Robert Cohen 
Amazon Echo (Alexa)
In the past, the fight for supremacy of format standardization was usually battled out between two products in a head to head battle. Each would pit their product against the other until one, by virtue of quality, marketing, design or je ne sais quoi, won the battle for supremacy and took the throne.
Image © Gensler
The latest Gensler Design Forecast has made me think about how I experience place and whether the overlay of digital connectivity has changed it. Here are my field notes.
Gensler’s 2017 Design Forecast
We believe human experience is the future of design. People are the one constant in this era of dramatic technological change, demographic shifts, global volatility and climate change. This historic confluence of change means that, as designers, we must re-think and re-invent how people experience every aspect of their lives and the places and spaces that they live in. More than ever before, there is an opportunity to create a better world through people-centered design. We are seeing our design practice at Gensler focusing on how the places we create enhance human experiences that connect people, communities, organizations, families and friends.
Experience—the sum of our interactions with the world around us—is increasingly the focus of design. As Gensler’s Tom Ito told participants at our June 2016 Design Forecast LIVE event, “Consumers are smarter and savvier than they ever were before in their expectations about experiences—so a one line note, forget it.”
Etsy’s Brooklyn Headquarters, Image © Gensler
“Innovation is the core of work, and people drive innovation,” Gensler Co-CEO Diane Hoskins told participants at the Design Forecast LIVE event on June 25. “People are asking, ‘How can my workplace be a catalyst for innovation? How can I transform my culture to be more creative, more innovative?’”
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