Design Language Babel

Are all visual design languages, like all other human languages, eventually going to converge into one global language? Will the experience of what we call mobile, desktop, TV, game console, and internet of things someday collapse into a single surface? Why wouldn’t we want them to?

Today, every company is racing to define their interpretation of what a window, font, menu, button, input field, icon, and everything else looks and acts like in their own little fiefdom as if they were the first ones to create such elements since the dawn of two dimensional space. Mac does it this way, Windows does it that way, Android another, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and all the others, but to what end? What truly is the difference? How can we justify all this duplicated effort to achieve such a slight variation of shapes, compositions, and interactions? Each one adds just a little more cognitive load to our day as we switch contexts. Is one approach really better than the other? or is it just branding? a fashion show? a shouting contest to say “Look at OUR thing! Our thing is best! See our rounded / square / 3D / flat / gradient / shadowed / animated / reasonably-sized / gratuitously-huge buttons!”

When it comes to human language, is any one better at communicating than another? Is there value in sustaining them all or are they mostly residue from millennia of geographic separation, tribalism, nostalgia, and competition whose constant need for switching between modes of expression is a complete waste of human energy?

Imagine a world where the form of all interfaces got out of the way and all you had to focus on was content and function? What if the experience between Facebook, your bank, the grocery checkout, and the app you use to schedule who’s bringing what to the potluck were seamlessly the same? A grand unified surface. One visual design language so we could get on with the business of working together on ideas without distraction from the shine of the chrome. Why wouldn’t we want that?