(2011-11-11) Victor A Brief Rant On The Future Of Interaction Design

Bret Victor: A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design. This little rant isn't going to lay out any grand vision or anything. I just hope to suggest some places to look.

TOOLS

I'm going to talk about that neglected third factor, human capabilities. What people can do. Because if a tool isn't designed to be used by a person, it can't be a very good tool, right?

Do you see what everyone is interacting with?

hands are fantastic!

Hands feel things, and hands manipulate things.

Go ahead and pick up a glass of water. Take a sip

*Notice how you know how much water is left, by how the weight shifts in response to you tipping it.

Almost every object in the world offers this sort of feedback*

Now, take out your favorite Magical And Revolutionary Technology Device. Use it for a bit.

What did you feel? Did it feel glassy? Did it have no connection whatsoever with the task you were performing? I call this technology Pictures Under Glass

Are we really going to accept an Interface Of The Future that is less expressive than a sandwich? (UX, haptic)

Responses: A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design

Here are a few common responses I've received, and some thoughts on them.

You didn't offer a solution. Yes, that's why I called it a rant, not an essay

Today, iPad good. It's flat and glassy and everyone loves it anyway. It's genuinely revolutionary. But if all we have in twenty years is an iPad with a few haptic gimmicks, that'll be bad.

I believe that deep understanding requires active exploration, and I'm much more interested in explorable environments.

Channeling all interaction through a single finger is like restricting all literature to Dr Seuss's vocabulary. Yes, it's much more accessible, both to children and to a small set of disabled adults. But a fully-functioning adult human being deserves so much more.