Digital trends 2017 – The playlist of 2017

Digital trends 2017 – The playlist of 2017

Berlin, Jan 11, 2017, by Nina Jungius

This year is just some days old and therefore it's high time to look for the blinks that 2017 has to offer. Since 7 turned out to be our number of the last year, we arranged a little playlist of the 7 trends that will come up in 2017, consisting of song titles all about the number 17. Hope you'll enjoy it ;)

1. It’s all about the technique: Du kannst nicht immer 17 sein

2017 is the year of techno sapiens. Compared to previous years, where wrists became smarter and smarter, 2017 focuses more on the eyes thanks to wearables such as VR-glasses. Experiencing the best VR is indeed kind of expensive but along with the development of new formats there will come more affordable gadgets than Google Glasses. Snapchat Spectacles are a good example of more affordable gadgets. Since their launch in 2016, they are a real hype in the States. Let’s hope the snap-glasses will pass the testing phase and find their way to Germany this year.

If high-tech glasses are too mainstream for your taste, why don’t you try being a little more 007? Samsung is working on smart contact lenses, which can save and upload pictures directly into the eye of their user. Mh – a little too cyborg for you? What about a nice temperature-adjusting T-shirt á la Back to the Future? The scenario of Steven Spielberg may pretty well come true in 2017, since labels like Under Armour work on smart fashion. Smart nano-fibres are integrated into the textile, which can count steps, pulse and breath frequency.

2. I wish this had existed When I was 17 – Geo-Fences the new off- & online connection

No matter if intelligent watches, tech-clothing or data glasses – there are hundreds of application possibilities for wearables. Opportunities lying in real-time communication coming along with the increasing presence of mobile devices make one thing clear: The linking of on- and offline offers needs to be optimized thoroughly. Geo-Fences are the new location-based tools which make a marketeers heart beat faster. Push-notifications enable immediate communication with the user, as soon as he steps into the fence area. In-store tech and Beacons thus create a whole new shopping experience.
 
The task of 2017 for online publishers is to develop tools to get pedestrians into stores with the help of digital ads. New tools will gather even more data about customer habits and how they spend their leisure time. At the same time users have one important request: transparency. Intelligent location providers have to debunk how data is collected, analysed and what role the customer has at all.

3. 17 Jahr, blondes Haar – From robot to best buddy

Augmented Reality seemed to be the word of the year in 2016. The famous holograms of Star Wars may become reality soon enough: a slightly transparent-looking 2D assistant may soon guide you through the labyrinth of museums and take the job of retro audio guides. Still, that’s no need to think that audio is dead: There’s a lot we can expect from 2017 concerning voice assistants. Amazon’s cloud-based AI Alexa makes the home smart and developers constantly look for more interfaces with the smartphone. And Alexa’s competitors Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant never sleep, too: In 2017, touch (or rather speak-) points will more and more decrease the distance between technique and user.

4. Mit 17 hat man noch Träume – Social makes dreams come true

Augmented Reality also has a huge impact on social media networks. Pokémon Go still shapes generations, even more so since social media channels like Facebook and Snapchat copied some of its ideas. The 360-degree video prototypes of last year will be improved and developed further this year. It remains to be seen whether there are more innovative features next to the optimization of live videos which will put B2C communication on another level. Generally, one crucial trend strikes out: limited content. The success of Snapchat and Instagram Stories due to their limited-content features inspires other platforms. Social Media takes such a significant role in our lives, that most of us can’t imagine a life without it. Since innovative content emerges and is shared on different platforms, 2017 has one motto: Get social.

5. Web design is sexy & 17 – Individual instead of run-off-the-mill

Content has to provide added value and an engaging usability – no matter on which device it is consumed. Interaction is the keyword. Facebook’s emoji-reactions provide a good example which shows how users can be involved more with the help of micro-interactions. They personalize feedback and have a significant role in UX and UI design. And other platforms will follow up: Individual is the new standard. Information has to be edited visually and emotionally and offer users high-quality storytelling. Thus, video formats are still on top, as they catch the user’s attention and transport content sustainably. Especially in social media, this trend strikes out. More and More platforms adapt their features to short video- and live-streaming features. So it comes that Facebook plans to adapt its feed videos to vertical formats.

6. Mit 20(17) fängt das Leben erst an – The Smartphone-Revolution

This year starts the new life of smartphones. In 2016, Apple already declared the headphone jack to be dead. This oldie is outdated and takes space for more innovate camera solutions, processors and battery and makes it nearly impossible, to develop water-proof devices. Lightning headphones are the new alternative to the classic 3,5-millimetre port. That was quite a revolution last year and we can only speculate what smartphones will come in 2017. Starting with foldable and bendable screens and retina-scanner up to 3D cameras, smartphones of 2017 will offer some exciting new features we can’t wait to test!

7. Seventeen seconds – Who can type faster, bot or human?

Are robots the next generation of journalists? Nowadays, real-time broadcasting is produced with the help of precast text modules and smart algorithms. Such chatbots provide a huge potential, especially in terms of marketing, since they enhance interaction with clients and thus improve services. PR and journalism have to set their focus more on these tasks, which bots can’t fulfil: investigative journalism, analyses, interpretations and interviews. It comes more and more obvious that only unique, high-quality and interactive content is successful. And one thing is for sure: In 2017 communication between users and brands will be optimized with the help of bots.

And what’s the next pie in the sky?

It’s official: Next to numerous offline events like the German election and the inauguration of Donald Trump, there’s also a lot from the online world that we can expect from 2017. The playlist of 2017 has a lot to offer. So, what do you think? What’s your favourite song of this year?