Why has the history of interaction design gone missing?
To better understand where we are going and new frontiers for interaction design we need to start with a better picture of where we have come from. Yet our community suffers from a bad case of collective amnesia. We are challenged to trace the ideas and principles that ground our work to a time before Steve Jobs and Don Norman. Yet these principles provide the foundation for making better choices regarding the future of a more ethical practice. The human-centered principles behind our work stretch back centuries and are the result and response to historic events, like the Age of Enlightenment or the Industrial Revolution, no different from the ones that we face today.
The roots of our history lie in plain sight and have changed the course of industry and society, yet they have not been woven into a coherent story that explains where we are today – when UX has increasingly become the operating system for modern life. Few UX or interaction designers have been prepared for this moment through a grounded understanding of our past. Yet the impact of our choices goes way beyond the design of the facebook like button and other addictive feedback loops. Governments in India and Indonesia (which collectively represent more than 20% of humanity) are rolling out digital identity systems built on the design patterns, metaphors and interfaces this community has popularized over the last decade. How can we effectively address the current moment without a throughline to the many characters and events that have shaped our past, from Louis the XV to Harriet Beecher Stowe to Harry Gordon Selfridge to Alphonse Chapanis.
This talk will pull from a robust body of knowledge and vivid stories gathered through the course of research for the upcoming book, User Friendly: How the hidden rules of design are changing the way we live work and play (FSG, November 2019).
