Designing The Future
As technology evolves, so do the roles and responsibilities of designers.
In a talk titled The Future of Design Systems, designer Hayley Hughes states, "Defining design today is messy business. Design is so many things; it's a field, it's a process, it's a proposal, it's an outcome, and designers are supposed to be good at all of it."
Today, the expectations of designers have never been greater. So how are the roles of designers changing?
Before we move forward, let's take a step back. Let's look at how design roles have evolved over the past 20 years. Let’s start by comparing design roles in 2001 vs. 2021.
We’ve clearly seen an evolution in the field of design. Technology has driven this advancement, and designers have been forced to adapt to rapid change.
So, how will technology force the evolution of designers over the next 20 years? I believe that design roles will continue to blend with other professions driven by technological advancement.
Here are some thoughts on new design roles that may exist in the coming years.
Let’s explore a few technology trends that may alter the career path of designers in the future.
"Imaginative design always develops in tandem with improving technology" - Dieter Rams.
1. Blockchain: A Misunderstood Revolution
"What is internet anyway?" - Katie Couric, NBC News 1995
In 1995 the internet was starting to become a common term. NBC and other news outlets were beginning to discuss this technology; however, due to lack of information, this technology was misunderstood by most people.
Today, we're at a similar point with blockchain technology. This technology is generally misunderstood, but the world is starting to take notice. 20 years from now, we'll most likely look back at news broadcasts and laugh at memes of newscasters saying, "what is blockchain anyway?".
So what is blockchain technology, and why is it so revolutionary? Blockchain is described as "a system of recorded information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain."
NFT's are bringing awareness of blockchain technology to the surface. However, there are many other industries and verticals this technology will revolutionize. Banking, Digital Wallets, Cybersecurity, Supply Chain, Voting, Transportation, and Real Estate are a few industries that blockchain will disrupt in the coming years.
Designers will be required to understand this technology and will design new UX patterns to support it. We're already starting to see new patterns emerge through cryptocurrency, NFT's and digital wallets.
2. An Example: The Digital Wallet
As blockchain-based apps become more popular, digital wallets will become the standard for accessing and managing our digital assets. Digital wallets are required to ensure secure login, generate digital keys, and exchange digital tokens. Digital wallets also ensure that only you have access to your accounts and data. With a digital wallet, you can control what to share and keep private.
Designers will be required to understand blockchain technology to design new UX patterns that integrate digital wallets. We are starting to see a new UX pattern emerge with digital wallet logins. I expect this to become more common over the coming years.
3. Generative Design: Human & Machine Collaboration
What is generative design? Generative design is described as "an iterative design process that involves a program that will generate a certain number of outputs that meet certain constraints and a designer that will fine-tune the feasible region by selecting specific output or changing input values, ranges and distribution."
So what does this mean for designers? Generative design allows us to speed up productivity but at a cost. Designers must learn to give up some control of the output in exchange for speed.
Designers will become curators of design projects by setting goals and constraints and collaborating with machines. Designers will need to become more like scientists. They will fine-tune values and parameters, run experiments, and wait to see what comes out the other end. The machine will generate many possible outputs, very quickly. The designers will then adjust values until they achieve the desired results. These results, however, will need to be a compromise between humans and machines.
We're already seeing generative design being used in many industries. One of the leaders in this space is Autodesk.
4. The Metaverse: Decentralized Worlds
You may be asking, what is the metaverse? Wikipedia states this: "The Metaverse is a collective of virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the internet."
Decentraland is the first fully decentralized virtual world. Through DAO, which stands for "Decentralized Autonomous Organization." all users are in control of the policies created to determine how the world behaves. The Decentraland community of users will propose and vote on policy updates, future land auctions, NFT contracts, builders, and marketplace.
So what does decentralization mean? AWS describes decentralization as "In blockchain, decentralization refers to the transfer of control and decision-making forum a centralized entity (individual, organization, or group thereof) to a distributed network."
So how does decentralization affect the future of design? Virtual worlds have existed in many forms over the years. However, the difference here is that a single entity has always been in control of these worlds, their assets, and their policies.
Through decentralized worlds, the power is now being placed in its users' hands, not the creators. Designers must learn how to navigate these new systems and employ UX patterns with the knowledge that they can not fully control the platform's output and future.
5. Virtual Reality: The New Interaction Design
Designers must learn how to design experiences with a whole new set of UX rules. The Interaction Design Foundation states that "To design VR experiences, you must understand human physiology and psychology - users' needs, limitations, etc. - and what makes VR experiences enjoyable versus unpleasant."
When designing VR experiences, new factors must be considered, including Believability, Interactivity, Explorability, and Immersivness. Designers must consider Safety & Comfort, Interaction and Reaction, Image and Text Scale, and Sound throughout this process.
When we no longer have users interacting with touch screen devices, mouse, and keyboard, the rules and patterns change. Designers must adapt to this new medium and learn how to design experiences keeping all of this in mind.
6. 3D Design
As decentralized worlds and VR become more commonplace, designers will be required to learn 3D software to better prototype user experiences. The good news is that design-friendly 3D tools like Blender and Spline are making 3D more accessible to designers. We're already starting to see designers implementing 3D into their design process today.
7. No Coding Required
Companies like Makerpad, Super, Airtable, and Zapier are democratizing technology and creating more options for designers to stitch together their own apps and products in a no-code environment.
Makerpad states, "With no-code, you can test ideas quickly, build businesses and product faster, and automate tasks to save you hours per week."
With a growing directory of no-code tools, designers will soon have the ability to build their own websites, apps, products, and businesses. Designers in the future will have a variety of tools at their disposal that will allow them to execute on anything they can imagine.
In closing, one of the most prominent challenges designers will face in the future will be loss of control over output. Designers must become more comfortable with human & machine collaborative design rather than simply dictating the desired output. Designers must also live by a new set of UX rules and design new patterns that will eventually move away from touch screen devices and into mixed reality and virtual worlds.
"You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people. Design is made for people". - Dieter Rams.
Like today, designers in the future must always keep in mind that they are solving problems for people. Although technology, patterns, and tools will evolve, the user experience must always be designed with empathy for the user.