We often hear comments and questions from customer experience and digital business leaders such as, “We designed and built this product, but not many people use it — and we don’t know why” or “We have a chatbot, but customers are not using it, so how can we drive engagement?”

These issues often arise because the solution is not good enough to solve the customer’s problem — or it’s not even solving the right problem. Plus, people interact with companies and use their products in ways that change depending on their circumstances and the task at hand in that moment, and companies lack the data to understand these shifting behaviors. For example, while driving, a person might prefer using their phone’s virtual assistant to play their favorite podcast. But when commuting on a train, they might prefer using the app’s graphical user interface (GUI) so they don’t disturb other passengers.

Design Experiences Knowing Where And How People Connect — And Why

To effectively guide your digital experience (DX) strategy, you need to know which interaction modes (e.g., GUI, voice, chat, etc.) people use for various tasks (e.g., control, communication, commerce, etc.) and through how many devices, channels, and platforms they connect. We’ve just published the first (newly renamed) reports in our annual series to help you make these DX decisions:

  • The Digital Connections Tracker. The Digital Connections Tracker assesses how many devices, channels, and platforms people use, by region/market, based on an annual Forrester survey. It helps you answer questions like, “How many devices, channels, and platforms are people using on average this year in our region?” The insights help you decide things such as whether your marketing campaign is targeting the right number of channels. We’ve just published The Digital Connections Tracker, 2024: US — stay tuned for reports for each of Australia, Canada, metro China, France, Germany, metro India, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
  • The Digital Moments Map. The Digital Moments Map assesses people’s behaviors and attitudes toward 16 different combinations of interaction modes and task types based on an annual Forrester survey. This helps you answer questions like, “What percentage of people in a certain region/market prefer to use voice for control tasks such as adjusting a smart thermostat?” Similar to the Digital Connections Tracker, The Digital Moments Map, 2024: US is the first of 10 market-specific reports in this series.

Let’s Connect

Forrester offers clients custom guidance and data. You can schedule a guidance session to speak with us about the models and data, as well as request custom data cuts by country, year, age group, income band, and more.

We would like to thank former Forrester analysts Julie Ask, who set the foundation and led many prior editions of reports in this series, and David Truog, who made substantial contributions to this edition by updating the format and expanding its scope. We also acknowledge the support of our talented researchers, research associates, and Forrester’s analytics team, who have all contributed to the richness of this series.