Ain't no one a "curator" here (what? 😂). Designers are builders. Fluid UIs are exhibit A.
"30% of all new apps will use adaptive interfaces by 2026, up from under 5% two years ago." (per Gartner research)
**All posts are handcrafted.**
I was a founder at a blockchain startup during the 2020–2021 boom, having a front-row seat to the inflection point of blockchains. This taught me about the invisible power of p2p contracts. The (real) death of the middle layer.
Now it's coming for UX.
Let me roll it back real quick.
Even though we are currently obsessed with "component collections," that's not what IxD is.
Every user interaction is a real-time contract:
* The promise (affordance)
* The awareness/build-up (learn), leading to expectation
* The handshake (use)
* The delivery/actual experience (remember)
Learn > Use > Remember.
The heuristics framework I published in 2014, in my book *The Service Startup*, won't change, no matter the tech. But it will compress.
Fluid UIs are the next stage for digital design. They will be pivotal in the shift toward a screenless augmented reality society.
Any team building a new product today and not thinking about how the screenless experience will feel is running wild.
Here's how IT'S NOT going to be:
You can't have a HUD with 137 app icons you don't need while waiting on a train platform in a country you've never been to, late, trying to figure out where to go.
"Affordance pollution" to clarity.
Clarity.
The design systems we've been rehashing over the last 10 years are not cut out for clarity.
They don't optimize for "getting out of the way." Quite the opposite.
Fluid, contextual interfaces will adapt to context, location, emotion, voice tone, and action trails.
The intent is: "Meaning, please, otherwise GTFO of my HUD."
UIs will be unusable if they shift too freely.
Calibrating what changes, where, and what to keep constant is deeply human design work.
It is not going to be "curation," as there is nothing to "curate." You are designing rules, not the artefact.
This idea of "curation" is just ridiculous. One can't be a designer and believe they are a "curator." In art, curators are not artists. They are gatekeeping parasites.
Builders. Not curators.
UIs will be assembled on the fly based on contract rules born out of design decisions.
Psychology, so far, in digital design has been treated as a "nice to have," "time permitting," "yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, but..."
As we move inside people's heads, literally, think/feel anticipation will become the norm. AIs won't do that.
The cost of getting it wrong is going to be extinction.
Today, if it's bad, it feels like: "My iPhone is broken."
With AR, it will feel like: "I am broken."
Think about it for a second.
Did it work (thinking about it for a second)? What if it didn't?
New tools. New problems. Same eye.
Good morning!