Recently Gartner revealed their predictions regarding the top 10 technology trends for 2020. I welcome the opportunity such predictions give me to think around how UX practitioners will have to adapt to such change, and what new types of project work may result from such technological advances.
Here’s the list, with my thoughts on the impacts and effects to the UX domain.
Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation combines machine learning (ML), packaged software, and automation tools to deliver work. This enhanced automation is already beginning to be implemented in auto manufacturing.
The impact to UX: More opportunities to leverage cross-platform solutions such as cloud computing and localized hardware to envision and design “end-to-end” automated experiences. Look to Service Design to become more important and relevant regarding the definition of a Hyperautomation experience.
Multiexperience
Gartner hypothesizes that through 2028, user experience will evolve significantly in how users perceive interact with the digital world, as AR VR and mixed reality (become more commonplace).
The impact to UX: This trend is the most impactful to the UX domain, in that new interaction models and experiences will beget new challenges in ensuring the technology maps and mirrors to human factors ad how people engage with such technology. One recent example: How people play board games will be radically reimagined by technology from TiltFive (run by some old friends of mine)
Democratization of Expertise
Wider access to technical expertise or business domain expertise for users via “a radically simplified experience and without requiring extensive and costly training.”
The Impact to UX: Leveraging data to provide insights and smart recommendations to users still requires such insights to be aligned with how people work and what they do. Making sure these “smart” analytical insights are relevant and useful is the job of a UX practitioner to do.
Human Augmentation
“Physical augmentation enhances humans by changing their inherent physical capabilities by implanting or hosting a technology element on their bodies, such as a wearable device.”
The Impact to UX: “More human than human?” That line from Blade Runner is what this prediction reminds me of. A movie that, ironically, takes place in the exact same month that it is as I write this article. The future!
Wearables have been around for a while, and I think the sci-fi nature of this prediction makes it the one that I think is a bit of an overreach. We WILL have extended human abilities thanks to technology… I just don’t think it will be next year.
That being said, the level of involvement UX practitioners should have in such projects and efforts are directly related to the level and extend of such enhancement. Brushing up on Human Factors and Ergonomics 101 would not be a bad idea for Uxers.
Transparency and Traceability
“Transparency and traceability refer to a range of attitudes, actions and supporting technologies and practices designed to address regulatory requirements, preserve an ethical approach to use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies, and repair the growing lack of trust in companies.”
The impact to UX: The use of analytics to inform the creation of a personalized or bespoke experience is one that I have pursued on past projects – now, because of GDPR and other regulations, I have to be mindful about how I use data and for what purpose. When in doubt? Disclose the use of personalized data, run the use by your company’s lawyers, and strongly question whether the use of such data is worth the potential (legal and ethical) risk.
The Empowered Edge
“Much of the current focus on edge computing comes from the need for IoT systems to deliver disconnected or distributed capabilities into the embedded IoT world for specific industries such as manufacturing or retail. However, edge computing will become a dominant factor across virtually all industries and use cases as the edge is empowered with increasingly more sophisticated and specialized compute resources and more data storage. ”
The impact to UX: “Smarter” and more “Specialized” Edge devices means that experience designers can create even more targeted experiences leveraging such technology. And with the declining cost and increased availability of ubiquitous Internet access, you can design specific experiences even easier than before. It’s a boon for both users and UX.
Distributed Cloud
“Distributed cloud is the distribution of public cloud services to different locations while the originating public cloud provider assumes responsibility for the operation, governance, updates to, and evolution of the services. This represents a significant shift from the centralized model of most public cloud services and will lead to a new era in cloud computing.”
The impact to UX: Decentralized computing power in the cloud is directly linked to the aforementioned Empowered Edge, but the specificity of this prediction is important. For UX practitioners, it’s is worth putting the effort in to become familiar with what cloud-based services the two major cloud providers (Amazon and Microsoft) bring to market, so they can leverage these services to create solutions for users.
Autonomous Things
“As autonomous things proliferate, we expect a shift from stand-alone intelligent things to a swarm of collaborative intelligent things where multiple devices will work together, either independently of people or with human input.”
The impact to UX: The connected devices dream of the 1990s is finally becoming a reality. The challenge, of course, is many of these devices are made by rival companies who don’t want to be open – they have created “walled gardens” where connectivity only works for their own hardware. Some companies are trying to breakdown these walls, but it’s an uphill climb.
Look for areas where open standards exist for devices to connect and consider these when it comes to designing a connected experience.
Practical Blockchain
““Blockchain remains immature for enterprise deployments due to a range of technical issues including poor scalability and interoperability. Despite these challenges, the significant potential for disruption and revenue generation means organizations should begin evaluating blockchain, even if they don’t anticipate aggressive adoption of the technologies in the near term.”
The impact to UX: The way data is stored and secured can change in dramatic ways, thanks to blockchain. How and when such change will occur? When enough industry leaders move their legacy systems to blockchain-powered systems and services. I don’t think this will happen anytime soon, as there is a lot of “interia” that has to be overcome to change things in any Enterprise. I don’t see much direct impact to UX in the short term – worth getting familiar with Blockchain, tho.
AI Security
“AI and ML will continue to be applied to augment human decision making across a broad set of use cases. While this creates great opportunities to enable hyperautomation and leverage autonomous things to deliver business transformation, it creates significant new challenges for security teams and risk leaders with a massive increase in potential points of attack.”
The Impact to UX: Not much, frankly. Unless you are a UX practitioner working for a company designing security systems, in which case you have even more data sources and processes to help protect.