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think moto‘s subjective mid-year trend report for 2013

The first six months of 2013 are over - time for a brief review of what we've been engaged with so far this year. Usually, at the beginning of the year a couple of big agencies release

their trend reports with forecasts for the upcoming year. We do it the other way round: after six month we look back at some projects and try to read off our subjective trends. »

noted down by marco spies (@marcosz)

By now we have several startups in our customer base and also the product departments of established companies like to see themselves as start-ups inside the company. Which means to them: we want to apply new, up-to-date, human centered and digitally-impelled paradigms in product development and branding. It is all about agile development, fast market response and build-to-order. About getting fast results and the fear of missing the connection to new markets.

Unfortunately, bureaucracy all to often gets in the way between insight and realization, which means much of the energy of employees is spent in vain.

Unlike the "kick-starters". Fast decisions are a must for start-ups. Most of them face decision-making

with adolescent enthusiasm. Even if the founders had been executives at Cisco and Genesys — and not exactly meet the expectations one has of a Berlin start-up — they are lean and decisive, like our client relayr, who finally might be able to make the internet of things come true.

By the way, some of the start-ups we work with, might be changing the economic system, with micro-financing in poor areas of the world for instance, like MAMBU. [s. trend #4] Others put efforts in making all things around us talk to each other. [s.

trend #5]

However, e-book distributor Bookwire, our oldest start-up client, is coming of age and still has a lot of potential in an industry, that is just starting out. ¶

#1

START-UPS IN BERLINAgile is the new new economy

#2

FL AT DESIGNWhen everything is flat the lighthouse shines the further.

All the start-ups mentioned above have one more thing in common: they know about the relevance of UI and UX Design. Our Branded Interaction Design (BIxD) approach naturally accommodates this. We don't see the design of user interfaces as an exercise for the style guide on page 97, but as a central starting point for the development of an entire brand strategy.

Further it is about interactions that shape the brand ("branded interactions" as we call it) and connect those with the existing spirit of time.

Our leading principles are smart, simple and sustainable. In our opinion less is more, for as long as it‘s sustainable. For our web products we have always been favoring a flat, reduced look which we combine with well defined interactive elements.

Obviously Don Norman's "affordances" are still validtoday. In fact, in a flat world it‘s easier to make certain aspects stand out. Think of a small hill in a completely flat world: it would certainly feel like a mountain. That calls for a correct use of hierarchy for interface elements though.

Unfortunately flat design grew to a popular phenomenon quite recently. Just like other trends, for example the „everything-must-be-visible“-rule, the path navigation, the sevens-count usability rule or the duty to be present on Facebook, clients still demand it, without questioning whether it applies to the brand, the content, the product or the target group. And yet there are a several reasons militating in favor and against flat design, as we mentioned on our Brand New Thinking blog not so long ago. [s. Skeuomorphic vs. Flat Design] ¶

#3

THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE

The publishing industry on the move.

As some of our clients are in the publishing sector (Rodale Motor Presse, Cornelsen Verlag, Bookwire) and we published our own books („Branded Interactions“, „Multi-Channel-Strategie im stationären Einzelhandel“), the changes in the publishing industry keep us busy. It remains exciting to see the publishing sector find it‘s way through the current abundance of predictions.

That is especially true for the narrative genre. Since the 90's I‘m engaged in interactive narrative formats and as it happens there is little news in this field. Years ago the scenarios of interactive narration already went through highly diverse disciplines like film, games or hypertext literature.

The experiments which we see today are just a step by step approach to the visions of former days, where one yet boisterously announced the end of the book.

Basically an appropriate technological platform for digital literature is still missing today. The kindle is nice when reading old-style but when it comes to the interface it‘s a step back in the times of the first Apple Macintosh and Atari ST. To sum it up: It‘s neat retro-style but nothing new. ¶

#4

SUSTAINABILIT Y & TRANSFORMATION

Transition and Constancy.

In the summer of love in 1969 Buckminster Fuller published his 'Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth'. It was actually a preface in which he draw the conclusion that a manual still has to be written. In the meantime, he says, we‘ll be floating in space only equipped with our remaining term.

Gradually several companies begin to understand themselves as an operating unit of this spaceship. From time to time at least some thinking humans can be found within these companies and they start to contribute to this manual. Since operating units need to follow the system log, only writing a manual isn't quite enough. We will have to change the log until it is suitable and Designers can play a role in this change. The very reason why creatives are needed to design systems in a more sustainable and flexible way is that they are looking for unconventional

solutions. Since we don‘t know yet which solutions will be successful, we have to just give it a go. Which brings us back to the subject of agility. [s. trend #1]

Sustainability and transformation are two topics, which are tightly connected and with whom we deal with more and more. As of now we try to make our agency more sustainable and socially fair. We rely on green technology and eco-power since the beginning and we now laid down on several rules to go even greener. It is anyway more productive to take the train instead of the plane.

But what else could we do to go greener? Laura Dohnmeier, master student at the Hochschule Hannover asked us exactly this question amongst others. She documented the results on her website superdasduhierbist.de. ¶

#5

INTERNE T OF THINGSMaking things social.

Repeatedly announced as a mega-trend, but still missing the suitable infrastructure: the internet of things. There are loads of challenges connected to the IoT. If you want to avoid mistakes, for example those of social media, you should think about the ecological and social consequences soon. In politics this is called ,technology assessment‘.

A bit more political awareness in design and technology industry wouldn‘t harm. Especially since Nest etc. are only the first step: eventually everything and everybody can be measured and basically be wired up. Virtually any device will be equipped with sensors which can be accessed from all around the world.

In case you are wearing a Nike Fuelband, Up, Fitbit or iHealth device around your wrist, you already know that this also applies to human beings. As usual this coin has two sides and those who are working on these solutions are already in the midst of it.

This makes it all the more important to conduct a debate about what is good and bad — for the purpose of the sustainable transformation.[s. trend #4] ¶

AND WHAT ABOUT MOBILE?

Hmm… whilst many trend reports still declare the all-time trend ,mobile‘ as a trending topic in 2013, let me tell you out of our experience: mobile is just there. At the same time, the

days are gone when apps came from Apple. Responsive is standard. Mobile first of course. Do you know a single person without tablet or smartphone? That's what I'm saying!

Mobile is the new web and that is what we work on every day after all.

REL ATED LINKS

www.brandedinteractions.comwww.brandnewthinking.de

www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordances_and.htmlwww.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller

www.agilemanifesto.orgwww.superdasduhierbist.de/index.php

www.digitalinnovationtoday.com/speed-summary-gigaom-report-the-internet-of-things-a-market-landscapewww.brandnewthinking.de/2013/07/skeuomorphic-vs-flat-design

www.relayr.dewww.bookwire.dewww.mambu.de

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