This talk explores the responsibility of a designer and demonstrates why sometimes "over-designed" is good. User interface is often seen as a crystal goblet, a transparent container which should emphasise but never obstruct the content. A lot has been said and written about the "disappearing computer' or natural user interfaces and "the best UI is no UI" mantra is so ubiquitous today. In my talk I hope to shed a new light on these concepts demonstrating how the "no UI" approach may sometimes be considered harmful, and results in products which confuse, scare, or deceive people.

1. Invisible UI and other lies
Simplicity considered harmful
MARCIN BOBER
UX POLAND
April 14, 2016
@MARCINBOBER

2. The opinions expressed in this presentation represent
my own and not those of my employer.

4. We are not designing for idiots.

6. HYBRID OPERATING ROOM

7. GOOGLE DATA CENTER

9. What is invisible design?

10. “You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold (…) the other is of
crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink;
and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you
are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one
way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of
a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a
member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will
choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal
rather than hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.”
–The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible by Beatrice Warde

11. –The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible by Beatrice Warde
“The book typographer has the job of erecting a window
between the reader inside the room and that landscape
which is the author's words.
He may put up a stained-glass window of marvellous beauty,
but a failure as a window. Or he may work in what I call
transparent or invisible typography. ”

12. Helvetica

13. Data-ink ratio

14. – Edward Tufte, 1983
“Data-ink is the non-erasable core of a graphic, the
non-redundant ink arranged in response to
variation in the numbers represented.”

15. Study of a box plot

16. Invisible computer

17. –Don Norman, 1998
“The technology should be invisible,
hidden from sight.”

18. –Golden Krishna, 2012
“The best UI is noUI”

19. Eliminate interfaces to
embrace natural processes

22. –Golden Krishna
“Avoiding a digital interface means you don’t waste time
learning, troubleshooting, and using a screen you
don’t need to be using anyway.
That’s good design thinking.”

23. What is wrong with invisible design?

24. Nothing

25. but…

26. Hiding complexity can be
detrimental to user experience.

28. –Arthur C. Clarke
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic.”

29. What if the magic fails?

30. –Dieter Rams
“Good design makes a
product understandable.”

36. Excessive automation hinders
mastery

38. Legal and moral issues

40. UI = culture

41. –Steve B. Johnson, Interface Culture
“The interface came into the world under the cloak of efficiency,
and it is now emerging—chrysalis-style—as a genuine art form.”

42. The best architecture is no
architecture?

43. No UI = no fun

47. Why are we here?

48. ?

50. –Doug Engelbart
“Boosting mankind’s capability for coping
with complex, urgent problems.”

51. MEMEX, 1945

53. Do not hide complexity, help to embrace it.

54. Thank you!

55. Invisible UI and other lies
Simplicity Considered Harmful
MARCIN BOBER
UX POLAND
April 14, 2016
@MARCINBOBER