Here we are in February already and we’re only now getting around to sharing our New Year’s Resolution! (It was to keep creating great digital experiences.)

But cut us a little slack – we’ve been busy keeping up with today’s ever-changing trends, many of which were highlighted at the WP Engine Summit in Austin, TX, a few months ago. Some key takeaways for you:

1. Generational change has happened. Millennials are now the largest segment in the workforce. For most brands, they have more lifetime customer value today than Gen X or Boomers. And Gen Z (born after 1995) is poised to make a big impact. They grew up never knowing a phone that wasn’t smart, or media that wasn’t social.
2. Video is king. Millennials and Gen Z find reading too much like work. When they want to understand something, they open YouTube. Millennials are 146% more likely to watch a video on a company’s site while shopping online. And four in five find video helpful during initial research for a purchase decision.¹
3. Learn from (and copy) the best. Today, customers’ last best experience anywhere becomes their expectation everywhere, and many want what they see on entertainment sites like Netflix. That’s why marketers of all stripes are adding top picks for you, trending now and recently added, as well as both horizontal and vertical scrolling.
4. Interruptive marketing is less tolerable. For Gen Z, the absolute worst thing about the Internet is too many ads – even worse than cyberthreats and privacy breaches. So that’s pretty bad. Brands are responding by connecting through influencers, and generating content and experiences that are useful, timely and entertaining.
5. Sometimes the best interface is none. The typical reaction after using Amazon’s Alexa is…“whoa.” 29% of consumers believe they’ll primarily interact with the web through voice in five years. Another 30% believe they won’t even have to ask Alexa to do anything – brands will simply anticipate their needs and send alerts.²
6. The Internet is getting personalized. Amazon has become the 800-pound gorilla in retail in no small part through personalization. Again, the best experience anywhere becomes expected everywhere. To get there, marketers must employ a lot of sophisticated data integration and machine learning on the back end. And some restraint on the front end in what they reveal to users.
7. Design is becoming more experience- and data-oriented. Going forward, designers need to be as conversant with behavioral data as they are with the work of Paul Rand. One hallmark of good design is recognizing that consumers have a lot less patience than marketers. Data can tell us if they’re quickly finding what they need.

To recap, marketers have new audiences with new viewing habits expecting new interfaces and experiences. Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us this year to keep that resolution!

¹ Animoto, 2015
² @JasonDorsy