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How big data could form the cornerstone of the metaverse

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The emergence of the metaverse will be big business for virtually every company across a broad range of industries. Bloomberg’s estimates place the potential market value at $800 billion by 2024, and in October 2021 Facebook rebranded to Meta in preparation for the brand new digital landscape.

The metaverse has been heralded by many as a brand new frontier for immersive technology that combines the likes of artificial intelligence, interactive video graphics, and both virtual and augmented reality.

For many businesses, however, the key technology that appears set to grow alongside the metaverse is big data. Today, it’s possible for companies to learn actionable insights surrounding swathes of customers as they browse online, but in the age of the metaverse, the sheer volume of data that individuals will produce will vastly multiply.

Although many businesses are waiting to see how the metaverse unravels, it’s certainly worth anticipating how the new era of technology can improve their processes, marketing efforts, and customer experience models.

Partnering AI and big data

As data shows, AI can partner with big data to deliver a range of enhancements through user experience models and product discovery.

We can already see early evidence of big data at work in the form of digital twins, which lean on computer programming to build true-to-life simulations regarding product performance without the need for building costly prototypes. This is a particularly dominant practice in the world of aviation due to the expenses associated with aerospace flight simulations.

In the world of the metaverse, the volume of data that individuals will produce as they navigate the Web3 landscape will aid digital twin simulations to shape exactly how audiences will respond to new services or applications: delivering detailed predictions regarding engagement levels, anticipated pain points, and likelihood of repeat use.

“The metaverse is part of the next iteration of the Internet, which some call Web3, and it promises to upend everything we know,” said Maxim Manturov, head of investment advice at Freedom Finance Europe. “Over the next few years, we will probably all be working, playing, communicating and investing in this overarching ecosystem. The early days of the Internet, known as Web 1.0, were characterized by static one-way web pages. Remember Netscape and Yahoo? Users were no more than passive observers. Then came Web 2.0, the period we are currently in. Controlled by a small number of companies like Facebook and YouTube, today’s internet is highly centralized, even though users play the role of active participants. This brings us to Web3, which will open up a whole new level of experience.”

Considering the all-encompassing changes that metaverse technology is likely to bring to all businesses with an online presence, let’s take a closer look at at how big data can optimize company operations over the coming years.

Big data can transform business intelligence

As the metaverse grows, businesses will be capable of using cloud data to collect and analyze swathes of data from both in-house and third-party sources within platforms to gain rich, actionable insights into audiences and their collective interests and intents.

Such sources of data could be structured, semi-structured, or wholly unstructured, with available platforms and algorithms working to interpret the swathes of information whilst forecasting future outcomes with strong levels of accuracy.

While the metaverse will be a revolutionary development for everyone, businesses are learning how to anticipate the new wave of big data that the new frontier will generate through virtual and augmented channels. And it’s likely that more intricate algorithms will already be in place by the time the metaverse reaches mainstream adoption.

In survey results, we can see that big data is currently used for a wide variety of insights by organizations around the world. As individuals ditch their keyboards for virtual avatars in an immersive virtual environment, we’re likely to see far greater volumes of dependence on big data analysis in building predictive models and decision-making activities.

We’ll also see big data become more prevalent across a range of industries in the wake of the metaverse. One such example will be within the trade industry, whereby brands and online stores will be capable of building a digital presence in new digital marketplaces in which customers can interact with stores as if they were walking through a virtual high street.

Adopting gamification

In a metaverse store, every time a customer engages with a virtual product, they can generate large swathes of data surrounding their intent and interests. This is to the point where businesses may be capable of building a vast customer profile based simply on where the interactions are coming from.

It will also be possible to identify user sentiment based on how they interact with your company. As entertainment will be key in a future built on Web3, it’s likely that businesses will look to gamification solutions to retain visitors for longer and to better understand their interests.

Data suggests that 72% of metaverse users in 2021 participated in entertainment or gaming solutions online, while 44% acquired in-game material including skins and downloadable content. Once again, businesses can optimize this information to gain rich insights into how their audience behaves, what they like, what causes them to navigate away, and what would be most likely to keep them engaged longer.

Furthermore, it will be possible to use other information, such as a customer’s choice of cryptocurrency to make payments, to better understand their attitudes and values. This kind of data can also help to identify emerging micro and macro trends towards certain coins, decentralized finance protocols, and tokenization practices to embrace.

We’ve already seen Facebook move quickly in transforming itself into Meta in preparation for the metaverse. It’s certain that the newly rebranded Meta has already tapped into Facebook’s vast reserves of big data to identify how to best approach the task of building into the new frontier.

In this regard, Meta is already a master when it comes to acting on swathes of big data, and companies can benefit from observing the social media giant’s early steps into the world of the metaverse.

Along with user identities, metadata surrounding Facebook’s marketing capabilities will be transferred into metadata to make Meta a leading marketing portal as the early metaverse begins to take shape. Such data can be used to great effect in delivering extremely powerful targeted campaigns for businesses in the future.

Despite Meta’s early big data dominance, Sandbox could also be utilized in a way to deliver actionable data surrounding its early popularity. Sandbox has more than 500,000 users, many of whom have their own in-world assets and games. Should a business look to process the vast data available on such a platform, its marketing campaigns could reach their intended audience with unprecedented accuracy.

For now, the metaverse is still very much in its fledgling stages. While many businesses are waiting longer to see how the dust on this new frontier will settle, it can be beneficial to put the feelers out to see how big data can impact the business operations of tomorrow.

The next generation of the internet represents a fresh chance to outmaneuver competitors. By moving earlier and faster, the businesses that embrace the metaverse now are likely to win over their target audience with far greater efficiency in this brave new world.

Dmytro Spilka is the head wizard at Solvid.

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from VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com/2022/07/30/how-big-data-could-form-the-cornerstone-of-the-metaverse/

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Augmented Reality App for Service Technicians – Über die UX Design Awards

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from Google Alert https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://ux-design-awards.com/en/gewinner/augmented-reality-app-for-service-technicians&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGmJhYjllOWZjNzViYWJhMTA6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AOvVaw1Q9YeqyVo-H9-mu8wivRt3

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Comparing the UX of diabetes monitoring systems

It can be diabetic life or death, so you should probably have some good UX.

A Dexcom sensor on someone’s arm, pairing to a receiver.

First and foremost: this is not coming from nowhere or without any knowledge of the surrounding health topic. I’m a type 1 diabetic! I use a Dexcom every day.

So what is a Dexcom? It’s a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), and it basically consists of a sensor and transmitter combo that sends me blood sugar (glucose) data every five minutes, reducing my need to prick my finger, and I’m very lucky to have one. Although there is a separate receiver you can buy, most younger diabetics now will download the Dexcom app appropriate to their generation (G5, G6, and the recently released G7) onto their smartphone.

I thought it would be interesting to consider how a company has changed and modernized their UI over time by comparing and contrasting the three different generations of the app to see what improved, what didn’t, and what’s left.

Please note that for the G5 and G7 respectively, I’ve never touched them with my own two hands. There wouldn’t be much point, as I’d need to somehow get a G5 sensor to make the G5 app work (I’m not rich enough to pull that off randomly), and the G7 has not yet reached America. This will mainly focus on the visual analysis. This also means working with given Dexcom images, which are subpar but still informative.

The Dexcom G5 Experience

I’m sorry about the image quality. This is what I’ve got as someone who can’t personally access the app in a useful way. So this is the Dexcom G5, which landed here in 2017.

You’ll notice throughout all of the Dexcom apps, there is a consistency in that little circle and arrow indicator that shows your blood sugar’s current number as well as its trend (i.e. what direction it has generally been heading), as well as the general alignment of the information. The indicator and trend arrow is the Dexcom logo as well — it’s synonymous with the brand.

The bottom half of the screen is a graph that shows each individual reading for the past few hours as a dot. You can turn the screen horizontally to see up to 24 hours of past readings in a neat graph.

Let’s go ahead and talk about some of the positives and negatives.

Positive: Dexcom has always cleverly color-coded its signals, as shown on the right side of the image. This is good. At a glance, a user knows: yellow is high, grey is okay, and red is low.
Negative: However, their use of color in the app itself is jarring. Color should be used sparingly, as we all know. Turning the entire part of the graph yellow or red is fairly bad. I’m pretty sure black dots on that red color wouldn’t past contrast tests, and it feels like it might draw the eye down to the graph rather than the immediate reading.
Positive: The use of font size to create hierarchy immediately draws the eye to the center of the screen with the reading. The “202” is the most important information for a user to see quickly. When you wake up at 1 AM shaky and trying to figure out if your blood sugar is dangerously low, you need to comprehend that number right away.
Negative: The buttons on top are confusing. They need labels. Consider that a good portion of Dexcom users are older, simply because diabetes is so widespread, and handing this to my older family would result in some confusion. The option to enter a value from a separate glucose monitor looks like a syringe, which means little. Is it to enter insulin doses, which I do inject? The clearest button on top is the menu.

The Dexcom G6 Experience

So this is the guy I know like the back of my hand. It’s surprising how little the design changed overall. In fact, almost all of the features remain completely unchanged. I have my complaints still, though, especially as a regular user.

Positive: Colors no longer change the graph background, only the indicator background. This keeps the graph looking less obtrusive and doesn’t pull attention away. Overall, the colors here are gentler and less abrasive — less stark black on white, less sudden jarring color changes.
Positive: The change in font of the current reading makes the entire screen feel more cohesive, though it does rely more on your understanding of the indicator immediately.
Negative: Moving the calibration by separate monitor button (i.e. the syringe) off of the home screen feels like a lost opportunity. You have to navigate through the settings and then find Calibrate on there (now helpfully marked with a drop of liquid, i.e. blood, instead of the syringe). To me, calibration isn’t a “setting”. It’s a function in the app.

Negative: Okay. Here is a confession. I’ve used a G6 for a while now. I still don’t know what that thing is to the top left of the current reading— the bell thing, I mean. It reads that “Scheduled alerts will sound” when you tap on it which is… great, I guess? But it’s also profoundly unhelpful. I don’t know!

The Dexcom G7 Experience

So, here’s the new guy on the block. In Europe, at least. And I’m jealous of everyone getting to go out with the new guy.

If you’re wondering why the numbers are different, mmol/L is the European measurement, while mg/dl is the U.S. measurement.

This interface is gorgeous. It’s still so Dexcom. The current reading indicator and trend arrow, the graph underneath, and all those other trademarks but now everything is so much clearer. Let’s go over it.

Positive: Look at the bottom: icon labels! Text and an icon! “History” and “Profile” Already sound more interesting.
Positive: They’ve moved the old ‘tilt your phone to the side for the graph’ thing onto a series of time period selectors above the graph.
Positive: Can I say that the organization and map of this app already looks better than it used to? Just from the home page alone. That’s a sign that things are going the right direction.
Negative(?): I do wonder if the trend indicator and current reading is as attention-grabbing at 1 AM as on prior versions. It’s more starkly separate in the G5 especially and in the G6 as well. I’d have to see it on an in person screen to really get a sense of how the elevation helps bring that forward.
Unclear: I’m really not sure about what the plus button in the top right means. My instinct says it’s to add your own reading, whether to calibrate or just to have in your history, as in the Events section in the G6. I’m not really sure on first glance. I’m also curious about the three dots on the graph for the same reason.

Conclusion

I didn’t want my first article on Medium here to be just another case study.

So I thought I’d take a niche topic relevant to me and my chronic illness and take a closer look at it. It’s rare that you see an app have three different generations to it with distinct features and differences but such a specific brand identity that persists across all versions.

Dexcom is stepping forward in its UX. It’s moved ahead very quickly in a matter of years, which I’m happy to see. Ease of use is especially important for medical technology which matters to so many people.

I’m very excited to see Dexcom G7 make its way to the U.S. for a lot of reasons. But I’m especially excited to see that new app on my phone screen, making managing my glucose a little easier.

Comparing the UX of diabetes monitoring systems was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

from UX Collective – Medium https://uxdesign.cc/comparing-dexcoms-home-screen-ux-over-time-9a974bea3f11?source=rss—-138adf9c44c—4