Design Trends: Death of the Static Interface

The ways that you interact with information and services are changing quickly. Devices and websites are tailoring their design, layout and interaction for you. We are getting to a place where anything you interact with wants to take care of you and customize itself to present you with what is most useful and most relevant and eliminate all that is not. It’s been going on for a while, and things are just accelerating as we enter 2008.

Device Design

With an iPhone screen that can be manipulated 100% by software, Apple has has suggested that the lack of physical keys means the user interface is entirely flexible. The upcoming 1.1.3 iPhone update will make that even more apparent, with the ability to move your phone’s buttons around to suit your needs.

Where is this heading? Look at your universal remote. Buttons are crammed on to a large stick of plastic to cater to anyone and everyone’s different needs. The result is at best a steep learning curve with confusion and at worst a barrier too high for many older people to climb at all. A flexible interface could remedy this, with just the right buttons placed in the right place and the other unused, or unneeded functions hidden away, or moved to a second screen (see iPhone video below).

Web User Interface Design

In 2008, a majority of people are logging in to a website and getting a custom tailored experience. Whether it is Gmail, Amazon.com, a company intranet or a social site. Amazon presents you with what it knows you want and everyone’s Facebook page is different, once logged in.

With all this moving around, isn’t there room for consistency? We think so, but instead of static buttons, we believe static zones of space in an interface are the solution; where similar functions are chunked together. For example, in Facebook you see an area dedicated to your status, but that status is always changing. More flexibly, Facebook assigns areas for notifications and for commonly used applications, but that space can expand or contract, and be turned on or off for specific uses.

Below I have highlighted in yellow all the space on my Facebook profile that are flexible. The area or interaction zones of the screen are still static and dedicated to a specific function, but within this framework the content is entirely flexible based on what I want to do.

The Future

Looking for the next big static interface victim? You are typing on it.

The Optimus keyboard lets you assign the buttons. What’s next? No physical buttons…

A newly published patent application (filed March 13, 2007) reveals that Apple has been researching a dynamically changing keyboard [tip: MacRumors.com].

As flexible user interfaces continue to gain acceptance, the possibilities for interaction and benefit increase. No longer are people tied to a device, site or keyboard that serve a static set of uses. Additionally, flexible interfaces allow for marketing and advertising uses to be considered. Not only can ads be shown to a person alongside an interaction, but the ad experience can be tailored to the individual.

Say for example, you typed in a grocery list. A smart interface could reveal coupons for you next to the buttons. Touching the coupon could give you a code to take shopping, or even order the item for you electronically at the discounted price.

The future of interface is about you. What you want, what’s in context of your needs and the ability to be flexible and change as your needs demand.

In the coming weeks we will provide a new version of the Drawbackwards site that is tailored for one of these new interfaces. We’ll talk about the design decisions we made and how user context drives the design process.

If you are interested in moving your project or marketing initiative into these new interface spaces, contact us for a consultation. Email ward@drawbackwards.com or call 480-522-1074.