Thoreau Interface Design is now one year old. It’s time for a quick look behind the shoulder.

It has been a very good year, and a very instructive one too. Here are several things I realized, and some crucial points that I need to focus on for the coming years:

The industry really cries out for a new approach in usability.

The way usability specialists are commonly involved in projects proves not to be adequate in some cases.

• Usability has too often an intellectual and hermetic approach to problems that would require creative and emotional involvement instead to be solved.
• Usability jargon is not understood by the clients, and is often seen as a way to hide a blatant incapicity to bring real solutions.
• Usability sometimes justifies itself by imposing irrelevant set of rules to designers and coders who see it as an obscure, intrusive and dictatorial thing. As a result they also tend to ignore the usability recomandations.

… but the needs are HUGE, and the architectural approach to interface design can really fullfill them. Here is how interface architecture should find its way accross the development process of a web service, a software or a device:

Notice that user testing and focus groups come during the production process to validate and re-align the concept in a more constructive way.

Notice also that wireframes are also part of the production process and they are associated with general documentation and design guides.

My recent contracts more than validated the term “Interface Architecture” applied to the discipline. The role of an Interface architect is to build and describe a complete User Experience that users and makers alike are excited to embrace.

When I started all this, Frank Gehry, the great architect, was my main inspiration; his disruptive approach of architecture brought something fresh and incredibly powerful to city landscapes. He achieved this by taming technology to his unique vision with no respect for the rules and what others do.

I really think systems and machines can be seen as work of art with strong personality and specificity. They are “places” or “spaces” or even “moments”. They convey specific messages to their users, they tell stories of their own. Some of them can be much more than commodities.

That’s the reason why I’m going to keep my distance from the academic rules of usability, and focus entirely on creativity.

From there, I really intend to widen the gap between the classic usability approach and the architectural approach. Industry needs creativity, specificity and soul. That’s all architecture is about: elegance, commodity and humanity by a smart and inspired use of the same basic building blocks.

Now is the time, as technology tends to flood us with wasted power and features, to add this layer of interface Architecture in the development process.

Best vs. Special

This year was also a year of immersion into endless and sterile arguments about Facebook vs. Myspace, Second life vs. real life, Mac vs. PC, etc. etc. The blogosphere is full of this rhetoric and I too fell into this trap.

It’s easy to be a follower and spend one’s time to influence the other followers. Social Media have this weird twist that they entice many to enter the battle for opinion leadership, thus, instead of setting new rules, just making new kings with very questionable legitimacy.

While everyone is guessing, with a weird fascination, who’s is going to rule the web, it clearly appears that the mass of users actually don’t give a damn; and they can easily deal with a diversity of experiences. People can appreciate many different places, forms and stories. There are actually no rules, no best practices, only good propositions. It’s an ecosystem out there, not (only) a battle field.

So I won’t try to be the best usability specialist in town, but I will increase my difference, polish my method and make my customers proud of what they get. I’ll put all my energy in being creative for people who need something special for their products.

Tool

Speaking of Frank Gehry, this guy developed his own CAD tools to build the crazy shapes and volumes he has in mind.
There’s obviously a need for such a tool in interface architecture to fill the gap between designers and coders. This tool should free the creative process by taking care of the building aspect of things.

It’s a crucial challenge, it’ll take time, and I’ll need the help of people interested in breaking some rules.

… and, THANK YOU.