Comments on: Iconography – Where Are We Headed? http://blog.roundarch.com/2009/09/08/iconography-where-are-we-headed/ Web innovation through the advancement of strategy, design and technology Sat, 28 May 2011 17:29:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Matthew http://blog.roundarch.com/2009/09/08/iconography-where-are-we-headed/comment-page-1/#comment-1504 Matthew Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:43:12 +0000 http://impost.roundarch.com/2009/09/08/iconography-where-are-we-headed/#comment-1504 Nice post. To your point, predicting specific iconography and interface design is akin to predicting the future itself; the icon examples you cite really reflect a sort of emergent cultural consensus, not any graphic "rule". I recently had the pleasure / pain of designing potential interfaces from just 10 years in the future, and I found myself spending more time theorizing which current technological / cultural trends would have the gravity to impact graphic design than I did actually designing the interfaces. So I think Stanley Kubrick had it right when designing the computing terminals in <i>2001</i>: hypersimplify so that they become deliberately meaningless to an onlooker -- the interface only needs to make sense to the spaceman using it. Nice post.

To your point, predicting specific iconography and interface design is akin to predicting the future itself; the icon examples you cite really reflect a sort of emergent cultural consensus, not any graphic “rule”.

I recently had the pleasure / pain of designing potential interfaces from just 10 years in the future, and I found myself spending more time theorizing which current technological / cultural trends would have the gravity to impact graphic design than I did actually designing the interfaces.

So I think Stanley Kubrick had it right when designing the computing terminals in 2001: hypersimplify so that they become deliberately meaningless to an onlooker — the interface only needs to make sense to the spaceman using it.

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