Digital trends forecast for 2017

As digitalization goes viral, more companies realize that going mobile is no longer an optional investment. Digital transformation change every prospect of how to do business, as digital technology improves implementing new, smart ideas becomes essential in order to stay in the competition.

So, here, Swiss Tomato collected its best predictions about what is going to trend in 2017.

#1 AR & VR continue to trend

With the big success of Pokemon Go, AR reformed the app market really fast.  AR-based gameplay reduced the time that users spend away from their smartphone screens. However, augmented reality and virtual reality are not only good for gaming purposes.
Take for instance a VR showroom for cars. Although the showroom does not replace the driving experience itself, but customer can get a first peek and check their beloved cars from inside out. Moreover they can also compare cars and test how their engines sound like.
VR is not only presented in the car industry. Real estate offices also use it. By using virtual reality applications, agents are able to show their clients how a flat looks like and they can take a walk without actually being at the apartment.
Also, fashion industry has high hopes for VR trends. Alibaba published its own VR store, Buy+, in which customers can take a virtual walk in a virtual shopping mall.
Although we are fascinated by VR and its smaller sibling, AR, the tech sector needs bigger companies to work on reducing the prices of VR & AR equipments, so they could become widespread.

#2 Increasing mobile app spending

The trends of the recent years seems to continue, gross mobile app spending (including app store spending) is about to reach $166 billion in 2017 (App Annie).
Most of the revenue will come from games, but the profit from different subscription and dating apps will rise too.
One more thing, that you need to take into consideration is the increasing amount of mobile commerce. Time spent in shopping apps was up 52% year on Android phones worldwide during the first three quarters of 2016.

#3 Internet of Things (IoT)

The idea of smart homes are becoming more and more popular, so does connecting all of our devices together. Unfortunately enough, some of the gadgets won’t work with certain smart platforms.
The IoT is touching not just one but several sectors of businesses, it changes how, when, where and why you collect the data. The technologies that created the IoT don’t just change the internet but the devices that use internet, too. And all of those connected stuff will have a potential to offer more data about customers. Here what we predict as a future of IoT: both smaller and bigger companies are looking for other ways to connectivity-solutions. IoT will continue to blur between B2B and B2C solutions and evolve both customers and enterprises expectations about itself. However, IoT security will stay one of the biggest concerns in the upcoming years, items like wearables or smart coffee pots will become an interest to hackers.

#4 Vloggers on the rise

Since brands are trying to find new ways to reach customers, influencer marketing proved to be a perfect solution. Social media will work as new conversion channels and offer tools to convert prospects directly into buyers. Today’s most notable blogs aren’t produced by brands, but by young and knowledgeable trendsetters. And companies are looking for a cooperation with them. Since those influencers have an audience who have trust in them and interested about their opinions. After all video content has gone viral in 2016, Youtube influencers, vloggers are more valuable than ever.
And why Youtube is so important? It has 1 billion monthly unique visitors aged 18-29, 100 hours of video uploaded in every minute, millions of subscription per day and over 6 billion hours of videos are watched monthly.  So the top Youtube vloggers have received millions of views, hundreds od thousands of subscriptions and additional networks, to reach their communities.  Every industry is working with vloggers. For example Claire Marshall is one of the most influential vloggers out there, her channel has more than 800.000 subscriptions and 700.000 followers on Instagram. Her videos are watched by more than 150.000 users. Studies showed that Youtube vloggers like Smosh, The Fine Bros, PewDiePie, KSI and Ryan Higa were more famous among 13-17 year-olds than Hollywood celebrities.

#5 Pay attention to user experience  

Customers are the most important components of businesses, and they are more cautious than ever. Users can easily turn away from any brands that don’t align with their values and needs. So, companies need to track and analyze customers’ needs constantly.  One of the very first problem that companies need to figure out how to handle different age groups, because different ages have different responses to images and design elements. Speaking design elements, cinemagraphs can add a diverse and more chic look to your website. But you shouldn’t forget about one of the most important thing on your website: CTA (click to action) button. Every site should contain a fancy but still simple CTA button, it is allowed to use a little bit of animation, but make sure you won’t make something that bother your visitors.
When it comes to websites more and more designers do not like to limit their options to the rigid frames of grids and start to apply out of the box thinking by creating other digital experiences, calling “breaking the grid”. By moving away the solid forms of sites, parallax is also a great and unique way to build your UI design. It works great in conjunction with less traditional layouts.
If you have comments, questions or have app development or web design needs in Switzerland, please contact us.