7. Star Trek (01966)
Lesson: Science Fiction Sets Expectations that Audiences
and Developers Internalize
8. Motorola StarTAC (01996)
Lesson: Science Fiction Sets Expectations that Audiences
and Developers Internalize
9. Motorola MicroTAC (01989)
Lesson: Science Fiction Sets Expectations that Audiences
and Developers Internalize
10. The Empire Strikes Back (01980)
Lesson: Visual Scale Telegraphs Social Hierarchy
11. Revenge of the Sith (02005)
Lesson: Visual Scale Telegraphs Social Hierarchy
12. The Fifth Element (01997)
Lesson: Systems Should Respond to Erroneous Input Appropriately
13. 2001: A Space Odyssey (01968)
Lesson: Systems Should Respond to Erroneous Input Appropriately
14. The Fifth Element (01997)
Lesson: Form Language Can Help Novice Users Quickly Learn
Complex Systems
15. Into Eternity (02010)
Onkalo Nuclear Waste Repository, Eurajoki, Finland
Design Question: Can Form Language Help Novice Users Quickly
Learn Complex Systems
16. Lifted (02006)
Lesson: Form Language Can Help Novice Users Quickly Learn
Complex Systems
40. Science Fiction Prototyping
Exercise 1: Diverge: Design for a New User
Exercise 2: Diverge: Design for New Medium
Exercise 3: Converge: Reverse Engineer for
the Present
Exercise 4: Converge: Add a Sci-Fi Patina
45. MAKE I T S O
Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction
by NATHAN SHEDROFF & CHRISTOPHER NOESSEL
foreword by Bruce Sterling
scifinterfaces.com
designmba.cca.edu
Nathan Shedroff
Chris Noessel
Many designers enjoy the interfaces seen in science fiction films
and television shows. Freed from the rigorous constraints of designing
for real users, sci-fi production designers develop blue-sky interfaces
that are inspiring, humorous, and even instructive. By carefully studying
these “outsider” user interfaces, designers can derive lessons that make
their real-world designs more cutting edge and successful.
“Designers who love science fiction will go bananas over Shedroff and Noessel’s delightful and
informative book on how interaction design in sci-fi movies informs interaction design in the real
world. . . . You will find it as useful as any design textbook, but a whole lot more fun.”
ALAN COOPER
“Father of Visual Basic” and author of The Inmates Are Running the Asylum
“Part futurist treatise, part design manual, and part cultural analysis, Make It So is a fascinating
investigation of an often-overlooked topic: how sci-fi influences the development of tomorrow’s
machine interfaces.”
ANNALEE NEWITZ
Editor, io9 blog
“Shedroff and Noessel have created one of the most thorough and insightful studies ever made
of this domain.”
MARK COLERAN
Visual designer of interfaces for movies (credits include The Bourne Identity, The Island, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider)
“Every geek’s wet dream: a science fiction and interface design book rolled into one.”
MARIA GIUDICE
CEO and Founder, Hot Studio
www.rosenfeldmedia.com
MORE ON MAKE IT SO
www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/science-fiction-interface/
MAKE IT SO by NATHAN SHEDROFF & CHRISTOPHER NOESSEL
nathan@nathan.com
@nathanshedroff