The future of interaction and interface design
By THEM | Published: Wednesday, February 18, 2009

So the iPhone is the global hit of massive proportions right now. I, Tim the nerd, have fallen deep within it’s seductive qualities. As the saying goes “I am special and unique, just like everybody else” (who also owns an iPhone). I truly believe that the reasons that Apple has succeeded where so may others haven’t is because they have made the complex, simple. The confusing is (more) intuitive. What this takes away is a fundamental inhibitor of human progress, and that is FEAR. We no longer have to fear failing to be able to operate our fancy-schmancy digital devices. It (almost) makes sense now. We have reached the pinnacle. Well, not by a long shot.

As professional communicators (that’s what it boils down to what we (THEM!) do) we have to find ways to actually communicate with our client’s consumers. The old model was simple. Tell consumers how to act or what to buy and they often times would. Now, we have talked AT consumers so much, in so many different ways, that we have actually conditioned them to tune us out. And it’s our own damn fault.

As Ogilvy said years ago “The consumer is not an idiot. She’s your wife.” and in the context of today’s connectivity and access “your wife” is way more often than not, smarter and better educated than you can ever imagine. So now what?

Now, more than ever, we have to learn from smart designers like Apple and others. We have to make information and truly desirable and innovative products accessible and simple. The foundation of the product or service can be as complicated as need be, but the end result has to be functional and useful to your consumers. And not only that, we ALL have to be willing to listen and evolve our products or services as needs change. And believe you me, they are a changin’.

So why the heck am I talking about this? In this market, it is incredibly easy to become obsolete quicker than you can say Government Bailout. How do we side-step this 10,000 lb gorilla? That is the magic bean my friends.

So now I am going to post a completely inner-nerd inducing video. I am going to ask you to watch this video twice. Once to even begin to understand what the possibilities are in the near future for incredible interface and interaction design on so many different levels. Second, watch it again and think about the beauty of the thinking of this technology which is letting people interact with your product or service the way is suits them. The more we create business solutions for our customers that follow this simple frame of thought, the more loyal our client’s consumers and therefore our clients will be. And that makes everybody happy.

This entry was posted in: Creativity, Design