Buzzwords of 2014 Explained with Illustrations

“Buzzword – a word or phrase that becomes very popular for a period of time.”

– Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary

We all hear buzzwords everyday, perhaps without even knowing it. The definition is vague enough that any word can (or could have been) at one point a buzzwords. Just think of words like “ecotoursim”, “minimal” (as in the weird electronic music genre that was pretty big for about a year) , or “streamlined”. Each one of those words were heavily used in certain fields, and they were the it words of their day.

The term “buzzword” was first coined all the way back in 1946. Harvard students used it when referring to key words in a lecture or reading, possibly inspired by the word “buzz” in the popular counting game Fizz buzz.

In today’s article, I will be taking a look at a few buzzwords from the world of design, business and technology, explained in a cute manner through illustrations by ONO Creates.

ONO Creates is an independent design practice from Singapore, ran by two self-described happy folks called Med and Jing. They handle both graphic and print design, as well as illustrations.

Like I said, today I will be looking at some of their illustrations, specifically a series called Behind the Buzzwords.

“Behind the Buzzwords is a set of quirky illustrations based on 10 trending words that currently drive the direction of enterprises related to technology, business and design”.

Time to get to it, then.

1. Gamification

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Gamification is probably my favourite buzzword of the bunch, as it refers to something to I wholeheartedly believe in. I am not sure what exactly the one-eyed character, which is obviously inspired by the adorable minions from Despicable Me (as are all the characters in this series), is doing. The gamepad, however, is a clear reference to gaming.

2. Unified Communications

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We are recipients (or beneficiaries, depending how you look at it) of unified communications every day. I will be the first to admit that I am definitely not the most tech-savvy individual alive, so it all just seems like magic to me. How I get notifications on the device that I am on, when both my PC, tablet, and smartphone are running, but I do appreciate not having a little high-pitched symphony play whenever I am near to all of them.

The illustration is absolutely great, with the tablet being used to video-call the TV, and the phone being used as a remote for the aforementioned television.

3. Long Tail

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This is the first buzzword in this list which I have not even heard of before checking out ONO Creates project. The concept does sound familiar to me, but I definitely did not know that it also had a specific word attached.

To illustrate the buzzword, ONO Creates made the character wear what seems to be a dragon costume, and put expensive gadgets on the end of the costumes tail. The minion character obviously finds it hard to pick just one objects, as he is sweating.

4. The Cloud

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The Cloud is probably the buzzword of this year. Now that Adobe has moved its popular Creative Suite to a cloud system, you can be sure that the Cloud is well on its way to becoming the standard for software services.

Here we have a slightly different character, still drawing inspiration from the Despicable Me minions, only this time he or she is portrayed as a cloud, carrying all sorts of files in his backpack. I can not really say what the sword is for, though.

5. Crowdsourcing

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Crowdsourcing is an excellent method to gather information or solutions, when used in the right circumstance. Sure, there’s still plenty of situations where a well trained pair of eyes is worth one thousand untrained ones, but it still most definitely is a revolutionary idea.

No minion in this pictures, instead we have a cactus (I guess) which represents the crowd, checking out multiple items, and culminating with a light bulb, which probably stands for a solution.

6. Solomo

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All the other buzzwords on this list I can at least recognize as being words that exist. I understand what unified means, or long, or tail, or cloud. Solomo, however, I have never heard of before in my life, and I do not think it can be used in any form, other than its buzzword form.

Once again, I find the concept familiar, but I definitely did not think that there was a word for it. Especially one so weird.

This time we get a minion in a spaceship, checking out a maps app, possibly checking for a good place to grab a burger in whatever galaxy he is in.

7. Internet of Things

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After solomo we have the “Internet of Things”, which refers to how much of our surrounding world is, in fact, connected to the internet. I initially thought that I understood what this is about, but then I hit the word “actuators” and I was once again lost. So please, if you know, tell me what, in the name of all that is Batman, are they?

The illustration is pretty straight forward, showing us several things that have better internet access that your average Australian household.

8. Pain Points

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Pain points, I find, is such a completely redundant buzzword, since it refers to a already perfectly usable term: problem. The fact that it can also mean, “perceived problem”, only serves to make it even less effective, as it also becomes ambiguous. The illustration is well funny, though.

9. Big Data

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Self-explanatory, really. If it is too big for a typical database, then use more databases. That’s what I understand, anyway.

10. Next Big Thing

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Next big thing has been around for a while, so I, for one, do not really see it as a buzzword, anymore. Though I might be thinking of “buzzword” as “fad”, which is a mistake, maybe? Words and language are hard.

The illustration is so very cool. Depicting a device in a test tube, receiving an extra little drop of whatever it is that makes a thing the next big thing.

That wraps up our presentation of ONO Creates Behind the Buzzwords. We hope you enjoyed these lovely illustrations as much as we did, and that maybe they inspired you to do your own interesting little project.

If you want to check out more from ONO, go right ahead and check out their website and Behance profile. They have lots of other cool designs and illustrations just waiting to be gawked at.

Also, don’t forget to leave us your thoughts in the comment section below.