Growth would undoubtedly have taken place in the digital space and E-commerce in the coming years. The Covid-19 outbreak has accelerated the growth in an unprecedented way. The acceptance rate of digital has increased in all age groups around the world and marks the next era of the digital experience.

The Internet brought alternative solutions to continue our daily activities, from virtual education and remote working, Zoom parties and virtual dinners. Because of the virus, we started using the Internet to be in contact with each other, to share information and sources and to come up with collective solutions for problems.

Institutions that were previously offline have rapidly moved to the Internet and will remain there. New creative ways are being explored to improve the shape and way of communication and to replace some of the physical proximity and freedom that we lose. 

Digital expressions

Creative digital experiments came at a time when we needed them more than ever. As long as it is unwise to come together in physical spaces, we have the virtual spaces that can support us. These virtual spaces have brought benefits that most of us would like to keep such as no travel time, no travel costs, no traffic jams, and still being able to have meetings and to deliver work on time. A new world opened up where people could do their activities in their own rhythm and at their own pace. 

The digital domain offers unlimited possibilities for exploration in a way we have never experienced before which makes the storytelling component more important than ever. Not every expression was equally successful, it is a search for be relevant in these times and also the attention span is totally different. People are quickly bored and things become old fast.

The acceleration of the digital domain brings a design approach and creative exploration of digital territories beyond what we known. The digital can be so much more than the offering of products in straight boxes. Digital expressions can be bursts of creativity and exploration and above all, express of a bit of well needed humour.

The coronavirus has only accelerated the drivers set in motion over the past decade. The shift to online has been rapidly growing but E-commerce has risen fast in the months of the pandemic. In the US 18% and in Europe 12,7 % growth is expected for 2020. New Retail, business models that converge digital and offline experiences, a concept introduced in 2016 by Jack Ma, redesigns the complete customer journey.

Brands have been experimenting with new strategies. Some pivoted from only physical stores to offering efficient e-commerce solutions and pick-up alternatives. The biggest rise has been in online grocery orders, an area where other retailers can learn from. As customers will continue to do more of their shopping online, retailers are also seeing huge increases in the number of customers downloading their apps. QR codes have been playing a big role in retail. They are used for contactless payments, extra information, orders in restaurants, reservations and registrations.

Contactless retail is a way to feel safe when shopping, minimising contact with surfaces and people. Checkout-free retail through Scan-and-Go mobile technology or AI Computer Vision (AICV) are growing in importance. Stores are being transformed into fulfilment centres , like the ghost restaurants that we haves seen in the last years, hubs from where goods can be quickly delivered or picked-up.

Yet contact and personal attention is needed too. People want to be seen as people not merely as consumers. Have advice, a chat, a laugh. These times are hard on everyone, treat them with great service, connivence, create safety and don’t forget human warmth and attention.

Engagement

Consumer confidence will take time to recover, and a prolonged economic slowdown will have primary and secondary effects. Staying in contact is important and customers expect personalised, intelligent and omni channel engagement and a like-minded community. Creating a long-term relationship means you understand the type of relationship that people want and building a bond across platforms and in person. Social tools like video messaging, digital appointments, distance sales, and physical events support to create synergies between physical stores and digital touch points. It is a combination of technology and human warmth.

Closer contact

Customers are buying directly from brands more because they enjoy to be in closer contact and because of product availability, they seek specific items. Subscription models, reservation possibilities and early acces or limited editions will only grow and strengthen the relationship.

Immersive experiences

Physical retail aims to enrich the experience while creating a safe environment. Digital retail becomes a play with the perception of beauty and reality and is an exploration of being without physical limitations. E-commerce websites become immersive colour experiences, the digital makes richer, more mystical, more imaginative experiences possible. 

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Whole Foods Online-Only Store Brooklyn Park

QR code scanning-photo by unknown

Squadded shopping party app

Assistance QR Nike House of Innovation

Amazon Dash Cart

Alexa assistance Amazon Fresh grocery store Woodland Hills California

The digital domain offers unlimited possibilities for exploration in a way we have never experienced before. The art of immersion and offering people different levels of engagement are layers that have become essential. 

Research shows is that people always want to inhabit a story, they want to engage with media in an immersive way, the audience really wants to participate. The more you can collaborate with your audience, the more engaged people will be.

Gaming shows glimpse of the future of storytelling as it is inherently interactive while you are controlling the character and the settings.

It is not just about storytelling, brands must at the same time think about how a product can be made better, share knowledge, be transparent and that is where storytelling also is central. Products and ethics must be central without losing the magic of the story. This will be the challenge, there is power in speaking true, fast and in a genuine way.

VR storytelling

Emotionally-responsive stories of the future will combine elements of film, gaming, installation, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence to create interactive experiences. Technology is quickly shifting from standard screens to wearable technology, now is the time to learn the language of VR storytelling.

Hybrid world.

The hybridisation of online and real-life interactions increase. The cross-overs add value to both worlds. The smooth shifting between devices, worlds and software is a joy. Seamless connections and storytelling worlds that create one big universe.

How to be digital storytellers?

Focus on the power of the story as well as the power of technology. Start with story mapping and practicing written and oral storytelling before bringing in the digital elements. While the future of storytelling will include AR and VR, the base still will be based on the same principles as oral histories and historical novels, the future of storytelling is built by people together. 

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KAWS Augmented-Reality Exhibition Paris

Photo by unknown

Daejeon Biennale 2020

Kah Bane at Coeval Magazine

AR experiment by Universal Everything

Magic Window location based AR installation by Cie Gilles Job

The internet brings us together and it is important that everyone, especially the elderly, students and people in low-income communities, have access to all the tools out there. Digital tools can be used to strengthen offline communities and people. The digital divide is real, people without internet access or on older devices should not be excluded.

The digital is becoming an increasingly important domain and racism and inequality are such an important conversation within society, representation in the digital domain must be considered as well as who takes up space.

The urgency to address pre-programmed biases in technical products and instruments is growing. The digital domain and the tools we use every day must be a just reflection of society and not a repetition of previous unfair systems.

Diversity is needed while developing technology, with lived personal experiences. How can we actually design against the kind of assumptions that are made today?

There is a growing movement that is an ode to celebrating coloured lives within the digital space. There is a need to catch up to give marginalised people the opportunity to take up space, to learn and to create. Whether online or in physical life, it is important for everyone to see that space can be shared equally.

Create the change

The current momentum is an opportunity to improve the Internet and search engines for people marginalised by technology. This is an essential part of creating the change we want to see in the world. It is important to use our voice and to make change in this domain.

Education

A better world starts with opportunities for learning, both in digital and physical life. It is important for everyone to show the world what you are passionate about. A positive representation can have a domino effect for others.

Friction

Due to an optimised seamless world, we lose sight of the bigger picture. Categories allow us to create quick decisions but they also reinforce bias. To check the biases in the technology we use every day, we need to put friction in the technology at the right moments.

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Racial Profiling, photo by unknown

Joy Buolamwini, facial recognition research MIT Media Lab

Black voices of the running community RW

I'm here to learn so by Zach Blas and Jemima Wyman

From Apple to Anomaly by Trevor Paglen

Slow adapters of the digital domain, such as fashion and museums, have quickly adapted in recent months with new digital formats. Now there was an opportunity and necessity to improve online offerings, to keep museums and fashion operating. Digital media allows these domains to be accessible everywhere, by everyone. Clever ways were invented to present work and engage audiences with viewing rooms, interactive formats, while social media and video communication services have also played a vital role.

In the past, fashion was not at the forefront to explore the digital domain, not many designers explored what digital could mean for fashion. The video game industry took the first steps with using skins for avatars in digital environments. Now, under the influence of COVID-19, the digitisation of fashion was forced to go fast. There was with no other way to create or present collections due to limited travel and forced social distance.

From digital runways to digital design, from digital showrooms and modelling to wholesale, the fashion world is digitally transforming their brands and digital fashion houses are on the rise. 

Technology encourages to explore fashion through an interdisciplinary lens, brands that grasp the technology are in a period of creative indulgence. This leads to producing projects with enhanced, virtual and mixed realities achieved through collaboration with both fashion and technological skills.

Design is not only about the clothes, but also the strategies in which these clothes are communicated and experienced beyond materialistic goals. Designers committing to the new digital format grasp this unprecedented opportunity to change the fashion paradigm for good with new levels of imagination, creativity and commitment. 

Post human

With the attention placed on the clothing and surrounding and less to the models, the atmosphere becomes almost post-human/ trans human. This touches on the sustainability crisis in which fashion finds itself. What damage does fashion and human behaviour contribute to the environment and how important is man in the whole?

A new business model for fashion

In the face of a pandemic and climate change, business-as-usual cannot go on. The business model of fashion is based on growth and overproduction. The growth of fashion has been radically interrupted by the pandemic, the possibilities of the digital domain can provide a new model that limits waste. Opportunities are increasing to digitise elements of the supply chain of fashion and produce closer to home. This can increase revenues and improve sustainability, and make travel less necessary.

Storytelling

In addition to a collection of clothing, fashion can also become an interactive story, a game, an online performance. Everything becomes a conversation and there is room for abstract ideas around fashion. How can you encourage participation in more ways than just dressing. What influence can the public have on the creation of garments within a collection? On thing is for sure, fashion’s digital future has definitely begun!

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Nick Knight for the Yeezy website

Fashion-Styling App Drest

Global talents digital Mercedes-Benz digital fashion week Russia 2020

Fantom editorial at Coeval Magazine

Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp graduation show 2020

Building a virtual world to replace a broken physical world is not a new idea. Many science fiction stories deal with virtual reality as an escape from a real world that is falling apart. Many turn to the digital domain to be in another reality for some time, alone or together. We can use technology to meet this crisis, rather than just distracting ourselves from it. Actively participating in the online culture makes us feel better than solely passive consumption. If you are looking to find comfort on the Internet you will also have to contribute. 

At a time when people are spending more time at home than ever, feelings of anxiety and being increasingly isolated, virtual ways to escape reality gain momentum during Covid-19. A world of opportunities is available online for us to see everything from exotic wildlife to major museums to make us forget our current reality for a moment. 

Before Covid-19, escaping was already an essential part of our time commitment. During Covid-19, hopeless fatigue has arisen among many people and it is not clear how we will beat the virus and when this period will ever be over.  We seek to escape because if we constantly face reality, life becomes very difficult. 

Escape from and involvement in reality coexist in difficult times. How can we balance escape from and involvement with reality? Which concept of reality is the best reality? Old forms of association of reality are entering new media such as, for example, VR to enable a future-friendly working environment.

Virtual products

Virtual products are on the rise that involve surreal and kinetic forms that otherwise would not have been able to produce in real life. These virtual products influence physical products. Analogue and digital ways of making compare, contrast, and can complement one another.

Romance

Romance is essential for digital offerings as well as the importance of time and duration and the process of creation. There is so much craft in the digital and there is a lot of beauty in that, a romantic connection to the digital world keeps us engaged.

Managing our moods

We experience different emotions and moods throughout our day. Emotions are experienced from moment to moment, whereas moods usually last longer periods. Studies show that we can manage our moods by how we expose ourselves to entertainment media. By selectively exposing oneself to different communication devices and media., our mood can change.

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All things must pass by Alexis Christodoulou

Photo via rifke.world

Animal Crossing

The Return Of Nature by Timo Helgert

Emissary in the Squat of Gods by Ian Cheng

The Oddly Satisfying Spa Luxury Escapism Brooklyn

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