Global Scans · Design · Weekly Summary

WHAT'S NEXT?: Design thinking will increasingly play a key role in improving systems and customer experiences. Companies will re-learn their approach to innovation and embrace human-centred design principles. Designers will begin to apply knowledge of human interaction, specifically in the area of how we earn trust and respect, to AI systems.

• [New] Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Z Tri-Fold reimagines the foldable phone with a stunning tri-hinge design, tablet-sized display, and next-gen performance - a bold leap that could change the future of mobile technology forever. Futurism
• [New] The strategic planting and management of oak trees in city plans highlights their growing importance for sustainable urban design in 2026. Farmonaut
• [New] With the approach of 2026, the designs of some bathrooms which in the past were regarded as contemporary, are now slowly transitioning to bathrooms which are designed in a more functional and timeless approach. OCNJ Daily
• [New] NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD will continue to lead in designing AI-focused processors. FinancialContent
• [New] A modernized restaurant design could help the Midwestern chain expand more quickly in new states, like Texas, Florida and Arizona, where it has been working to establish footholds in recent years. Restaurant Dive
• [New] With the UK targeting a fourfold increase in offshore wind by 2030, industry will watch whether auction design changes - or a court challenge-follow before the next leasing round. Impakter
• [New] Mongolia has vast potential for renewable energy, from wind and solar to infrastructure designed for sustainability and climate resilience. European Investment Bank
• [New] Long-term value will depend on execution and real adoption rather than speculation, as Worldcoin's success ultimately relies on proving its identity model works at global scale. Coincub
• [New] Privacy groups including Privacy International and Big Brother Watch have highlighted the risks in digital identity systems, including: data breaches, user profiling, surveillance, exclusion, and function creep (where a digital ID becomes mandatory in more scenarios than originally proposed). House of Commons Library
• [New] Developed with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, the new version of EIOS is designed to scan the internet for signals of emerging health threats. Technocracy News
• [New] As more young and digitally-savvy consumers start flying, the number of digital identity users will rise from 155 million in 2024 to 1.27 billion by 2029. CNBC
• [New] The Home Office further modified its guidance to deny there may be any grounds on which Albanian male victims of trafficking might fear persecution as a social group as outlined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, due to an alleged lack of distinct identity within Albanian society. Migrant & Refugee Children's Legal Unit
• [New] With OpenAI investing in custom accelerators, capacity and latency economics will increasingly shape agent design (more on-device / edge inference, batched planning, and streaming tool calls). Medium
• [New] Bitcoin, currently valued at $2.1 trillion, offers far greater upside, particularly as new infrastructure expands its utility beyond simple storage of value, creating opportunities that projects like Bitcoin Hyper are designed to capture. The Cryptonomist
• [New] Designing PA-NG will be more challenging than with the previous aircraft carrier and is seen by many as a culmination of France's technological and manufacturing prowess. SlashGear
• [New] Many fashion companies aim to design all their textile products to better fit the circular economy by 2040. Statista
• [New] JetBlue is renovating JFK's Terminal 5 which will feature over 40 new concessions, local art, and immersive greenery, set to be fully complete by the end of 2026. New York City Tourism + Conventions
• [New] A single UK eID could create a universally usable and recognized proof of identity for UK residents - useful also for other processes, including opening bank and utility accounts and applying for government benefits. Forrester
• [New] The UK government plans to mandate an electronic digital identity scheme and credential to all legal residents and employees of the UK to prove immigration and employment eligibility status. Forrester
• [New] By co-designing chips optimized for their specific workloads think massive language models trained on petabytes of data OpenAI hopes to cut costs and accelerate iterations. Future
• [New] 24 million Americans will be victims of identity theft in 2025, as scams become increasingly sophisticated using old and new methods powered by technology like artificial intelligence and social engineering, which trick victims into sharing personal information. sdwia.com

Last updated: 27 October 2025