Has the future turned out the way it was supposed to?
My office recently received delivery of a brand new lava lamp - those novelty lights that are filled with lurid oils that hypnotically swirl around. Today, it seems to me that the lava lamp’s retro styling makes them an object of desire heaped in the nostalgia of a different decade. The science of hot oil is pretty simple, however it’s worth remembering that in the 1970s, they were a modernist designer’s attempt to achieve the aesthetic of a space-age living room of the future. The kind of room seen in movies like Forbidden Planet and Barberella. All that was missing was some shiny silver jump suits - and some people even tried those out for size!
When the lava lamp is placed on a crisp white desk in 2013, surrounded by our contemporary gadgets and gizmos; smooth aluminium laptops, iPhones and iPads, it poses the question:
Has the future turned out the way it was supposed to?
When an image of what the future was envisaged to be, is juxtaposed with our modern world, does it come close to that comic book ideal? Should we feel a little disappointed?
It must seem like an odd question… but we don’t holiday in space yet, we don’t drive flying cars… where is the hoverboard I was promised in the 21st century?
One of the most common misconceptions was that we would create consumer robots to do the jobs we humans either couldn’t do, or didn’t want to do. The idea of artificial slaves to alleviate humans of any real effort or responsibility at all. I think this is where the difference lies between where people thought we’d go, and where we’ve actually come so far.
It seems to me that some of the most positive advances in technology, are still to improve the human day to day. Particularly at the forefront of modern consumer product design; both for hardware and software.
We’re not removing human effort entirely. We’re certainly not removing responsibility. However, whilst still working to offer a remedy for human error, good design is striving to make people’s lives easier, more exciting and more inspiring.
We can all get behind this ideal, and make our own contribution - no matter how small - to further improve the way we produce, and use technology to live our lives. As consumers and creators. We need to champion a better way, a better product, a cleaner user interface, a more compelling graphic design communication, and a better, more enjoyable, more fulfilling experience for the user in everything we do.
UX design will continue to play a key role the future of the internet, and in the last few years the way has been paved by great companies all over the world who’ve made distinct advances in this area. But why should the average website still be clunky and horrible to use? Even on a budget, simple planning, logic, and empathy with the target user early on in the design process can remedy this. With so many people designing and building flawed websites these days, mistakes have, and will continue to be made along the way.
I guess all we can do is try to make the internet better than the way we found it.
It’s not a comic book future yet, but it’s still pretty good, and all the flying cars and silver fabrics can wait till later, can’t they?
