Experiencing Innovation
A history of User Experience Design
In his keynote lecture (What is design?) for the Smithsonian Design Institute, Bill Moggridge talks about the why and how of design, its various disciplines and its importance. At an interesting point in the lecture, he explains how innovation and the design of new experiences sit at the crossroads between Technology, People and Business.
Following that viewpoint, we can interpret the history of user experience design through a series of revolutionary innovations throughout human history. Where humans, en masse, have experienced a moment of departure – a radical shift in their everyday experience and lifestyle.
This post examines a few key innovations.
Experiencing Reading
1436: Johannes Gutenberg invents movable type and mass produces books
The technology of printing had been explored in India, China and Europe since 220 AD. However, it was still restricted to the upper echelons of society and the common people remained illiterate. It was Gutenberg’s invention of movable, interchangeable, re-usable type for printing that permanently altered the structure of society. With his new technology, Gutenberg promptly began mass producing books, most notably the bible. The common people could now experience education and learning that had previously been unaffordable to them.
Experiencing Mobility
1784: James Watt invents the steam engine
The invention of the steam-powered locomotive engine heralded the new experience of mass transport. Inventors, businessmen and investors realised the potential of using this technology for the public conveyance of goods and people. For more than 50 years, from 1784 to 1837, they worked toward a vision of what steam railways could be, with cities and towns linked by a network of long distance railways, introducing a new faster travel experience.
Experiencing Communication
1800s to1950s: The rise of telecommunication
The invention of electricity by Alessandro Volta in 1800 set in motion a series of experiments and inventions in the field of modern telecommunication. Electricity enabled the transport of information in an extremely fast way. This instigated the design of several products and services for people to use like the telegraph, the telephone, the radio and the television. These devices helped reinvent the experience of long-distance, mass communication from the ground up.
Experiencing Connection
1. The Internet and the World Wide Web
From 1965 to the early 1980s, researchers created and developed the ARPANET (later, the internet). It was established as a technology supporting a wide community for digital communication. This led to the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. This created a global, fundamental shift in the way people interacted. An entire generation of human beings was experiencing a whole new way of accessing information.
2. Social Networks
If the internet revolutionised the way we learned new things, social networks revolutionised the way we communicated with each other. While emails and chat rooms facilitated interpersonal communication, it is with social networks that we experienced a sharing of ourselves and our personalities on a global level. Networking and sharing platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest have woven themselves into our lives to such an extent that it is hard to imagine that they didn’t exist more than a decade ago.
Experiencing Intuition
2007: Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone
With the digital revolution of the past few decades, technology developments and new experiences have exponentially increased. The smartphone became the next big thing in the natural progression of events. But it is so much more than just a phone and we have Steve Jobs to thank for it.
With the iPhone, not only did he introduce an ingenious new product, he also introduced designers and society to the possibilities that lay in creating intuitive, original, evolving user experiences. He pioneered the shift of business focus from technology to design and user experience.
As Ali Rushdan Tariq says in his article ‘A brief history of user experience’, “Every major milestone in the evolution of UX has involved an interaction between technology and human beings.”
Keeping this in mind, it is our responsibility as designers and innovators to be constantly aware of our evolving lifestyles, emerging technologies and the promise of human improvement.
“Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.” George Lucas
Sources:
http://blog.invisionapp.com/a-brief-history-of-user-experience/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
http://www.bpsnet.org.uk/history_print.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport
https://theinformr.in/features/brief-history-telecommunications/
http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet
