A Triptych of Digital Opportunity – ConvenienceTech, EgoTech and ViceTech

So #ViceTech is now a thing. Great TechCrunch news article just out on technology put to the service of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.  Think hook-up apps like Tinder, on-demand marijuana delivery, or the myriad of music apps. And, of course, all reported by Vice media.

With #ViceTech, we have a powerful triptych of digital opportunity. Readers of DiT will know that along with the role of positive psychology in experience design, my conclusion about the big opportunity in digital right now is that it lies in the intersection of #ConvenienceTech and #EgoTech, tech designed to save us time and effort combined with tech that flatters our fragile egos.  Think Uber – tap screen, get service, putting you at the centre of your world.

But now with #ViceTech do we have a digital sweet spot? The not-so-holy trinity of digital opportunity.

• #ViceTech – tech that plays to human vice – start your next innovation session with the seven deadly sins –  pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath or sloth
• #ConvenienceTech – tech that saves us time and effort, delivering instant gratification for our impatient world
• #EgoTech – with an epidemic of narcissism spreading since the introduction of smartphones (test yourself Narcissistic Personality Disorder here), tech that flatters our egos with self-aggrandisement and plays to self-entitlement