In my role as a User Experience Architect I have design for and support what users do today, and understand their mental models of how things work. That is challenging enough, and if that was all my job was I’d be pretty darn busy.
Of course, it’s not.
I also have to plan for the future, to look forward… to think about what technological and social changes will do to change future mental models and usage patterns. I have to “future proof” my designs.
So, as part of my process I have defined some key factors that I have to keep in mind, “influencers” that will change things (and in some cases very, very quickly). My soothsaying skills are slightly above average, so here’s my list of things that will CHANGE EVERYTHING!
Ubiquitous Internet Access
This is already happening, though it has not gotten through to “Joe Six-Pack” – the idea that you can be connected to the ‘Net wherever you are, all the time. This is already changing behaviors and the idea that we can keep important information (work files, content, etc.) “in the cloud” is becoming much more comfortable to people. We may yet have that “Internet Computer” yet – with local copies on the device, in case the access drops. And, speaking of local copies…
Cheap, cheap storage
The idea that mobile devices can hold 64 GB of data is astonishing to an old foggie like me. I remember when I was impressed at the Iomega Zip Drive (“It can hold a 100 megs! And it’s only a little thicker than a floppy disk!”). We need to start thinking of smart applications that can fill that storage for the user … I have some ideas in this space, but I’d rather not share them publically ifyaknowwhatimean…
Appliances, not computers
Devices like the iPad is a “computer” but when people talk about it it’s not about how many “GBs” it has or the amount of RAM it contains… they talk about what it allows them to do – how many books, how much music, how many games it can hold, etc. The technology is getting out of the way, and that’s a great thing for people in our profession. And speaking of the iPad…
Touch computing
It’s here, folks, and it isn’t going away. We need to design for these interaction patterns even if we are not designing a UI for a touch-enabled device (because people are going to bring that learnt behavior to your – and every other – design). The iPhone and the Ipad has changed the way people interact with technology, and not in a blue-sky “Minority Report” way, but in a tangible shift in interaction models. With predictions that 25 million iPads will be sold by the end of the year, we need to be ready to support a lot of users who touch AND click…
Increased (and reduced) user freedom
Users will, at the same time, have more freedom around the services they can use to support their lifestyle and at the same time they will be “locked in” to services because they are not alternatives that they can easily migrate to. Facebook is pretty “sticky” for users, because all their friends are there… and Facebook knows it too. When a user’s social circle is all on Facebook, it’s awfully hard to change services. Look for this to become more and more of an issue in the future. And, speaking of Facebook…
Addicting Experiences
I’ve written about this before, and I’ll repeat myself somewhat here: There is a large number of companies making a lot of money by providing addictive experiences to users (they made money from me, too – my son bought $40 of seeds in Zombie Farm without thinking about it… or asking his dad). Right or wrong, we need to pay attention to how these companies are influencing user behavior to potentially “leverage” some best practices in our own designs.
Opportunities Galore
With technology becoming more and more part of everyone’s life, the opportunities for user experience designers to influence and improve user’s lives are increasing. It’s a great field to be in and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.