Experiences: Technology Trends

The goal of UX design is to make the experience better, smoother, and more pleasant for everyone. We no longer communicate and connect with people just through our phone. Our daily lives are changing as a result of smart speakers and virtual assistants that can play music for us or turn off our stove.

UX design is among the most dynamic design disciplines because we now live in a completely new world of interactivity. With increasing numbers of users, requirements, shifting needs, and responses, UX and UI designers must meet challenges and opportunities that did not previously exist—such as the development of novel interactions and relationships. Read More

Something wonderful has been happening in the world of software development for quite some time now: we are seeing an incredibly strong trend among the developers of Software as a Service (SaaS) products who are questioning the need for passwords for Web applications. Gartner anticipates that 60% of large, global enterprises will implement some kind of passwordless authentication method by 2022. The percentage of mid-size businesses making this prediction is even higher: 90%, making this an essential consideration when you’re rethinking your application’s log-in and sign-up flows.

The elimination of passwords challenges cybersecurity’s status quo, reduces bad friction, and enables businesses to enhance their products’ user experience. What is wrong with passwords? What are the pros and cons of passwordless authentication. How can apply this approach to your next product? Let’s find out. Read More

As recently as 25 years ago, the physical reality in which we lived was an analog world that was becoming increasingly global. While globalization is still very much a factor today, our world is now decidedly connected and is becoming increasingly virtual. However, thanks to a combination of enabling technology and the possible impacts of global warming, some aspects of globalization are shifting back to being local. This connectedness—both virtual and local—is contributing to the emerging world of smartware.

As we detailed in “The Smartware Transformation,” smartware is a convergence of emerging technologies and science. Artificial intelligence (AI) is fueling its rise. The technologies that are enabling smartware include the Internet of Things (IoT), mixed-reality environments, and additive fabrication, or 3D printing, as are incredible advances in sciences such as genomics and neuroscience. Some or all of these advances are core to the emergence of incredible new products that are just over the horizon—products such as self-driving vehicles and neighborhood parts manufacturing. In “Smartware, AI, and Magical Products,” we took a look at the current darling of technology and entertainment media: artificial intelligence. We’ll continue that analysis in this installment, as we look at some other core smartware technologies, before covering the key sciences underlying smartware in our next column. Read More