Since its creation in 2016, TikTok has become the fastest-growing social media application with 1.65 billion downloads. With a tagline of “Real People. Real Videos,” TikTok is on a mission to inspire creativity and bring joy through short-form mobile videos. Of no surprise, the user demographics show that Generation Z – also called Zoomers – are the target for TikTok’s viral video challenges. Today’s design world has already taken on influences from other social platforms, like Instagram, so how do we see design evolving for this new generation of TikTok users?
“Follow” the Social Evolution
From restaurants to commercial retail and even in the workplace, businesses have seen the benefit of incorporating eye-popping, interactive or colorful works of art to amplify their social experience and engagement. These colorful creations, like the Houston Biscuit Wall by local Houston artist Sebastien “Mr. D” Boileau, serve as more than just murals or unique design moments. They are strategic design tools to draw in Millennials (mostly) looking for that perfect photo opp. Where Instagram is more focused on capturing or curating an image where users engage with brand moments like these, TikTok is all about constant movement. Video snippets play in continuous loops showcasing TikTok users dancing, walking, talking, or just being silly. To someone unfamiliar with the medium, the whole thing can feel quite frenetic and off the rails. This is by design.
“Like” the Generational Shift
For Zoomers, authenticity is key. They want to be in spaces where the experience extends throughout the whole area and allows them to participate in more than singular design moments. This means design engagement is taking a new turn towards experiential and participatory spatial marketing. TikTok users are looking for something dynamic and changing. The most beautiful moments in life are often spontaneous and best captured live and on video. Those moments of authentic spontaneity and humor are exactly what Generation Z, and increasingly Millennials and Gen-X’ers, are looking for. Young consumers today are looking to create their own stories. They want TikTok in real spaces, and digital walls could be an answer.
An immersive digital wall at TikTok’s Los Angeles HQ designed by Gensler.
“Love” New, Digital Design Solutions
TikTok offers users the opportunity to create spontaneous stories, free from static curation. A digital wall that is programmed to respond to user inputs, such as a person’s location, movements, and other real-time data inputs, could be the perfect storytelling tool to engage this generation of TikTok users, who will also be the next generation to enter the workforce.
These types of installations are already popping up around the country from the Artechouse exhibitions in Washington D.C. to the Salesforce Digital Wall in San Francisco to TikTok’s own HQ in Los Angeles. We are even starting to see this influence in corporate work environments, most recently at the “1100 Experience” in Downtown Houston’s 1100 Louisiana building. 1100 Louisiana deploys the largest digital screen in an office building in Houston. Measuring 32 feet wide, the enormous digital canvas is certainly a spectacle to behold. However, what makes it work is how it creates a vibrant, shared experience for all patrons of the 1100 Louisiana building lobby and tunnels below. It turns a previously sterile corporate environment into something engaging for the digital generation.
Check out a video clip of 1100 Louisiana HERE.
Photo by Gensler Houston
“It was important to the client to provide a unifying platform for public expression,” says Jerry Alexander, Gensler Brand Practice Area Leader of the South Central Region. “The 1100 Experience is intended to exemplify public experiences that are shared, benefiting many more people than a more specific or smaller-scale idea might.”
Dynamic, reactive digital walls that morph and change depending on the movement of individuals, real-time input of data, or merely the time of day provide a ready backdrop for a world that’s ready for constant movement. Tick-tock. The clock is ticking. Is your experiential design strategy ready?
Photo by Gensler Houston
Special thanks to Debora Novarini (Gensler Houston) for the article topic idea.