At Bang we have been talking about this topic for a while. We saw when we were invited to mark industrial design degrees a real focus on form and “art” over function. This is a big topic and controversial one, but they are very much hand in hand. Steve Jobs even said “that the form of the product is the outer skin of the onion”.

2020 has forced many people to shop on-line who did not choose to do so before. The online experience has become slicker and this year we see Facebook and Instagram make it even easier to click through and buy what you see. People’s hesitancy is down and trust is up. This of course has spurred a horrible surge in fake sites and products, so be aware. The consumer experience is moving towards decision making on a small thumbnail image with 4 to 5 stars next to it.

The game is very much WOW them with design, SELL to them with reviews.

The design is the look, the review is the user experience. We have seen documentaries on TV on how sellers high-jack reviews and tag them onto their product, because it is just so important to have the good reviews. Regrettably, the customer is not always right. It takes a discerning customer and a large number of reviews to analyse what they are seeing to decide if they should dive deeper into the product, which can lead to a purchase.

Designers will therefore try to make their products really jump off the page and grab a user’s attention- especially if they are a start up or new brand. Established brands have a deeper customer loyalty they can draw on and their designs will be more evolutionary and polished.

Most of the products we will see in 2021 will have already gone into tooling. Expect to see a shift to bolder forms, with stronger contrasts in base colours and high light colours. 2022 will take this idea further, really having some bold forms jumping off the page.

We believe that some of this form will be softened up with texture and fabrics which will enhance the user experience and help secure better on-line reviews.

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