Tech innovation reached a new level of ubiquitous influence in 2012. From talks about technology during the election, to the explosion of mobile content, every company upped their social media presence. Tablets are now reaching their maturity phase. The words “cloud” and “meme” became a normal part of our professional and personal lexicons.
So what does that mean for 2013? A good clue might be looking at things like KickStarter, the open-source community, and free sites earning revenue through advertising. These three have one important thing in common — their users drive the decision-making. Developers connect on forums and discuss flaws in libraries or types of development. KickStarter users will vote with their money if they think an idea will be successful or interesting, and the sheer number of users using social media make it incredibly attractive for advertisers.
With that in mind, let’s distill it further. What is it about these examples that are so valuable for their users? What can we find that will determine if something will sink or swim? The obvious, yet most difficult answer, is value. There is something that connects with users in an easy, yet innovative way. It seamlessly integrates in the way that we live and either leverages or simplifies experiences. But putting pen to paper and exploring how users interact with software is usually easier said than done. That’s where we come in.
In our most innovative projects, we use our experience and market insight to process raw ideas into sustainable ones with real value. And most importantly, slow down to answer that “why” question before diving in — we’d rather build no software than the wrong software. This year, America will continue to innovate, and we will no doubt experience more intriguing software and innovation introduced at rates faster than we’ve ever seen. And there is no doubt we will be a part of that journey — listening, innovating, and succeeding at making bits of that future a reality.
