Practical Design Dominates 2015

(casual slow instrumental pop music)

For companies and consumers,

2015 was a big year for practical design.

What do I mean by that?

Think of it this way, it is no longer enough

that our devices be smart.

We want them to be useful.

More than that, we want them to be usable.

Intelligence is flashy.

Usefulness and usability, those are substantive.

Good practical design is where

those three qualities intersect.

These are important distinctions.

And if you're a designer, you probably

make them all the time.

But this year saw these concepts burst

into the public consciousness in a big way.

Just look at smart watches.

Whether you hate them or love them is actually irrelevant.

'Cause what matters is this.

If you've used one, even briefly,

you probably have some strong opinions

on its user interface.

And that's exciting.

Rarely has society been more attuned

to so fundamental a design concept, as a user interface.

And that attention extends way beyond wearables.

This year's biggest upgrades to Android and iOS,

and talking about things like Now on Tap and 3D Touch.

These are all geared towards making

our devices simpler to navigate.

Major progress in speech recognition,

mobile connectivity, and neural networks

have all led to rapid advances

in the utility of apps, and the usefulness

of our digital assistants.

Between this distribution in the New York Times,

and the support it's been getting

from cinematographers and app designers

and game developers, even VR

has gotten less intimidating.

Across the board, consumers are demanding less

and less friction from their everyday interactions.

And designers are responding

by honing our technologies to finer

and more functional points.

(casual slow instrumental pop music)