6 Ways to Anticipate the Future of Digital Behavior

During a Mashable Connect event in Orlando, IDEO’s global digital business head honcho, Duane Bray, gave attendees six key suggestions for anticipating the future of digital behavior. Largely based on examining the relationship and manner of interaction between humans and technology, Bray's list gives both brands and technology enthusiasts a simplified plan for nailing down whatever it is that'll become the next big thing.

1. Get out of your comfort zone. Try out new products or services, even if you’re not sure how they relate to you. It might help you get a feel for patterns or trends. And if you’re creating things that others will use, get out of the office and into their world.
2. Magnify the edges through extremes. Don’t stick with the middle of the bell curve — look for extreme fans, the disenfranchised, people who have different perspectives. Often, it’s the edge cases that can be most inspirational.
3. Explore outside of your field or industry for analogous behaviors. One of the biggest limitations people have today is that they only study what happens in their own fields. Look for examples outside your field and see what ideas or solutions exist there.
4. Create human-centered view. Map out what you’re working on from the perspective of different people. Use the map to help you document actual experiences, and to identify steps that can be improved.
5. Try it on for size. This is a chance to role play. Spend a week immersing yourself in the tools, spaces or experiences of others, and identify what you can learn from that experience.
6. Get tangible: Introduce and encourage experiments. Have a potentially good idea? Make it tangible (rough and ready is okay) and take it into the world as an experiment. Ask people to try it out and improve it. And take feedback to make the next version of your idea even better.

Want more? Read the full article from Mashable here.