Digital natives have new expectations of technology, and new ways to relate to digital and social media. They are “inherently distrustful” and require a more curated approach to their media.
“Their idea of technology working for them is much stronger than ours,” said Sophie Kleber, executive director of product an innovation at Huge. While older generations are more willing to put some effort into making technology work, Gen Z does not, relying more on voice and visual search, and the screen is no longer the main interface for user experience online, she told Velocitize Talks.
“The idea of the Internet of Self is: I am the carrier of my preferences. Think of me as having a cloud around that knows… all these markers around my preferences,” said Kleber. “The environment becomes a projection screen and I put my things on it.”
Brands need to think of voice and user experience as facet of marketing. Voice is “at the AOL stage” with Alexa being the main gatekeeper to voice experience, but that will evolve, said Kleber. Eventually, it will spread until each brand will have its own voice interface with its own brand personality. That is a complex process—there are about 40 markers in a voice to be considered, all indicators of its personality.
The extreme personalization behind that experience is even more complex, because it requires extensive technical effort, said Kleber. Prototyping involves nearly the entire design, it can’t be done with only focus group research. She noted when Amazon brought out the Echo, they were surprised by how much people reacted to the personality and wanted to be entertained.
“The magic really happens on the tail end, when you have a product out. Then you start iterating on it,” said Kleber. “You have to watch very closely.”
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