Media Art and Design

Introduction

Technology is changing every day, and along with it, the lifestyle of people is shifting. With the increase in time spent on laptops, tablets and mobiles, three are many challenges that are taking place in life. The most essential and changing component is social media these days because it plays a key role in distributing information right away and bringing back a response. Every company is now using this network to have a better connection with customers. Also, with the change in technology, there are new ways of designing that change how industries process. Innovative designs are offered at short intervals, and companies face a high level of competition to maintain their position in the market. In this essay, the key challenges faced by social media and design industry will be discussed, and some strategies will be presented to face those challenges.

Description

The organisations working in art industry have observed improve engagement of users with the use of social media and internet. It has made art a practical aspect of life because of the diversity in the audience. The boundaries of art are broadened because of the internet and social media sites (Thomas et al., 2013). The concept of art is also diluted because it has not become free of cost and easily accessible. The future of creativity is highly affected because of new technology and changes taking place in the society. A medium can serve a large amount of audience at a low cost. On the one hand, it is increasing the number of audience in art sector while on the other it takes away the historical concept of art.

Now, onetime events and performances are no more. The impact of art and design industry has extended as people share more information with one another. Now there are not even any constraints of geography when the great pieces of arts are concerned. Due to these issues, the respondents in the art are worried more about meeting the expectations of people on a larger scale. The use of social media has also increased the feedback level that makes it accessible to anyone. The budget available to most of the people is limited, and they cannot meet this much level of expectation in their budgetary constraints. Even the form of art is also influenced as the artist try to make something that will be liked by the audience, and in this struggle, the uniqueness is diminished.

In this modern era, most of the countries are facing resistance against some new technologies because of multiple dimensions. These resistances are based on socio-political differences, and that is why the failure rate of new technologies is also high (Juma, 2016).

Regarding social media, it is difficult to manage every new technology introduced. There are brands and businesses of all sizes operating on this same network, and with many things coming each day, it is difficult to manage complete process. The use of social media is not limited to a single device; now people use social media networks on multiple devices because everything is integrated to one another. It makes it difficult to have a difference in potential and actual consumers. Marketing products to the real audience have become a great challenge for the businesses. The online presence of many businesses brings a lot of noise because the number of choices is great. Being on the front row by integrating the available technologies has made the competition fierce.

The use of social media is also done to analyse and collect data about the consumers. When the same thing is done for the design industry, it may not give right results all the times because of changing consumer dynamics. Many security and privacy issues are prevailing because of negative use of technology. Even the trade secrets and innovative designs are at stake so the technology should be used correctly especially by design companies because of its innovative nature of the operation.

All these changes in technology have made it difficult to identify insights that are actionable by industries. The fast pace of businesses needs timelines to incorporate strategies which are not possible to do because market research requires time. Differentiation is the concept that has made things even more challenging. It focuses on giving a unique value to every customer that reduce the amount of commoditization. It also affects the quality of products because most of the respondents are fraudulent. Technologies are also converging to make innovative products that sometimes lack acceptance in the market (Schnaars et al., 2008). So, to increase acceptance level, the technology introduction method should be modified.

Some useful strategies are helpful in meeting the challenges of the design industry and social media due to new technologies. Old strategies do not work in this turbulent working environment. Competitive strategies should be followed in future to incorporate the concept of mass customisation (Boynton et al., 1993). The most important of all is the strategy of utility marketing. The customers are presented with a non-commercial need, and then the product becomes part of their lives. It will make it a necessity, and the customers will buy it. Such as in social media, now people are so addictive to instant messaging that the trend of messaging from the phone has faded away. Applications like, Skype, Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp have now shaped the need of customers differently.

The analysis of customer needs is also made easy for the companies by the use of google analytics. It is incorporated well in design industry because the need to identify the customer demand is high. The industry is dynamic in correspondence to customer demand, and web designing makes it easy to bring new and innovative designs after small time intervals. Another strategy is to follow innovation based on the human-centred approach. It will make it easy to sense the actual needs of people, and the customer will be more satisfied. The disruption of innovation in society is a common issue, and design industry needs to cope up with it effectively. Especially in social media, there are a lot of companies that come and go every day because they try to meet the needs of customers differently. This development in technology is the reason behind constant switching and sharing in networks. If the companies do not innovate, they will be swept out with the tide of innovation. So, the training and development section of every company operating in design industry needs to be strong.

Conclusion

Change in technology is need of the hour. However, the effective results can only be achieved when this change is utilised positively. The challenges are faced with every organisation but the companies that cope up with them at the time are the ones that remain. Working through a systemized perspective and taking an approach that focuses more on humans is the best policy. It is the only way to survive disruption. Social media has changed the way people look at the world, and when the desire to make a better situation is used, best results are achieved. It will help in making the world a better place.

References

Boynton, A. C., Victor, B. & Pine, B. J., 1993. New competitive strategies: Challenges to organisations and information technology. IBM Systems Journal, 32(1), pp. 40-64.

Juma, C., 2016. Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies. S .l. Oxford University Press.

Schnaars, S., Thomas, G. & Irmak, C., 2008. Predicting the Emergence of Innovations from Technological Convergence: Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Journal of Macromarketing, 28(2), pp. 157-168.

Thomas, K., Purcell, K. & Rainie, L., 2013. Arts Organizations and Digital Technologies: Overall Impact of Technology on the Arts, s.l.: Pew Research Center.