Spanish version: Nuevas interfaces para un mundo postpandemia

Most of the interfaces in which we participate are showing their obsolescence and inability to adapt to the brutal transformation caused by the COVID-19. If, as I wrote in The Laws of the Interface (2018), an interface is a network of human, institutional and technological actors that maintains a series of relationships, then it is becoming more than clear that these networks barely withstand the onslaught of an implacable reality . …

Spanish version: Coronavirus, epidemias e interfaces
Portuguese version: Coronavírus, Epidemias e Interfaces

A few days ago a colleague asked me to write something about the coronavirus and the interfaces. I do not like to abuse the term but since I consider that the concept of /interface/ can be useful, I decided to share these reflections from that perspective of analysis.

First, we must start from the definition of /interface/ that I proposed in The Laws of the Interface and other texts: the interface is a “network of human, institutional and technological actors that are interconnected and maintain different types of relationships”. In How to analyze an interface? I outlined a series of steps to study interfaces of all kinds and dimensions, from a classroom to a political party. Faced with very complex interfaces that include hundreds of actors (for example an educational or gastronomic systems), the best option is to start at the “lower” levels (the classroom as an interface, the kitchen as an interface) and then “climb” until you reach the broad socio-technological ecosystem. …

Spanish version: En busca del relato perdido

The narrative as a form of knowledge

Narrative is one of the main ways we have to interpret the world around us. According to Jerome Bruner (1996, 2003) there are two forms of cognitive functioning, the paradigmatic and the narrative. The paradigmatic form is based on logical-scientific argumentation, while the narrative is based on the strength of the stories.

Faced with any event, Homo sapiens builds a narrative to understand it. The narrative allows to introduce an order into the surrounding chaos, see who are the actors of the story, show their action programs, etc. …

What is a designer? How many professional profiles exist within the world of design? Let’s check Wikipedia: clothing and textile designer, fashion designer, jewelry designer, landscape designer, graphic designer, industrial designer, interior designer, multimedia designer, video game designer, audiovisual designer… We could also add interaction designer, web designer, mobile application designer and, last but not least, the designer of interfaces. It seems that almost all professions fall into the field of design.

The interface designer

If the designer seems to be a transversal and omnipresent figure, What is an interface designer? A professional who sketches interactive elements and action sequences on paper? Or an expert in the creation of icons for interactive screens? An international star that models lemon squeezers? Or a gourmet who invents new combinations and techniques in a kitchen- laboratory? If we develop this reflection further, a new conception emerges: the interface designer as an expert in the construction of spaces for interaction between human and technological actors. If every interface hides a set of possible developments or evolutionary paths, the designer is responsible for detecting them and promoting interactions with other actors and interfaces. …

The interface is the battlefield of a conflict where the strategy of the designer and the tactics of the users face each other. The exchanges between users and designers are never peaceful (Second and Fifth Law). How designers think an artifact should be used rarely coincides with the users’ actual interpretations and uses. This dialectic can be found throughout the socio-technological network.

From the perspective of The Laws of the Interface, the role played by users can never be underestimated. If, as Michel De Certeau argues in L’invention du quotidian (1990), tactics are the resource of the weak to counteract the strategy of the strong, then it is pertinent to speak of “user tactics” when deviant or unforeseen uses are implemented (Fifth Law). Is it possible to avoid these frictions between designers and users? Like interfaces, the design process in some cases may seem transparent but it never is (Second Law). As the Czech philosopher Vilém Flusser said, objects are “mediations between myself and the rest of the subjects” (1999:59). Designers are not users and users are not designers, but they meet, discuss, and agree (or disagree) in the interface (Second Law). Each of them occupies different positions and takes on different roles during this interactive game. …

Once upon a time… Historical narratives are usually presented as a linear succession of events. Henry VII (1485–1509) was followed by Henry VIII (1509–1547), Edward VI (1547- 1553) and Lady Jane Grey, who only governed for nine days in 1553. In the same way, the version 1.0 of Photoshop (1990) was followed by 2.0 (1991), 2.5 (1992) and 3.0 (1994), which was perhaps the most revolutionary of all because it incorporated layers. Applying linear models to evolutionary processes ends up generating mythical discourses impregnated with an ideological faith in the future. The linear series like 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc. only show a part of a much more complex and conflictive process. Marketing experts know this very well. …

If interfaces do form part of an ecosystem and ‘think each other’ (Third Law), they also ‘see each other’ and, in some cases, they may activate mimetic processes. In biology, mimicry occurs when a species evolves and shares common perceived characteristics with other animals and plants or with the natural objects it lives among. For many biological species mimicry should be considered a strategy for survival. One of the most important forms of visual mimicry is camouflage. For many interfaces mimicry is also an adaptation strategy that takes the form of simulation.

The Streamlined Style

During the 1920s and 1930s the studies of aerodynamics — with the objective of eliminating wind-resistance in aircrafts — and the search for a high-speed aesthetics inspired by the Futurist movement, stimulated the development of a design trend known as Streamlined Style. The criteria developed by designers like Paul Jaray, one of the creators of German zeppelins, or the Italian futurist architect Antonio Sant’Elia, were adopted by industrial designers. A new era characterized by aerodynamic automobiles, trains, water dispensers, irons, pencil sharpeners, tractors, toasters, refrigerators, radios, vacuum cleaners and caravans was born. …

Like biological ones, technological species and their interfaces evolve (Fourth Law). In less than a century the aircraft evolved from the Wright brothers’ first models into supersonic invisible combat arrows or wide-bodied airplanes that carry hundreds of passengers. However, many components of the Wright’s Flyer I are still present in large cargo aircraft as well as fighter jets. The same may be said of other technologies and interfaces. This leads us to a question: Do interfaces become extinct?

Story of two Bibles

Two Bibles are displayed in the Library of Congress (Washington, DC): the manuscript of the Giant Bible of Mainz and the first Bible printed by Johannes Gutenberg. The Giant Bible is composed of 459 vellum pages bound in two volumes. The text was written by the same hand into two columns of sixty lines each. The decorated initials, the illuminated images (made with very thin gold sheets), the rubrics and the regularity of the letters make the Giant Bible of Mainz a work of art that expresses the highest level that manuscript production reached in the 15th century. Gutenberg’s Bible, exhibited a few meters away from the Giant Bible, is one of the 180 copies printed in his workshop in Mainz around 1455. This particular copy is one of the thirty-five printed on vellum. Gutenberg’s Bible is composed of 1,282 pages of 17 x 12 inches. Like the handwritten version, the text is distributed into two columns but in forty- two lines. …