Interaction Design is dead. What now?
The digital revolution was a gold rush for curious minds. Nobody knew what digital media actually was, only that it was about to impact our lives profoundly. It was unknown territory waiting to be filled with new artforms, designs and ways to understand the world.
Then this happened:
What’s going on?
1. Interaction Design is based on technological thinking
Interaction Design emerged from a technological — digital — revolution. So just like engineers, designers became problem solvers. In an avalanche of ever-accelerating trends the main questions of the technological designer have been: “What can we do with technology?” and “How can we do it?”
There is not much room for open questions like: “Why should we do it?”
2. Interaction Design is restricted to profitable applications.
After a phase of exploration, interaction designers today mostly serve one goal: to make money (or as they say in startup incubators: “to change the world”). The effort to commodify every nook and cranny of our (private) lives has become prevalent and it ignores everything that doesn’t fit into a business plan. The design of profitable digital products and services can limit your world view to an extremely narrow perspective.
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