Interface Design Lessons from Sci-Fi

Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction:

… interface makers in the real world and in sci-fi are, essentially, doing the same thing – creating new interfaces. In this sense, all design is fiction – at least until it gets built or is made available to users and customers. When designers create anything that isn’t the real, final product that ships, they’re creating speculative interfaces – fictions. Each wireframe, scenario, pencil sketch, and screen mockup says, “Here’s how it might be,” or even “Here’s how it ought to be.” Designers for each domain ask similar questions: Is this understandable? What’s the right control for this action? What would be awesome? Although they ultimately work with different audiences, budgets, media options, goals, and constraints, the work is fundamentally similar. Each can learn something from the other.

November 12, 2012