Technology is creating a complex future; Design is the key to unlocking technology from its black box.
Picture looking up from your desk and ‘virtually’ reading this article on the wall or ceiling; or sitting in a self-driving car and having it float alongside your window as the landscape flashes by in the background. Our world is on the verge of merging our physical and digital worlds, making such scenarios a reality. Countless digital and virtual elements will be embedded and encoded throughout our material surroundings. We will control and navigate this hybrid environment through real-time visualizations, gestures, and our voice. We will have created a sensory experience that is location-independent and understand more about the world around us.
As systems become progressively self-sufficient and self-sustaining, they may soon operate outside the realm of human knowledge and understanding.
This revolution is happening now. Technologies such as Mixed Reality, the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Blockchain are fast becoming commonplace. They continue to evolve exponentially, as do the ecosystems they create and the data they generate. As a society we are creating an increasingly complex system of systems that are both the manager and driver of these technologies. Some examples we can imagine in the nearby future: your calendar syncs with a driverless car service. The moment your alarm clock rings, the coffee machine starts brewing; the instant you turn the key of your front-door, the car pulls up. These products and services together create a continuously changing ecosystem. Add your partner’s schedule to this morning ritual and you’ll see how separate systems can merge. At the same time, systems are becoming progressively self-sufficient and self-sustaining, and may soon operate outside the realm of human knowledge and understanding. The possibility and risk that we lose understanding and control of our own creations and their inner workings is ever present.
Looking to the future role of technology in our lives and society, how can we ensure we maintain a level of control over these systems? And what is the role of design to play in this?
As complexity increases, we witness an increasing social, economic, and power divide as a consequence of the proliferation and commodification of technology; a divide between the technically savvy and digitally literate on the one hand, and the digitally illiterate on the other. This division shows no sign of narrowing any time soon. For those who fail to understand what these new technologies really are, how they work, and what decision-making processes are executed on their behalf, the potential to miss out on social and economic advancements is huge. Also, let’s not forget the majority of us on this planet are still concerned with finding safety, shelter and food rather than being interested in AI and Blockchain. Only a few stand to really benefit from the latest and greatest technological advancements.
Take blockchain and the currency built on it for example: many are blinded by the gold rush effect of various cryptocurrencies without fully understanding how the technology works. The premise of blockchain revolves around trust and transparency, but there is little debate about the trust and transparency of the technology itself. It seems like we take this for granted. The questioning of how something works and why. We have yet to see a comprehensive interface of ‘blocks’ and ‘chains’ that visualizes its workings, without having to download the entire blockchain itself and be part of that.
Similarly, Artificial Intelligence goes far beyond voice assistants and messenger bots, yet not many users grasp the influence it presently has on our lives and the momentous impact we have yet to foresee. Smart objects and the Internet of Things are increasingly becoming empowered with AI; we’ll soon see products and services making decisions for us, without us knowing and understanding ‘why’. Often this is not a problem. We don’t always need to understand why certain things happen, but when algorithms make decisions on whether you get a mortgage or not, or have built-in biases, I’m sure most of us will think differently. ‘Real-time’ monitoring of AI decision-making might be a step too far (for now) but we should be able to go back in our virtual time machine and see the ‘why’ a decision has been made.
Technologies such as AI and Blockchain will have a hugely positive impact on all aspects of life, from advancements in cancer research to providing financial (micro)infrastructures to underprivileged communities. Nevertheless, the understanding and capability of working with them remains with a select few. And even these few have trouble explaining why an algorithm makes certain decisions. We’re putting our trust in black boxes. The only way for future technologies to gain traction ultimately lies in transparency.
We require interfaces to interpret the inner workings of the underlying technology.
As a data design agency, we are advocates of design, design thinking, and data visualization as a tool to unlock complexity for everyone. Technology and data have become an inseparable part of our world and the work we do. More and more devices collect our data from every aspect of our personal and professional lives. The information that is surfaced from that collection is used to understand the world before us, around us, and to predict the world that awaits us. It drives industries and innovation across an unimaginable scale. Despite that, we no longer need an interface between humans and machines. Instead, we require interfaces to interpret the inner workings of the underlying technology. Interfaces that permit the checks and balances for us to monitor, alter, and undo decision-making within and by this complex system. The systemic and communication hurdles that lie within these technologies and systems might possibly be the greatest challenge for us as designers to tackle; serving the purpose of transparency.
Envisioning how best to understand technology, implement it, and use data to add real value is a challenge we will all run into more frequently. ‘Design thinking’ — and what we in our company call ‘UX for data’ — factors in the human component. We deconstruct complex topics into tangible and understandable elements and create user-friendly products and services. The demand for designers to apply their thinking to such challenges is progressively growing. Our efforts should focus on designing not only how something looks, feels and behaves, but more importantly on designing the principle workings of protocols and (eco)systems that lie at the core of the systems. We have an obligation to design systems that are inclusive to those that understand it, as well as to those that do not; delivering solutions from a people-first perspective.
Our scope of perceptions constantly expands through technology, but our span of control stays the same.
It might be time for us to accept the idea that we encounter the limitations of our own human comprehension. Our scope of perceptions constantly expands through technology, but our span of control stays the same. The technological promise is that we can break through any limit as long as we innovate fast enough. We should be wary of that. Let’s use those limits to our advantage and make them an integral part of our design (process) as so-called ‘beneficial difficulties’. Let us design interfaces and visualizations that show how neural networks make decisions and where blockchains branch off and why, rather than taking these things for granted.
The world is shaping up to be one that brings us great joy and benefits, the likes of which have never been seen in our history. At the same time, we are creating an environment in which ultimately only a few partially understand what is going on. It is here, where our calling as designers lie. This new world calls for a clear need for systemic thinking and design. A world in which we don’t try to technologize humanity, but in which we humanize technology.
At CLEVER°FRANKE we are continuously exploring new technologies and pushing into new domains such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and new expressions of visualization like Mixed Reality to name a few. It’s a learning process, one that excites and challenges us to persevere in exceeding our boundaries.
We’ll be publishing our discoveries, insights and thoughts here as we continue along this journey, and invite you to contribute your perspective, opinions and knowledge to the discussions. Drop us a line with your thoughts and ask about our upcoming roundtable discussions on these topics.
