Remembering what we have forgotten
An Uber is your personal chauffeur, Apple’s app allows you to treat their stores as a personal storeroom, Task Rabbit lets someone do your chores for you, Amazon Echo orders your groceries, a Michelin star chef cooks for you and it’s delivered to your home, Airbnb gives you homes all over the world, Google Now politely reminds you that you should leave for your meeting sooner rather than later. All these service experiences feel Silicon-Valley modern, but look back in history or watch an episode of Downton Abbey and you will see that we are just remembering what we have forgotten.
In the past, highly tailored experiences were only reserved for the very wealthy, with costs and scale being the main barrier to entry. But with digital technology enabling highly scalable yet personalised experiences, luxury services are now available for the masses in a way like never
before.
This talk explores these personalised, living services — services that feel like they are tailor made for you and are constantly working on your behalf behind-the-scenes. By taking examples from both present day services and their counterparts from the past, I will explore what we
have forgotten, what we can learn and how to embed these qualities in our designs for the future.
