Signals

Hinge is the ‘designed to be deleted’ dating app now turning to real-life connections to tackle Gen Z loneliness. The Future Laboratory spoke to president and chief marketing officer Jackie Jantos to uncover the strategy behind its human-first approach.  

While Hinge, Tinder, Bumble and Grindr are losing users due to dating app fatigue, Hinge revenue grew by 39% in 2024 (source: Ad Week). Jackie Jantos, Hinge’s president and chief marketing officer, credits this success to the app’s distinct positioning: a minimalist platform for all genders and sexualities seeking serious relationships. 

Gen Z, particularly those aged 18–24, now make up 56% of Hinge’s user base (source: Financial Times). This informs Hinge’s marketing strategy, which centres on authenticity. Instead of posting regularly on social media, the app commissions content creators and runs campaigns like It’s Funny We Met On Hinge, featuring real, diverse young couples who embody genuine connection born on Hinge.   

Through its One More Hour grants and Assemble events, Hinge funds grassroots groups to help young people build real-world platonic connections and a sense of belonging.  

The key metric for Jantos is ensuring belonging and connection. Instead of clicks and views, the questions her team are asking are ‘Is this genuinely helping people feel more connected?’ and ‘Is it encouraging them to meet others in person?’ 

Jantos adds: ‘If the answer is ‘yes’, then we’re effectively priming them for what Hinge is all about. That’s forming real relationships and eventually getting off the app to meet someone face to face.’ 

Read the full interview for more of Jantos’ insights. 

Apple’s 2025 Christmas campaign A Critter Carol puts human craftsmanship front and centre. The ad follows a group of forest critters who discover a lost iPhone 17 Pro dropped by a hiker and film themselves performing a playful song about friendship. The story combines festive storytelling with subtle product demonstration. 

Every element of the campaign is handmade, including all nine forest creature puppets, the physically constructed forest set and even the typography. Eschewing CGI and AI, the campaign relies on tactile design and practical effects, all shot on the iPhone 17 Pro to showcase the device’s camera capabilities.  

In a media landscape increasingly dominated by AI-generated visuals, A Critter Carol celebrates creativity, craft and the human touch, echoing LS:N Global’s Human by Design report. For a tech giant, this represents an unusual move while remaining consistent with Apple’s grounded purpose of using communication technology to foster connection rather than create isolation. 

Consider positioning technology as a medium for living rather than merely communicating. Develop campaigns that visually celebrate connections with the world, other people and nature, emphasising movement, imperfection, and rich tactile and emotional experiences. 

The democratisation of medical knowledge – and the spread of fake news – has opened the doors to a new kind of cyberchondria. Jay Topham, co-founder and creative director of Unfound Studio, argues that emotionally intelligent user experience is the cure.

Cyberchondria is the new digital default. As more people turn to the internet for health advice, anxiety is rising with every search. According to scholars from Imperial College London and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the ‘excessive’ use of the internet to interpret symptoms is leading to the ‘prevalence of health anxiety’. 

This was back in 2019, and it is likely that the over-reliance by some on wearables such as smartwatches, Oura rings and Zoe’s continuous glucose monitor are adding to the situation, causing stress and emotional exhaustion. A November 2024 survey suggests that nearly half (48%) of UK adults have self-diagnosed using health information online at least once in the past year (source: AXA Health).  If digital health platforms want to help rather than harm, they need to design with empathy, not just efficiency. 

What if, in order to leave a positive impact on users, digital health platforms considered how to rework their user interface and tailor their UX to better understand patients? There is a great deal that health platforms can learn from mindfulness apps, for instance. Often designed to calm and heal, meditation apps address users’ need states with genuine understanding – and offer a compelling design language.  

To prevent cyberchondria from becoming the new normal, the roadmap for digital health platforms is to start by recognising that patients are searching for answers. Therefore, the journey from question to solution should support the patient throughout the exploration phase and build trust before delivering health information that encourages better outcomes in preventative care.

Jay Topham is the co-founder and creative director of Unfound Studio, a London consultancy combining brand expertise with cultural insights. Read his full Viewpoint here. 

A new wave of designers is bridging the virtual chaos of gaming realms and extended reality with the tactile authenticity of human craft.  

To redesign womenswear store Koibird in London, Parisian architectural design studio Uchronia blurred the lines between physical space and digital illusion through immersive colour gradients, psychedelic flooring crafted from hand-painted lava stone and cosmic elements like a silver planet and spaceship. 

The boutique has become a hyper-sensory environment where tactile craftsmanship meets surreal aesthetics. To plunge visitors into mesmerising awe, the space is intentionally disorientating. It offers not only a shopping experience but also a portal into the Koibird universe where fashion, wellness and speculative design collide.  

‘By fusing contemporary design with artisanal craftsmanship, we sought to create an inspiring environment where visitors feel transported into the whimsical yet luxurious world of Koibird,’ says Julien Sebban, designer and founder, Uchronia.  

As AR filters, generative AI, game engines and XR tools become commonplace, emerging designers, fluent in the visual language of the internet, are grounding their work in raw human tactility and celebrating the tension between code and craft.

Read more on this in our Design Direction report Layered Realities.