Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

A New Future for the Interface: Reaching Toward True Adaptation

The discipline of design has historically produced primarily fixed products. Even the term “product” implies the end of a process, or something that is completed and unchanging. But we know that the intent of the designer and of the person experiencing the design are engaged in an ongoing conversation.

Digital products have drastically increased the pace of that conversation, introducing faster iteration, new modes of interaction, and – importantly – space to imagine a future in which a person’s intent directly defines their experience of digital interfaces.

This session will connect historic explorations of adaptable design with contemporary developments, including Google’s Material Design, looking toward a truly adaptive future that accounts for more devices and more people in more contexts.

Liam Spradlin

Liam is a Zürich-based designer focused on the future of interface, interrogating the relationship between design, designer, and community through explorations of design theory and conversations on the Design Notes podcast.

Having helped independent creators, startups, and civic organizations invent or improve interfaces from apps to new types of public infrastructure, Liam now works on Material Design to create an adaptable, personal design system with user intent and expression at its core.