We are finally realizing what the web has been promising us for so long: Human interfaces. Well, let's not get carried away. What we are really seeing are the signs that software products are finally beginning to understand us as humans, not simply as the other end of a technical process.
This, of course, isn't the byproduct of a happy coincidence but rather the advancement of human-centered design in software product development. Facebook's new Timeline with its re-imagination of the profile is one such example. By rethinking what was essentially a standard system-generated set of chronological and biographical lists as an interactive chronology of your life, they've changed the nature of this product to focus on the content rather than interface. Regardless of your personal opinions on Facebook's philosophy and intentions here, it is an excellent example of product design with emotion and human connection at its core—distilled into a tightly crafted (algorithmic) user experience, where the content is the UI.
This launch marks the first time I've seen Facebook, a company who has proclaimed to be about people since its inception, actually produce a product that speaks to us humanly. The story they tell through their promotional video has resonance beyond being a simple utility, it's about an individual's life. Sure, its a life refracted through the lens of Facebook—but philosophies aside, it takes a step forward toward form-free interface design.
Shortly after the launch a remix surfaced combining the product with Don Draper's famous ficticious "it's not called the wheel, its called the carousel" pitch—and the results were spot on. While nothing the Timeline is promising is patently new—the application to a software program is vastly more novel than anything we've seen before.
Just as Draper's fictitious pitch illustrates, businesses have been at this for years. Positioning their products to us through empathy and intimate human connection. While often cheapened or cast-off as consumerist and shallow, these brands and products give us stories and enable us to find meaning and fulfilment in the things we use. If the way in which we've mourned Steve Jobs passing is any indication, these things mean more than any of us would like to admit.
(more...)