Solace, Portland
Portland – The start-up is reinventing death care as a digital-only direct service that offers online cremation and funeral planning.
As a death care resource, Solace melds online convenience with concierge-style customer service, providing a simple and modern solution to consumers in Oregon and Washington. Customers pay a flat fee of £895 ($1,175, €1,040), which includes 24-hour access to Solace’s support team, assistance with paperwork, transportation of the deceased, cremation, return of remains and all necessary permits and fees.
With an increasing number of people choosing cremation services over funerals, Solace’s online-only offering aims to appeal to digital-first consumers. ‘Solace is born out of our own experience with the funeral industry, and the discovery that – unlike almost every other industry – it has not evolved to match market preferences for a modern, straightforward digital-based experience,’ says Keith Crawford, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
In The New Death Market, we explore how the death industry is changing. For more, keep an eye out for our updated death market, launching soon on LS:N.
Global – Running with the tagline 'Designed to be deleted', the app has rebranded to make its interface less addictive.
Hinge, which launched in 2012 as a ‘relationship-focused app’, has unveiled a new look that will be rolled out worldwide. As well as employing more playful colours and illustrations, the redesign reverses the type of language and techniques used by dating apps, such as gamified swiping.
Instead, Hinge wants users to get off the app and into the real world of dating. It has consciously avoided several techniques used by developers to make interfaces more addictive. For example, users won’t come up against game-like animations that rival apps use to keep engagement high. In addition, Hinge’s notifications will appear subtly in-app before fading into the background.
By promoting its own deletion, Hinge is showing its commitment to meaningful relationships, while Tinder has taken a different, pro-single approach. To see why digital companies should encourage more moderate uses of their services, read our macrotrend The Focus Filter.
Hinge app
