, we might need to collaborate with other disciplines. Still, as designers, we need to start to familiarize ourselves in a more profound way with new technologies to bring more tangible value to our projects.
Let’s start designing new customer journeys ;)
See you in our next chapter, and thank you for reading.
Cheers,
Marihum
PS: If you want to be part of the discussion, sign up to coexist newsletter. If you want to debate about those topics, drop me a line.