Thinking Digital Wrap Up

Hello!

For this post I thought I'd wrap up my Thinking Digital 2015 experience in one handy post, with links, top takeaways and all that jazz. I was able to listen to some thought leaders in the digital landscape. Speakers included professors on machine learning, hacktivists, startups and even a Technical Director from Pixar.

Whilst I could exhaustively list off everything I learned at the conference it'd likely be a very long list of nerdy things that may not make for the most interesting blog post. So as a happy alternative I'll leave the link to the sessions which you can view in full, including the Reframed.tv comments.

Thinking Digital Streams

So, what did I learn?

The digital future:

• There is a serious boom in the tech market and it's only going to continue to grow; whilst Moore's law may be proving true at the moment, physics say that advancement has to slow from it's current rate.
• Digital solutions are continuing to replace tasks undertaken by people - automation is going to continually improve efficiency
• An unforeseen impact of an automated future is the impact on the job market - if we all live in a digital world automated by machines, how will people earn a living?
• The digital future ran by machines may not necessarily be what we imagined from 'The Jetsons'.
• Robots will be part of our daily life, but then again they already are. A Roomba for all intents and purpose is a vacuum robot, it is capable of doing one task, automatically, and to a high standard. Whilst the Roomba is a robot that can 'think' it is not able to think of anything other than the task it was designed for.
• The Roomba is not going to make you a cup of coffee, nor is it going to try to kill you whilst you sleep.
• Our robotic and automated future will consist of many machines that can do a limited set of jobs, but do them quickly and to a high standard

Agile principles are spreading:

• Most speakers alluded to agile development without mentioning the process outright
• The idea of iterative development of services is exciting to many as they can interact with customers during the process to help them build a product consumers actually want
• If you build a product, are you sure your targeted customer wants it? If they do, does your vision match their needs?
• It is better to find out what your customer requires and use their needs to develop a product throughout the development process as opposed to finishing a masterpiece that nobody wants.
• Consistent user testing allows creators to understand their choices, whilst not everyone can test, everybody should be invested in the outcomes of the research

• The Government Digital Service envisages a future where a service becomes a platform unto itself with functional services.

Boring is awesome:

• Linked to the agile principles, boring is awesome and should be a basic goal for everyone. When you think about what boring is; is it actually a bad thing?
• Boring things work exactly how you think they do
• Boring things are reliable
• Boring things have no nasty surprises
• Boring things are accessible
• Boring things have an easy point of entry
• Boring caters for an essential need
• We could make a really cool interesting product that was half functional and really complex, but would that suit our customer?
• I’d rather have a functional Nokia 3310 than a faulty Blackberry, would you?
• Just because something is boring does not mean it can’t become more interesting and exciting down the line,

STEM education is going to explode:

• STEM is growing at a fantastic rate within schools with coding being pushed front and centre combined with the Internet of Things.
• A problem that has previously stunted the growth of coding in schools is finding a method to truly engage students and teachers. Showing physical changes such as lights changing colour, robots moving or even live coding music can help engage and motivate everyone to code.
• STEM education is going to become more diverse with teachers and students gaining access to new tools and free open source programmes to encourage to get involved in coding.
• With this in mind it is clear that ed tech companies may need to review their approach to STEM assessment and cater for the new classroom.

Play with everything:

• If you can do it, why not?
• In direct contradiction to what I said earlier, maybe boring isn’t so good. Maybe we should play with everything and be open to experimenting with concepts, tools and theories to see things in new ways. For example, data visualisation can be shown in incredible ways if we just separate ourselves from conventions.
• 3D printed jewellery of the weather forecast?
• Facebook interactions charted and interpreted into a hopscotch board
• Small playful changes help you stand out from the crowd.
• Basic experimental tweaks to UX can engage a customer competitors don’t
• A hidden animated owl on a website added mystery and kept user engagement to ensure visitors stayed on that webpage
• Subverting expectations whilst meeting all criteria to provide a service can unlock a new engaged and loyal customer base.
• Google’s doodles, how many times do you click on a doodle to learn something about a subject you know nothing about
• #LJTunes mashes together songs with contrasting genres to bring new music to life
• Whilst you can play with products, expectations and services, don’t forget to have fun within your teams. A positive competitive atmosphere allows individuals to excel.
• A key point to remember is to try and enjoy what you do as it will be a good tool to get others to buy in. Just do it, and if it doesn’t work try something else.

So there we go; an awesome, inspiring and intelligent conference highlighting how individuals will interact in the future. Tech is spreading but the principles behind the growth remain familiar:

• Build with the customer in mind
• Be flexible
• Experiment
  

Thanks for reading!
AT