The Future of User Interfaces

The Future of
User Interfaces
!
19 June 2014
Future of Digital Marketing 2014
!
Jason Mesut
Head of User Experience, Plan
Local Leader, IxDA London
!
!
@jasonmesut
!

Microsoft video
Microsoft vision of the future

Corning — A day made of glass 2

!
How did the videos make you feel?

!
How would these future solutions
work as part of your life?

!
What does your home look like?

Original iPhone
??
2007
—Direct manipulation
—Dynamic display
—Rich graphics

Knobs
Buttons
Switches
Levers and handles

!
Who am I to talk about the
Future of User Interfaces?

5years
!
Industrial Design
years
!
Digital User Experience
15

3years
Local leader
Interaction Design
Association
L o n d o n
Subjects over 3 years
Internet of Things
Future of publishing
Urban environment
Smart materials
Mobility / Automotive
Clinical applications
!
Upcoming…
Smart home
Music interfaces
Consumer healthcare

I joined
A product strategy consultancy
!
We help companies
work out what to do next.

I joined
!
We help companies
work out what to do next.
Helping innovation
and design teams
raise their game
Bringing clarity to
the front end of
innovation

Bringing clarity to
the front end of
innovation
Helping innovation
and design teams
raise their game
Consumer
electronics
Automotive
!
Materials
What should we
do for our next
smart phone?
!
How will we
engage gen Z?
!
!
How can we
compete with
the no.1 in our
category?

2026 2027 2028
We work across a range of horizons
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
FMCG
Consumer electronics
Automotive
Healthcare
Aviation

Across a variety
of challenge areas
Packaging
Digital
Services
Products
Interactions
Environments

So we think a lot
about the future
of user interfaces

Packaging
Digital
Services
Products
Interactions
Environments
And their relationships
to those other areas

!
User Interface
A human that uses something:
customer, employee, citizen, parent, child

!
User Interface
A human that uses something
A way for a human to understand
and control a machine or technology

User Interface
!
A way for a human
to understand and
control a machine
or technology

User Interface
!
A way for a human
to understand and
control a machine
or technology
User Experience
!
Perceptions and
memories of
interactions and
events

User Interface
we can
design this

User Interface User Experience
we can
design this
to affect
this

User Experience
Which we hope
will affect
Loyalty
Revenue
Brand
Efficiency

Graphical
User Interface
!
Allows users to
interact with
electronic systems

Visual Language
Motion Graphics
Information Design
Information Architecture
Interaction Design

Visual language
Motion graphics
Information Design
Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Still relevant

But there’s more to
UI than just GUI
Physical
Telephone
Voice
Embedded
Distributed

I want to talk you through
The future present
The future possible
The future likely
How to focus better

What’s going on now?
The future present

!
We’re still getting to
grips with touchscreens

Original iPhone
2007
—Direct manipulation
—Dynamic display
—Rich graphics

In defence of
skeuomorphism
2007
—??

Skeuomorphism has
always been in design

!
Designers obsessed with flat design.
But at what cost?

Flat design
Less obvious
Homogenous
Requires good typography

!
Screen size impacting
how we design

!
Gestural interaction is
growing and fading

!
Better isn’t always better

!
Tiring
Coarse control
Confusion with natural gestures

We’re
attracted to
magic like
magpies

Screens replacing
tactile controls

Screens in
front of babies
http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/fisher-price-ipad-apptivity-seat.jpg

The internet of
things is hitting
the mainstream
Niche Mass

http://www.beamtoothbrush.com/toothbrush/
http://www.beamtoothbrush.com/toothbrush/

Tech companies
buying hardware
companies + skills

Service
companies
selling hardware

Wearable
excitement
Something other than a
smartphone to design

Even if they make
us look ridiculous

What are the possible futures?
The future possible

!
Her
!
!
!
!
How far can this go?

Beware the uncanny valley
Humanoid
robot
Corpse
Stuffed
animal
Bunraku
puppet
Uncanny valley
Industrial
robot
Familarity
Human likeness 50% 100%
+
-
Healthy
person
Moving
Still
Prosthetic hand
Zombie

!
Smart platforms
As internet connected sensors
proliferate and sense a wider range
of phenomena, platforms are using
machine intelligence to interpret and
aggregate collected data to make
useful interventions.

!
No such thing
as a natural UI

!
Invisible Computing
Hardware virtually disappears, as computing technology
unobtrusively integrates with everyday, natural human function.
!
Supportive Computing
Computing technology that supports natural human function,
rather than requires humans to adapt to computing functions.
Adaptive Computing
Intelligently recognize and interpret human patterns to produce
output based on relative context.
!
http://pivotallabs.com/the-future-of-uiux-the-natural-user-interface/

Better for
Less visual clutter
Less learning (in theory)
Less conscious interaction

!
Displaced complexity
System rules
Mental models

Wearable Where?
Visible
Concealed
Pendant
Undergarment strap
Chest pin
BFC
Belt
Pocket
Inside pocket or undergarment
Earring or on ear
Shirt collar
Upper arm of Sleeve
Tie or Shirt button
Wrist
Finger ring
Calf or Sock
On or in shoe
Hair
Gadi Amit, New Deal Design, PDI 2014

Wearables need to consider
many different factors
Fashion, gender, context, size

Where should you focus?
The future likely

The future is already
here — it's just not very
evenly distributed.
William Gibson, 1993

!
Touch and gesture
will evolve

!
Screen form factors
will evolve

!
We will seek more
immersive interfaces

!
Escapism or focus?
Gamers and experts?

Blending paper products
and digital services
 
Evernote
+ Moleskin 
+ Post-Its 
+ Business cards

Integrated
automotive
interface
Texas Instruments 
Immersive Automobile 
Physical controls
designed in concert with
graphical user interface

Physical
peripherals with
digital interfaces

Roli
Seaboard
Roli  
Innovative expressive
piano. Keys you can bend.

Physical
interaction design
Beo A9 
Physical volume control

Physical interaction
design
Beo A9 
Physical volume control 
Beo A9 
Physical volume control

Distributed controls and displays

!
There will still be
buttons, knobs, mice
and keyboards

And keyboards will
still be important

!
The future likely
!
It’s like today, with
some small differences
!
— Greater relevance
— Politer interactions
— Evolved touch, gesture, voice
— New screen form factors
— Return to physical
!

How can you better
focus for the future?

Experts
Emergent
behaviour
Trends Brand

Business
Creative
technologists
Industrial
Designer
Interaction
designer
Visual
designer
Software
engineers
Researchers
Design
strategists
Work
with
experts

Monitor
trends
Perpetual
contact
Perpetual
contact
Culture
of fear
Culture of
emotions
Polarised
prosperity
Urban
rennaissance
Sustainability
tensions
Behaviour
change
Retail
revolution
Consumerisation
of healthcare
Learning
diversity
Austerity culture
Labour
imbalances
Innovation
imperative
Resource
volatility
New
conventions
Ageing
societies
Search for
authenticity
Trust
crisis
Internet of things
Networks of connected
objects that sense and
share information
Hardware
revival
Smart
systems
Social
Econom
ic
Technological

!
Keep aware of new technology

Innovation
trigger
Peak of inﬂated
expectations
Trough of
disillusionment
Slope of
enlightenment
Plateau of
productivity
As of
July 2013
Time
Content analytics
Augmented reality
Mobile health monitoring
Cloud
computing
Virtual
reality
Gesture control
Biometric
authentication
Location
intelligence
Predictive
analytics
Speech
recognition
Wearable user interfaces
Gamiﬁcation
Big data
Natural language
processing
Internet
of Things
Autonomous
vehicles
Holographic
displays
Expectations

!
Understand human behaviours in context

The world
The products and
services that people will
use and the context of
that usage
The user
How they see the
world and how they
need to manipulate it

The world
The products and
that usage
The user
How they see the
world and how they
Environment User
Situation Task
System
LearnabilityEcosystem
Intent

Environment User
Situation Task
System
Intent
The world
The products and
that usage
The user
How they see the
world and how they

Environment User
Situation Task
System
Intent
Usability
Product
Experience
Brand
The world
!
!
!
The user

Background vs. foreground
Consciousness

Polite interactions
Contextual
Respectful
Discrete

!
Understand your brand
position and permission

A recipe for integrated products?
+ +Physical
Product
Digital
Interface
Digital
Service
Integrated
product
=

+ +Physical
Product
Digital
Interface
Digital
Services
!
Aesthetic  
Visceral. Visual, sonic, feel. 
Interactive
Behavioural. Distribution of inputs and controls.
!
Experiential
Reflective. Fit with person’s context and ecosystems.
!
!
Key levels
of harmony
Components of integrated experience

Mobile first
Responsive design
Big Data
Internet of Things
Native apps
Natural UI
…
The human centipede of digital rhetoric
Twitter
LinkedIn
Conferences
Campaign
…

Escape the echo chamber
Look around you.
Listen with your eyes.
Apply critical judgement.

Beware concept videos
Tell real stories and demonstrate
with working prototypes

The Internet of
Ubiquitous
Computing
Information
Appliance Things is
growing 
Prototype out loud

!
Shun the shiny
Don’t be a magpie
to the magical

!
The Future of User Interfaces?
!

!
!
It’s like today, with
some small differences
!
— Greater relevance
— Politer interactions
— Evolved touch, gesture, voice
— New screen form factors
— Return to physical
!

!
!
To make a better future
!
!
— Triangulate to focus
— Escape the echo chamber
— Make the future real
— Don’t be a magpie

Thank you jason@plan.bz
@jasonmesut
http://www.plan.bz
slideshare.net/jasonmesut
slideshare.net/planstrategic

The Future of User Interfaces

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