Title: Stop Thinking About User Interface: A Product Approach for Designing Products of the Future
Context: Before assuming that a GUI is the answer you might want to first reconsider the question.
Synopsis: When you are a software designer, every problem looks like it needs to be solved with a GUI. That’s what you do. You design user interfaces so people can do stuff with them. And usually this is absolutely correct. There must be a layer between the human and digital platforms simply because they speak different languages and a well crafted interface handles the translation required to enable bilateral functionality. However, a graphical interface is but one way to power these types of interactions. In fact, there are bound to be cases where a GUI can even slow the process unnecessarily. So, as technology evolves, and interaction opportunities multiply, we are going to have to consciously resist the GUI design bias. It is up to the designer to refuse to jump to the same conclusion in all instances and instead approach every user problem as a blank slate in order to develop the most suitable solution, not the one that is most familiar.
Best Bit: “When designing a digital product you should always understand that a GUI is a medium to deliver the service and not the service itself.”
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