The last decade introduced the world to the digitization of many sectors. This helped the global trade to increase worldwide as many developing and emerging countries became important trading partners and potential sales and development markets. Digitization has helped us to be more connected and perform our daily tasks more effectively. It has made the world a global village and people global citizens.

However, the economies built in the previous decade came crashing to the ground in the last few weeks as COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. While the pandemic has had a great impact on the global economy, it taught us how to fight and improve the current condition using technology. It has laid a new pathway by disrupting our lifestyles by enabling contact-less and virtual experiences. Even though the technology cannot prevent the onset of the pandemics, it can, however, help prevent the spread, educate, empower, and warn people around. Today, these technologies are emerging more than ever – mobile, cloud, analytics, robotics, AI/ML, 4G/5G, and high-speed internet.

Let us look at three technologies that are disrupting our lifestyle each day during this pandemic:

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

From tracking the travel history of COVID-19 patents to analysing the symptoms of people exposed to the infection, the applications used by many governments do it all. These applications use chatbots to gather information from people, and the technology used in these applications is that of AI and ML. This enables the government to collect reliable information much easier and faster without any human intervention.

The advent of more such mobile applications and software will help ease the lifestyle of customers.

Extended Reality

Augmented and virtual reality is surely a boon in the world of lockdown and quarantine. This technology can be used in providing more meaningful and real experiences for people. The technology can help you see the world while you are locked in your home. This experience will change the way we travel, work, and relax. For instance: Realty brands can focus on using AR/VR videos to target their audiences by helping them take a walk-through the project while they are seated in the comfort of their home. This is an example of how a sector can use the contact-less experience to their advantage.

Cloud and Internet

The last few weeks have seen a great transition in the way the workforce can function. Companies got to believe that remote working and work from home concepts can be of their advantage. The transition to work from home and remote working has increased the dependency on cloud and internet infrastructure. The usage of this technology is set to remain the same even post lockdown and pandemic as many companies are moving towards welcoming a ‘hybrid’ way of working. This will increase the demand for teleworking applications and software for the team to be connected and interactive.

Talking about the internet, technology has changed the sector of education. It has enabled kids to learn and study from home using applications that require an active internet connection to connect with their peers and teachers. For times to come, e-learning will be an accepted norm for the parents and teachers alike.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated to the world that importance of digital readiness. The acceptance and usage of digital technology will allow the business and individuals to continue their work and chores as usual during the pandemic. The companies at large will focus on building necessary digital infrastructure by using the latest technology to stay connected with their employees and customers. The pandemic has increased their market competition by many folds, therefore businesses will have to take an approach that is human-centred and inclusive using technology governance.

Machines will take over our lives & How…

Electricity was one of the most incredible inventions of human after the fire, which changed human life in many ways. Now, after the electricity, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has drastically changed human lives. It is said that AI is yet to offer benefits to human. It was a prototype in the 1950s but has come up in many positive usages in recent times. What matters the most is the fact that we are getting encompassed with technology day-by-day and this is just the beginning of human’s much involvement in technology.

Everything has advantages and disadvantages, the case is no different for AI. The more we start making use of it, the more we will realize the negative impact of the AI. Just like when electricity is misused, we can even end up dying; AI is one of the most advanced things with its own set of disadvantages.

Setting aside the negativity, there is enough positive approach of the AI in the recent business set up. AI is said to decrease the workload and get the job done in one day which otherwise would have taken more than ten. Human intelligence created AI and it is expected to have a huge database that sets its own IQ. The evolution of the entire technology ecosystem has led to the free rise of the advanced and improved AI system that is bound to bring new changes in the present and future way of dealing with the business. Based on the ongoing trend, the future of AI-driven businesses will be something like this:

Digital business transformation

The megalith system that hid a lot of data is now being unleashed by the AI. It is bound to provide the best quality deals at an effective rate. The legacy of modernization has to lead to a lot of changes in the digitization process as well. AI is the next best option for us and so AI specialists are constantly finding a positive way out of it. There are chances that you will have to find a way to evolve your business with time on the lines of AI. The single work process is now shutting down. One business will have multiple users and multiple procedures based on the comfort of the people. With the onset of AI, the old process is going to break down or replaced by the new digital era.  

Tech democracy

The freedom to create a database of any size in today’s world has a bulk. The estimated creation of data can be taken into account of 2.5 quintillion bytes. Thanks to this estimate that the AI found its way. The human’s constant contact with the machines has given way to the creation of artificial intelligence that can make the lives and the work of the humans a lot easier. AI is believed to lessen the task and offer freedom to create a database and make use of everything.

Harnessing the data

With the launch of AI, the data has been easily preserved. The data that we are harnessing has its own limitations and that has always been a problem which obstructs the smooth work process. Therefore, you will have to make sure that you find a good option to make sure that at no point the work creates a problem. The AI is the next best thing that technology has gifted the world and this can be the option to harness the data in a better way.  

The future of the business

Given the capability of AI, it has the potential to impact our future. It is about to change the history of innovation and can make sure that you get the best solution when it comes to getting the work quickly and efficiently. The AI market is rapidly growing, but when it comes to helping any layman, it is still to take up that place. The change is the most constant factor for any future and given the fact that AI is about to bring the most impressive and noteworthy change in the history of technology.

AI to Science

In 2013, MD Anderson Cancer Center set forth a “moon shot” project that estimates a cost of $62 million. It was believed to diagnose cancer and offer a suggestion of treatment. However, the project has stopped because of the exceeding budget, but it is still being worked on. We can say that it is not only the business that AI is about to touch but it is sure to awe human lives in every way possible. We will have to wait for the AI to come into the real being and how it will affect our lives. There are many trial and error methods that are in the picture, but we are yet to find the real usefulness of the AI.

The invention of computers, telephones, and mobiles has globalized the world, but to keep up with the pace of technological updates, AI is the gift that the masters have given. It is about to provide new wide scopes to the future of the business and it is always better to stay updated with the new things to know about the changes that we are going to see in the recent future.

There are always a set of doubts, bias, and worries that come with the AI, it is going to support the basic information. But making it adaptable to the environment matters the most. It is true that it is “Artificial” after all. There will be drawbacks and biases towards the creator. Therefore, AI might take a lot of time to come into the picture but the bell is already ringing.

AI is one of the best sources to create a stronger bond between human and machine. We will have to simply wait and what the result is and how the machine will take over our lives. It is important to make sure that machines do not take over us and that we have control over it. The AI for the future business is a prototype and can promise to offer the best quality result when it comes into practical usage.

To know more about how AI can help your business, reach out to us:

Design tips for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality

Are you facing problems in evaluating the design of your AR, VR, or Mixed Reality oriented product?  

Today, we have laid down guidelines that will help you to objectively evaluate the design of your next project confidently.

Keep the following pointers in mind and you are good to go.

1. Identify your target audience and use cases

The first thing to do in the product development phase is creating ‘personas’ (a fictitious character that represents your target audience) and ‘use cases’ (the specific pain points or problems that your product intends to solve).

At any stage of the design and development process, if you feel that your product is not solving the specific problems or improving use cases for the persona then you should re-visit the fundamental design.

Therefore, it is recommended to test your product as early as possible with an external audience so that you can identify the fundamental design issues and make a successful product. This approach will be highly helpful while evaluating a design midway.

In case you have reached an advanced stage and have commenced the creation of a beautiful visual for your projects there is a risk of losing relevance.  Highly beautiful visuals may not be relatable for your users and that’s what distinguishes a great design from beautiful visuals.

How do the KPIs stack up across mediums?

In the contemporary world of design, your product is not only in competition with alike products but also with thousands of products across the medium.

For example, if your product is a game in the form of a mobile app, it is not only competing with other mobile games but other forms of entertainment as well such as escape rooms, movies, TV, and concerts. It is essential for your team to understand which mind space your product occupies to clearly identify the competitors across the platforms.

Beware! It is a common mistake to only compare KPIs within mediums. A slight progress in a VR product might be an edge against peer VR products but products on other mediums like mobile phone or computer may have already beaten your standards and have set a higher expectation for the user. 

So even if you are at the forefront of VR and AR technology, you are still behind the performance delivered by existing technologies. The user expects the same performance from your product in the virtual world as he is already getting in the real world.

How were the interactions examined?

The common variables while evaluating the design of your interactions in AR, VR, or MR are:

(i) Accuracy- How frequently the user’s intentions match the outcome

(ii) Ergonomics- Energy cost associated with the interaction

(iii) Learnability- How intuitive an interaction is to learn

(iv) Time to Complete- Time in which a particular action gets completed

The priorities of these variables vary with the type of product. However, if any of these factors score poorly, your design is very poor.

You might want to consider the following points before testing interactions in the above parameters.

•  Currently, stress test interactions are not tested for enough time. For example, if the intended user experience is meant to last for an hour, the stress test should be done for an hour. The interactions which feel perfect for the first five minutes might not be usable for the whole 1-hour period.

• Secondly, some product teams make the mistake of getting samples from excellent gamers for testing the interactions. Studies have shown results which prove that users who play video games frequently tend to learn faster and develop their abilities to do various cognitive tasks very quickly.

Because of such biased sample spaces, product team often wrongly conclude their designs to have excellent learnability while it may or may not have it.

For several reasons, it is crucial to run all the user tests on the mix of non-gamers and video gamers with no prior context of your product. It might be an easy option to run the test internally but your co-workers will already have enough context that they can once again bias the user test.

In fact, any developer who has experience in developing AR, VR, and MR is likely to learn the interactions faster than a user with no prior experience in these mediums.

How can features bring positive KPIs to your product if used together?

A great design is created by the synergy of complementary features which have positive KPIs. Standalone features perform well but when used along with similar features they can create a rich social experience.

If your design has numerous features with positive KPIs but without strong synergy, you should re-scope your design to bring in more synergistic features and remove the standalone features. This will help you in delivering a higher value to the Persona and either solve or improve the Use Cases accurately.

How can Core Loops help to add value?

Core loops are the repeatable actions in your product, It is very important to assess the core loops.

Like if your game is about 3D vegetable slicing, the frequent action is to swing the sword-

How does the user feel while doing that?

Is he enjoying it? Are the sound effects appropriate?

Product teams spend most of their time in iterating and testing core loops. External users should be involved in testing the core loops for the reasons we mentioned before.

For getting accurate feedback for AR or VR or MR, involving external users is a perfect way as of now.

The art style and visual design of a product are subjective but hopefully, the above framework helps you design better experiences and objectively evaluate the core design of your product. For more resources on AR, follow our blog.

How industries are reaping benefits from Virtual Reality technology

Virtual Reality technology has provided the much needed visual impetus to have a second look at products or services. It comes as no surprise at how companies these days are vying to incorporate VR tech considering the number of possibilities and the revenue markets this technology opens up.

One of the prime reasons estimated behind the immensely popular VR tech is the freedom it renders to the person using it. You no longer are bound to where the camera angle goes or what your physical environment is. VR has the power to transport you to an altogether new world that transcends the boundaries of the real world.

In this post, you will get to know how and which industries are benefiting from VR.

1. The retail sector

Retail showrooms are all about the glitz and the finesse of visual appeal. How about having something that gives the same impression but at half the cost? VR makes that possible for retail outlets everywhere.

Showrooms can now play to their strengths and display things in every shade possible and offering combination suggestions would not be that difficult a process now.

This would also give retailers an insight into what is it that pleases their customers the most and then make necessary changes.

2. Architecture

The one thing you visualize when you hear the word architecture or architects is them working on huge blue sheets with scales and high-end pens etc. With the insurgence of VR, this would be far less a hassle.

It also allows them to experiment with the various fundamentals of erecting towers by using visual layouts and lighting and discuss the various outcomes of it all. This, in turn, saves building companies a lot as they come to know of problems before the actual construction takes place.

3. Travel & Tourism

Visualising the corners of the world would no longer require going there. And that explains why this technology is a phenomenal boon to travel & tourism companies.

The tourists get to virtually visit the location even before they actually travel there, thus aiding their planning. Tourists can finalize accommodations based on the proximity of where they’d want to stay, what view they’d prefer, etc.

4. Education sector

Out of all the sectors that rely on visualization for accuracy, the education sector would be considered to be the most important. It could be any branch of education for that matter.

From engineering to medicals, from linguistics to humanities to history and even geography. Bringing in VR would aid better understanding and recollection of concepts, thus making learning a wholesome experience.

5. Healthcare

Not only would VR aid learning about the human anatomy, but it would also benefit healing it. Getting to the root cause of the matter would bring in better treatment.

Accurate VR-oriented diagnosis brings about better prognosis and this itself would improve the quality of medicine and healthcare all over the globe. This explains why the value of the virtual reality healthcare market in the U.S. has grown from $525 million (2012) to $976 million (2017).

The benefits that VR technology imparts are multifarious and more than what could be enlisted in one article. It is a wonderful era to live in and VR adds essence to existence.

Technology Trends in 2018

Digital experts and tech giants have always talked about the importance of innovative computing technologies. These processes and methodologies will develop and bring down market costs to a great extent. The opportunity to innovate interactions will initiate organizational growth. Every organization would like to stay ahead of the growth curve, and that’s where they need the support of unique technologies.

What do the statistics state?

When it comes to assessing the growth and development of technologies, there’s no denying the contribution of tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Alphabet. These ventures together contributed a lot to the total market gains. In fact, federal investments in the digital market will touch the $95 billion mark by 2018. Now, we know how the technology market is going to shape up in the coming years.

Identifying the promising and prospective technologies at this juncture will be a great thing to do. We must have a look at the four exciting technologies that are expected to leave a mark in 2018!

1. IoT

Internet of Things is crucial, and it’s here to stay. According to market sources, a whopping $6 trillion will be allotted for IoT solutions within five years. If we take a look around, we will surely come across numerous smart homes.

People are already living in smart homes, waking up to smart alarms, and having smart voice assistants at home. The trend will increase over time, and the time isn’t far when every process will get automated. Internet of Things has already made an indelible impact, and it will continue to rule the tech arena in 2018 too!

2. Virtual Reality

It is highly imperative to track the growth of VR in 2018. Revenues of VR content will rise from USD 2274.24 million (2017) to USD 13964.98 million (2020). Head Mounted displays revenue too will rise from USD 3243.12 million (2017) to USD 6498.26 million (2020).

Although, this particular technology is taking giant strides towards development, there’s still room for improvement. Creation of attractive content and high-value services would be important. VR will stay, grow, and excel if experts innovate and improvise the VR-supported modules.

3. Chat-Bots

Enterprises across the globe consider customer service to be an integral aspect of their services. Consumer satisfaction is highly important, and this is where smart consumer-facing chat bots making all the difference to the CX industry.

Chat bots humanize machine interactions, thus helping you develop a personalized camaraderie with consumers on the other end. Advanced bots also leverage AI to ensure interactive UX. Looking at its ability to generate business with 47% of the consumers, the trend will surely grow and reach new heights by the end of 2018!

4. Augmented Reality

With the two most popular tech giants, Google (ARCore) and Apple (ARKit) making the first move, startups and other ventures will try their best to invest in AR. The sector is expected to grow in the next 4 years to touch $83 billion per year by 2021. The top brands are already planning to incorporate AR strategies looking at this disruptive trend.

Signing off

These trends will determine the market for innovative technologies in the coming year. If you are working in the digital sector, it’s high time to wait and watch out for them!

How to use Virtual Reality for your Marketing Campaigns

Virtual reality has already obtained a huge visibility in the marketing sector. The smart marketers have already started designing their marketing campaigns keeping VR in focus. However, there are still many who don’t have any idea on how to approach marketing through VR technology.

In this article, we tell you how you can unleash the power of virtual reality in your marketing campaigns with these 5 hygiene checks.

1. Make Virtual Reality campaigns mobile-focused

When you are investing in the technology, ensure its success by targeting the right platform. Between desktop and mobile, it is very clear that mobile that wins every race these days. Almost 90% of your users use smartphones and have access to a mobile device more than anything else. Hence, it is both practical and necessary to target your marketing campaigns for mobile platforms.

2. Evolve the content you provide through technology

Having a great VR technology is not enough. You need to ensure that the consumers are getting engaging content. The campaign that you strategize should focus immensely on the content quality. Only then, you can expect people to embrace it. A high-quality app won’t mean anything if the associated content doesn’t address the core problems of the users.

So, keep the content quality in mind while planning your marketing strategy with virtual reality. To do so, you need to analyze your target market. Analyze their core issues and create a VR marketing plan that can resonate with their needs.

3. Let users perform

With the availability of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, every digital consumer has gained the ability to perform. You can tap into this trend with virtual reality and create a community around your brand. The marketing plan can leverage virtual reality to present an application of gear that allows the consumers to perform in some manner. However, that whole plan needs to be relevant to your business and marketing goals.

4. Be very thorough about the craft

Virtual reality is something that engages multiple senses of the users. So, you don’t want to mess the marketing plan due to low performance of the created craft. Complete testing of the technology is the key to ensure the success. Audi’s virtual car showroom is a great point in case.

For this, it is important to conduct practical tests on the VR technology before implementing it in your marketing strategy. Without that, unwanted situations and bad response can ruin the whole effort.

5. Make it easily accessible to people

The VR technology has become much more visible in the world of marketing. The consumers now have access to gear and other devices to obtain such technologies. However, it is your responsibility to ensure that the content you create complements the VR platforms that your target market uses.

Hence, it is important that you need to strategize your campaign and test the technology. Plus, the content creation and the interactive nature of the VR will also decide the success rate of the marketing plan.

So, keep all the above five points in mind in order to leverage virtual reality as a game-changing tool for your marketing plan.

Marketing Applications Of Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality holds tremendous promise across the business landscape. Irrespective of the industry vertical, it will be hard to not think VR as a significant tech disruptor in todays’ times. It is no wonder then that the immersive virtual reality device market is expected to grow to $407.51 million by 2018.

For business this opens up tremendous avenues to improve their service quality. VR is increasingly seen as a tool to elevate customer experience. But did you know that it can be put to innovative uses within the marketing function too? Want to know how, then read on

Tracking the application of Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality has been used by quite a few reputed brands and is fast emerging as an integral part of their marketing initiatives. Here are some of the notable uses:

• Developing innovative dimensions for successful interactions with audience
• Illustrating and presenting a product with all its remarkable features
• Expressing the motto or objectives of a brand
• Engaging consumers in the entire branding process
• Creating standalone product displays that attract your target consumers
• Demonstrating how an item or product can become an inseparable part of your lifestyle

These are some of the innovative ways brand marketers are leveraging VR. It has become a crucial tool for advertising which gives the right impetus for growth and development.

The applications of Virtual Reality

When you opt for a service or purchase a product, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Almost every consumer or buyer think about the utility of that item and its use in his life. VR taps into this particular area thus unlocking new avenues for targeted marketing. Check out these inspiring examples:

1 – Test Drives

Car and automobile brands will have to consider consumer choices and experiences. VR can help them and how! Volvo sets the most prominent example for their XC90 SUV model. The company offered a VR test-drive to prospective buyers and let them get a feel, of the actual experience.

2 – Happy VR

The VR technology is making way for itself and working through various industrial sectors. McDonald’s happens to the best instance in this context. The food chain brand has introduced their new ‘Happy Meal Box’ which is also a ‘Google Cardboard VR Headset.’ When children finish eating their lunch, they can engage in exciting sessions of a skiing game known as ‘Slope Stars.’ That’s one of the best ways of promoting the brand.

 3 – Get there

Travel operators and hospitality partners should take a cue from Marriot Hotels. The company planned beyond the traditional hotel views and leveraged the VR technology to offer the taste of the real travel experience. You will get a comprehensive picture of how your tour’s going to be, without even showing up at the place!

Signing off

VR is making a great name for itself, as far as brand marketing is concerned. Which practical application of VR has caught your attention of late? Do write to us and let us know.

Marketing Virtual Reality: The Next Big Thing

It has been roughly twenty years since the mobile phones attacked our lives and most of us do not even remember the time when connectivity was not accessible through our hands. We ought to remember the present time since soon we are going to see the extinction of mobile phones just like the dinosaurs. Yes, a new technology is all set to take over our lives just like the mobile phones did in the 90s. Virtual reality is going to be the next giant leap for mankind.

Yet, the onus now lies on the people in VR industry to make the technology sound appealing and project it as a ‘necessity’ just like the mobile phone today. The Virtual Reality Industry has had a particularly bad start in marketing compared to previous game changers like Computers, the Internet and Mobile Phones. Blame it on the cost heavy VR headsets or underwhelming marketing campaigns, VR needs a marketing strategy to make it the next game changer.

The Basic Idea

The VR customer base is expected to cross 200 million by 2020. Brands are expected to go all out on marketing to capture a majority of this figure. Virtual Reality, being an amazing new technology can be over-hyped in the process. Marketing professionals need to understand the technology in and out before beginning to even conceptualize a campaign. The basic Idea of VR is “escaping reality” and it is what will eventually make it the next big thing. Keeping the basic idea of VR in mind, the following need to be outlined in the campaigns and content:

Personalisation

The user experience can greatly be personalized by the addition of simple user specific aspects. User information can be used from databases and relevant social media traits can be pulled up to make the experience more delightful. Even a simple name insertion into the real-time application can garner more interest from a user.

Real-Time Experience

Even though the basic idea is to escape reality, making the virtual environment a bit realistic will give a sense of belonging to the user.  Real people engaging, interacting and sharing emotions is irresistible. Users experiencing a gripping, emotionally upbeat, lifelike and heart touching virtual scenario can simply market the product through word of mouth and social media, which will pay dividends in the long run.

Stir Emotions

Virtual Reality is a competent tool which allows users to experience life as someone else and through someone’s eyes. This can evoke empathy and better understanding. It can help understand the hardships suffered by athletes, celebrities, politicians and even a common laborer. Empathy is an effective stimulus for the response action. It can help brands who are looking to portray social causes and assist them in explaining their brand purpose.

 Focus on ‘The Why’

In his famous book “Start With Why”, Simon Sinek elaborates the reasoning behind the uber success of some products. According to him, marketing must be centered on WHY brands do what they do. Taking it a step further from his ideology, if we can decide for WHO the brand is meant for and then add the WHY, Virtual Reality marketing can be taken to a whole new level. Simon Sinek further goes on and states:

“Once the WHY is accomplished, we can expand outward toward selling by addressing the hows and whats of a company, brand or product. Apple is a particularly good success story whose marketing message always looks something like: With everything we do, we aim to challenge the status quo. We aim to think differently. Our products are user-friendly, beautifully designed, and easy to use. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?”

Watch Simon’s Ted Talk: Click Here

Choosing The RIGHT Target Audience

Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are prime examples of successful marketing of tech to youth. Snapchat has teens as their App Store screenshots, which conveys a marketing message that “teens have fun when they use our app.” Similarly, during its initial years, Facebook was targeting universities, colleges and the general youth to market itself.

Social media would never have become successful had the youth not given a thumbs up to them.

The same applies to Virtual Reality. The target audience needs to be demarcated, which will primarily be the tech-savvy youth of today. Target the youth which has not seen life without a connected device and show them WHY Virtual Reality is the best tech coming up, HOW it can change the way we perceive things and WHAT makes it a ‘necessity’.

Virtual Reality is a new age technology that needs to be understood and accepted by the masses eventually. It has the potential to sabotage and disrupt the present market. Hence, marketing professionals need to incorporate methods that can sustain it. Focusing on the ‘WHY’ and the Right Target Audience needs to be addressed in order to sell VR tools and applications as hot pancakes.

Remember:

“Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.” – Joe Chernov