4 Top Trends We Saw in 2019
Objective Experience is a consultancy that specializes in user research, design, and strategy. Throughout the course of 2019, we saw the emergence of a number of trends. Across a wide variety of projects, we’ve summarised some key points into actionable recommendations that you can take into 2020 for consideration when working on the next big thing.
1. I want to be rewarded for my loyalty
People want to simplify their life admin, especially their finances. They are looking to consolidate financial service providers, sticking to one insurance company or bank — but they need an incentive. Rewarding customer loyalty can incentivise customers to make the change and bring all their products together. The incentive is expected to be financial but could take the form of access to exclusive offers or premium service. So long as they feel they’re being rewarded, they’re more likely to stick around and move under one umbrella.
2. Sustainability and ethics are big considerations
People are becoming increasingly aware of their impact on the environment and their community, including businesses they support. Sustainable and ethical alternative brands are gaining traction and are seen as a better alternative to large corporations. When given the choice of similar offerings, people would rather support sustainable businesses funding causes like countering climate change, charitable organizations, and supporting local communities.
3. Expect to be vetted, validated truths are important
There needs to be proof behind content creation for any purpose. Over several projects in the last year, we’ve seen people routinely look to check and validate advice or opinions. People are becoming increasingly critical of the content they consume online and its trustworthiness. That trustworthiness is a conduit to brand, and a brand is, in essence, how people perceive you. When publishing content or putting content that can be interpreted as subjective online, use evidence and don’t be afraid to reference your sources. Research shows that people do check. If your brand isn’t perceived as trustworthy, they’ll find one that is.
4. What you offer is a part of the bigger picture
Known throughout the design community as Jobs To Be Done. Everything comes down to intent, progress, and outcomes. We’ve seen across multiple projects we’ve run in 2019, a significant number of our insights are about people wanting to achieve a goal or an outcome and finding a product that offers them progress or a means to accomplish it. We can apply this approach in most research to discover what things people want to achieve, and where you can offer progress towards it.
Example: Let's talk about the environment and coffee. An important consideration people have when making purchases is the environmental impact. Coffee pods have been a contentious issue in the last several years due to their contribution towards waste. Pod and Parcel identified a healthy environment as an outcome that people wanted to achieve. Producing biodegradable pods was an alternative that offered progress towards this outcome, as compared to how ordinary pods become landfill and negatively impact the environment.
5. Close enough is not good enough
Accessibility is a factor that needs to be front of mind when designing products or services. Not all impairments are obvious and easily accounted for. WCAG 2.0 provides a great baseline for ensuring what you create is universally accessible. Some of the projects we’ve worked on have shown us that without testing with participants who will use these products, we’re blindly following guidelines without testing for the known unknowns.
Accessibility can be situational. Carrying your child when doing the shopping is by no means to be perceived as a disability, but it may impair someone’s ability to use that grocery list app. Ethnography or contextual inquiries with the people who use your products inform us of how we can design for these niche situations that nobody might think of.
If you’re interested in learning more about how your products or services perform, reach out to us to learn more about how we might partner on a project.