SXSW Keynote - The Best Interface is No Interface by Golden Krishna

Summary

The speaker argues that while technology has brought many advances, there is a concerning trend of overusing digital interfaces and screens to solve problems when they may not be the best solution. He provides principles for better design: embrace natural processes, leverage computer capabilities, and adapt systems to individuals. The goal should not be endless apps and notifications, but rather creating solutions that serve people's needs without demanding constant attention. Thoughtful system design that works automatically yet allows backup manual control can create experiences that recede into the background, freeing people to focus on what really matters.

Takeaways

• 😟 Technology has improved rapidly, but there is a worrying trend towards overusing screens and interfaces
• 😀 As a UX designer, the author aims to deeply understand people's problems and use technology to solve them
• 📱 Our obsession with digital interfaces has gone too far and we try to add screens to solve all problems
• 😊 Early graphical user interfaces were a major improvement by being intuitive and easy to use
• 😩 We have become surrounded by screens and assume more screens make things better
• 😐 Good experience design solves real problems, not just better interfaces
• 😀 The first principle is to embrace typical processes instead of adding screens
• 😉 The second principle is to leverage computer power to serve people's needs
• 🙂 The third principle is to create systems that adapt to individuals
• 🤔 Thinking 'no interface' and avoiding screens can lead to revolutionary, human-centric ideas

Q & A

What does the speaker mean when he says the best interface is no interface?

He means that technology should adapt to serve human needs seamlessly without requiring constant interaction through screens and interfaces. The goal should be to embed technology invisibly into processes to assist people automatically.

How does the Mercedes keyless entry system embrace typical processes?

It allows you to simply pull the door handle to unlock the car rather than going through multiple steps to launch an app and tap buttons to unlock the car.

How does the Petzl headlamp leverage computers to serve people?

It has a light sensor and microchip that automatically adjusts the brightness when you look close up or farther away. This removes the need to adjust settings manually.

What is the self-inflating tire example in the speech?

Goodyear has developed a self-inflating tire that uses a sensor to monitor the tire pressure. If the pressure drops below optimal, a pump automatically reinflates the tire while driving.

How did IBM help prevent injuries for the rugby team?

They provided each player a sensor that monitored biometrics. It was then able to predict potential injuries before they occurred so preventative treatment could be provided.

What are the speaker's 3 principles for moving past screens?

1. Embrace typical processes instead of screens. 2. Leverage computers instead of catering towards them. 3. Create systems that adapt for individuals.

What does the worksheet provide to practice no UI thinking?

It has sections for observations, sensors available, and data sets. People use these to brainstorm ideas for seamlessly embedding technology using the 3 principles.

What were some ideas attendees came up with during the 10 minute workshop?

Automatic shoe ordering when they wear out based on a dye, and pills that make you smell pine when it's time to take the next dose.

How is Apple thinking similarly about detecting worn shoes?

They patented a sensor in shoe heels to detect cushioning wearing down and signal when it's time to buy replacements.

What resources are provided to learn more about the no interface concept?

The speaker is building a website at nointerface.com with videos, case studies, and ways to practice this type of thinking.

Outlines

00:00

😊 Celebrating technology while lamenting an awful trend

The speaker celebrates advancements in technology over the years, like paper-thin displays and faster computer processors. However, he laments there is a terrible trend emerging that is taking technology away from what really matters. As someone who works in tech, he feels partially responsible for this diversion from solving people's actual problems.

05:05

😟 Confusing user experience with user interface

The speaker explains how the industry has started to confuse user experience with user interface, trying to solve problems by just adding more screens. He gives examples like putting screens in cars, hotel lobbies, and even toilets. He says society has become surrounded by screens, even though it wasn't that long ago that paper was more prevalent.

10:05

😐 Embracing processes over screens

The speaker introduces his first principle for moving past awful screen-based thinking - embrace typical processes instead of screens. He demonstrates through an example of using a smartphone app to unlock a car how it is vastly inferior to just pulling the door handle with supported keyless entry technology.

15:08

😀 Let computers serve us

The second principle is to leverage computer capabilities instead of catering towards them. Computers should serve human needs rather than the other way around. The speaker gives an example of a headlamp that adapts brightness based on where the user is looking to make them better at search and rescue.

20:10

🤖 Adapt systems for individuals

The third principle is to create systems that adapt for individuals instead of just what works for most people. As an example, the speaker highlights how the Nest learning thermostat customizes based on an individual's adjustments over time.

25:15

👍 This is not a new idea

The speaker acknowledges he is not the first to criticize digital interfaces. Others have done so for decades. He addresses two common criticisms - potential failures of automatic solutions and the argument that user interface should just be a backup system.

30:17

📝 How to put this into practice

In conclusion, the speaker talks about his efforts to spread these ideas on his nointerface.com website. He also shares a worksheet he created to help people practice this type of thinking, providing sample observations, sensors, and data sets that could inspire innovative solutions.

Keywords

💡user experience

User experience (UX) refers to how a person feels when interacting with a system or product. The speaker is a UX designer, meaning he designs products and systems focused on providing a good experience for the user. A key message in the talk is that companies have become too focused on user interfaces rather than the overall user experience.

💡interface

An interface allows a person to interact with a system or product. The speaker argues that companies have become obsessed with adding digital interfaces (screens, apps, etc.) to all kinds of products without considering whether it improves the experience. He advocates for avoiding unnecessary interfaces.

💡typical processes

This refers to the normal, habitual processes that people go through in everyday life. The first principle the speaker introduces is to embrace these existing processes rather than introducing digital interfaces that interfere with them. An example is using your car key to unlock the door rather than an app.

💡leverage computers

This means using the powerful computing abilities of computers to improve people's lives. The speaker argues we should have computers serve human needs rather than demanding humans serve complex computer systems. An example given is a self-inflating tire that uses sensors and pumps to maintain tire pressure automatically.

💡adapt for individuals

Instead of one-size-fits-all systems, the speaker advocates leveraging data science and analytics to create solutions adapted for each individual person. An example given is health sensors that monitor rugby players to predict potential injuries based on their individual biometrics.

💡automatic solutions

This refers to solutions that operate automatically without requiring human input or control in the moment. The speaker acknowledges concerns over automatic solutions but provides examples like airbags that show they can greatly improve experiences when designed thoughtfully.

💡embedded technology

This means integrating technology seamlessly into everyday environments and activities. The vision expressed is to embed computing power into processes and objects so they serve human needs without requiring conscious use of complex interfaces.

💡no user interface

This phrase expresses the speaker's overall concept that the best solutions minimize or eliminate the need for screens, menus, buttons and other user interfaces that create extra steps in achieving one's goals. It means making the interface disappear into the background.

💡data science

This refers to algorithms and systems that find patterns in large datasets. The speaker advocates its potential to understand individuals and adapt solutions to their specific needs versus one-size-fits-all software.

💡failure handling

This refers to how systems address failures or problems when automatic solutions struggle or stop working properly. The speaker notes that when automatic solutions fail, user interfaces may still play an important secondary role for error correction.

Highlights

We've become surrounded by screens and started trying to solve problems with screens instead of experiences.

Our greatest minds aren't advancing science or kicking us into space, they're working on ads at Facebook.

I think the best interface is no interface and to show that I've created 3 principles - embrace typical processes instead of screens, leverage computers instead of catering to them, and create systems that adapt for individuals.

Good experience design isn't good screens, it's good experiences.

When we serve computers we have to memorize bizarre passwords, but when computers serve us we can reduce pollution and dependency on foreign oil.

Nest has a UI that works for most people, but where it has magic is when it learns - it becomes part of the background.

We can make systems that help you before you even know you need help.

Automatic solutions are really hard to get right, but when we get them right they become an embedded part of our lives.

Any good product knows that failure will occur and helps solve for that.

User interface can be a backup, a secondary thing you go to when automatic solutions don't work.

In 10 minutes with no UI thinking, we came up with the same idea Apple decided to patent around detecting when running shoes need replacing.

No UI is about embracing typical processes, leveraging computers, and adapting to individuals - it often has nothing to do with tech.

Think about observations and insights into everyday problems, available sensors and data, to come up with revolutionary new ideas.

By avoiding screens and thinking no UI, in 10 minutes we created ideas Apple has spent months and legal fees trying to patent.

This movement is about what, how, and practicing - understanding it, seeing examples, and trying it yourself.

Transcripts

so there's a lot to celebrate in

technology today I mean as you've

probably seen over the last couple of

days I mean even in our own lifetimes

we've gone from carrying hundred pound

television sets to two now paper thin

lightweight displays we've seen computer

processors be able to compute things

hundreds of times hundreds of thousands

of times faster in our own lifetimes but

there's a terrible trend emerging in

technology and I think it's taking us

away from what really matters you know I

I work in tech so I'm partially to blame

for this trend and a lot of you work in

tech so you might be to blame also but I

think if you listen closely today you

can hear how we can move past this awful

trend and build a better tomorrow I'm a

UX designer to me that means I do

everything I can to understand your

common everyday problems and then use

technology to solve them right now I do

that at Samsung Design America which is

an innovations lab to create new

products decide solve your problems and

before I did it at Cooper which is a

design consultancy in San Francisco we

work with startups to Fortune 50 to

solve everyday problems for their

customers it's my goal as a designer to

solve people's problems but I think as

an industry we're losing sight of that

goal I think as an industry we're

writing a way that takes us away from

solving people's problems what's so

fascinating about this awful trend is

that it started with something so good

about 40 years ago we had the ability to

take hundreds of components and put them

into a single chip that meant we could

build smaller computers desktop

computers and became part of our

workplace but unfortunately we gave

people an awful user experience we

forced them into command-line user

interfaces and that meant they needed to

memorize bizarre commands language

written by programmers for programmers

they needed to spew out commands like

dirt to the all-powerful

growing computer but then we got

something great

Xerox Labs ideas converted to an icon a

window a menu and a pointer and we got

our first mainstream graphical user

interface it was so good we could

point-and-click we could drag-and-drop

what we saw is what we got and about 10

years later when we could start touching

our interfaces instead of pointing and

clicking was even better but today our

love for the digital interface has

gotten completely out of control it's

become our answer to everything how do

you build a better car

slap an interface on it a screen in the

middle your speedometer so you can try

things that are more important than how

fast you're going like your Twitter and

your Facebook

this is an amazing promotional video how

do you build a better hotel experience

slap an interface in your hotel lobby a

55 inch touchscreen so you can dig

through menus of USA Today headlines

that are supposed to make your hotel

stay better if you are at CES this year

you may have seen how we've made two

ovens better just slap the seven-inch

android-powered touchscreen on it so you

can watch YouTube while you bake cookies

and if you would see as hopefully you

didn't miss the latest and greatest in

toilets this is the iPod II a children's

toilet with a screen on it you know

somewhere along the ways we got confused

we started thinking user experience was

the same thing as the user interface and

we started trying to solve problems with

screens and what that's led us to be is

become surrounded by screens your desk

isn't worthwhile if it doesn't have at

least two monitors your smartphone isn't

decent if it's not at least four inches

I mean we have over 1.2 million mobile

apps it's come to the point where our

greatest minds aren't advancing science

or kicking us into space they're working

on ads at Facebook you know and if you

if you're afraid that in death you're

going to miss all of these screens you

can always get the catechol combo which

is an interface on your tomb you know

wasn't that long ago that our lives were

filled with paper and we dreamed of a

paperless world now instead our lives

are filled with screens and I think we

should dream of a screen list world I

actually think the best interface is no

interface and I

to show you how we can get there I've

created three principles they're not

about things or kind of technology

they're about us because us that we

should be designing for the first

principle is to embrace typical

processes instead of screens you know a

couple of major car companies have

released smartphone apps they're

supposed to be an improvement on the car

key and you let you do things and they

brag about things like unlocking your

car doors well let's just see how that

works if I use one of these apps to

unlock my car door first thing I would

do is walk up to my car then I'm looking

to unlock my car doors but pull out my

smartphone looking to unlock my car

doors but I wake up my phone looking to

unlock my car doors slide to unlock

looking to unlock my car doors enter my

passcode all right one two three four

try not to hack this phone still looking

to unlock my car doors and now I have to

swipe through the sea of icons trying to

find the app if I can remember what

color it might be there it is looking to

lock my car doors now it tapped to

launch the app looking down left my car

doors the app loads and I get this

incredible map of North America and I'm

looking down like my car doors and it's

sort of hard to see on these projectors

but there's a middle icon there this is

control and maybe maybe that will help

me about my car doors there's no way to

really know so I could tap on it all

right now I've got a sort of a list item

and I'm looking on with my car doors and

and right there one of the options says

locking unlocking sounds like we

probably do the trick so I tap the

button probably going to unlock my car

doors but actually gives me the slider

one side is lock the other side is

unlock and looking out my car door so

I'm probably going to go to the right to

unlock my car doors go ahead and do it

now I guess data transferred is what it

says there but guessing that means my

car doors are unlocked and yeah now I

can finally physically open my car door

this is the app based green based

thinking that we all use and we need to

get away from it so if you look at these

steps is this an improvement on the car

key I don't think so right and if we

sort of break it down what's sort of

look at what happened there there was me

right and I was walking up to my car

there was a digital interface and all

the steps that had to do with it and

then there was my goal the thing that I

really wanted to do the thing that I was

looking forward to do I was working with

the digital interface let's say we

embrace this first principle let's say

we embrace typical processes and avoid

screens we'd be looking at something

like this sounds kind of crazy two steps

but actually before we got caught up in

all the screen based thinking in the

late 90s

mercedes-benz created technology where

you can pull your car door handle it'll

send out a low-frequency radio signal

and if your car car keys in your pocket

or in your purse

car doors will unlock so for the common

everyday user all they do is pull their

door handle and their car door is

unlocked some people say well okay

this sounds great golden but the app is

really useful as an alternative as a

backup when you lock your keys in side

your car well the great thing about

Mercedes keyless go system is it knows

where your keys are so you actually

can't lock your keys in the car

because it knows the keys are in the car

you know the entire automotive industry

is filled with screen-based thinking we

have a lot of apps this is one that's

pretty popular in CES have won an award

there it's an AOL AOL it's Auto Blog it

was an M gadget it's called Viper smart

start and looking at it it looks like a

better app than the one that we just

showed it's got four common actions

there it's not beautiful by any means

but they're big buttons you can kind of

click and get to the things you need to

be doing but we think this is decent

because we're used to looking at

wireframes we think this is good because

we're used to screen based thinking

let's actually think about a typical

process and look at one of these actions

opening your trunk right and instead of

screens let's start with insights this

is what someone looks like when they're

walking to their trunk this someone

actually happens to be Mitt Romney but

let's just say he reaches his ideal and

becomes the everyday person

so here's caring stuff to his trunk and

his hands are full right and he's in a

rush and this is probably pretty heavy

he doesn't really want to probably put

this down take out a smartphone and hit

the button go through all those steps

and throughout his back trying to pick

this up again a design team at Ford

realized that when he walked to your

trunk even though your hands are full

your feet are free so they put a sensor

under the bumper and looks for a shin

and then a foot kick and the trunk opens

you know good experience design isn't

good screens it's good experiences

second principle is the leverage

computers instead of catering towards

them you know computers are incredibly

powerful they can calculate incredibly

complex things but we make them like

they're three-year-olds and so they have

a bizarre relationship with us and they

say things to us like this this is a

real error message for Microsoft

and it happened because of this bizarre

relationship that we have with computers

it happened because we think we serve

computers and this is how we make

computer systems but I say let's reverse

this relationship

let's have computers serve us a couple

of months ago an emergency room doctor

contacted me about a headlamp

that does just this you see this doctor

volunteers the do search and rescue and

sometimes that search and rescue

involves cave search and rescue in cave

search and rescues by no means an easy

task

it sometimes requires crawling into

small crevices drilling out panicked

survivors and so this emergency room

physician shared with me this headlamp

and it's made by a company called Petzl

pet cells been making head lamps for

over 40 years they actually have their

roots in caving after 40 years of hit

making head lamps they didn't decide to

slap an interface on it so you can check

your Twitter while you're trying to save

lives instead they try to solve a

problem you see when you're out doing

search and rescue your headlamp isn't

the most obnoxious thing but it's

annoying it takes you away from the

thing you're doing because you need a

bright high BM to look at the deep dark

caves but that same high beam white

watches your Maps your Maps define

people so a Petzl vid is they just put a

light sensor and a microchip on their

headlamps and when you look close the

light dims and when you look far away

the light brightens what this does is do

more than remove an annoyance it makes

the doctor better at his job you see

when we serve computers we create

databases but when computers serve us

they can help us save lives your

computers can do so much more than that

helped us do things that we don't want

to do or things that we don't even know

we should do see in the 2008

presidential campaign Barack Obama said

that we could reduce our dependency on

foreign oil by properly inflating our

car tires well the idea was mocked by

the Republican Party who sent out tire

pressure gauges with Obama's energy plan

printed on them but it turned out on

this particular issue Barack Obama's

right if we better inflate our car tires

we can actually save gas and reduce our

dependency on foreign oil not only can

we save money and proposed by properly

inflating our car tires

we're also safer but despite this

knowledge a lot of people don't want to

properly inflate their car tires and I

mean some people have known about this

for a while and now everybody in this

room knows about it but it's not a

really fun experience to properly

inflate your car tires you pull up to a

gas station and you start pumping

quarters into a machine to buy air which

feels like a really weird thing to do

and then you're kind of leaned over and

you're kind of showing the world

something you don't really want to be

showing them nobody wants to do this

right so what does a major tire

manufacturer do about it

well good here has an app and lets you

do amazing things like print and email

brochures

but fortunately good he has started to

think beyond screens and in their

innovations lab in Ohio we've created

this it's a self inflating tire while

you're driving a part of the tire looks

to see if the tires properly inflated

and if it's not a pump opens and the

tire reinflates to the right amount of

air pressure saving you money on your

gas and making you safer to drive right

now they're testing this on commercial

trucks and they hope to release it to

the general public see when we serve

when we serve computers we have to

memorize bizarre passwords but when

computers serve us well we can reduce

pollutions reduce our dependency on

foreign oil and all sorts of great

things you know the third principle is

to create a system that adapts for

individuals everyone in this room is

unique you all have your own set of

preferences your own favorite color your

favorite thing to do your your own way

of getting something done but that's not

how we build software we don't build

software for each and every person it

takes a really smart team to figure out

how to solve most things for most people

so what we though we kind of ended up

doing is trying to think that way but

there's another field of thought that

thinks differently and that's data

science it thinks about individuals and

it's let us do things and interfaces

like make better LinkedIn

recommendations or even more appropriate

Google Ads

the data science can do so much more in

the consumer space let's look at nest

right Nest has a UI that works for most

people most of the time but

the great thing about nest and where I

think it has its magic is when it learns

is when it thinks about us right so as

you adjust the settings nest learns

about when you wake up and when you go

to sleep and you don't need to use the

interface anymore

it becomes part of the background you

know we can do so much more with data

science than just learning when we wake

up and sleep and what kind of

temperatures we need we can make systems

that help you before you before you even

know you need help last year IBM worked

with a rugby team in England those of

you who might be familiar know that

rugby is a full-contact sport

and IBM could have helped the players by

creating an interface where they'd have

to fill up form fields like this WebMD

point where it hurts after it hurts and

try their best at figuring out what

might help them but instead what IBM did

is they put a sensor on every player

just a single sensor and they wore it

during practice and during games and it

monitored all sorts of things and what

I'll let them do was predict injuries

before they even happened so for the

players there were no apps to download

no passwords to memorize they could just

play rugby and get the treatment they

needed before they even knew they needed

it so about a year ago I published this

idea in the Cooper journal titled the

best interface is no interface and it

got a lot of buzz in two days that was

tweeted more than the totality of any

article and design observer and I got

put in hacker and used top fifty three

separate months but you know I'm not the

first to talk about this if even

criticizing digital interfaces for a

long time it particularly in the mid 80s

and early 90s this is Mark Weiser

talking about embedding technology into

our lives is one of the most famous

people to talk about this and people

have criticised different things through

time you know some people sort of picked

apart the semantics of and sort of in

formerly talked about UI and GUI and

interface sort of the same thing if you

prefer that I would say the best

graphical user interfaces no graphical

user interface then you can say that

that's totally fine

but there's really two criticisms that I

think are more interesting than others

one of them is automatic solutions when

I talk about automatic solutions whether

it's the head lamp or the thermostat a

lot of people get scared and they should

because automatic solutions are really

hard to get right but when we get them

right they become an embedded part of

our lives right automatically deploying

airbags put a soft barrier between us

and our steel-framed cars automatic

sliding doors we don't even think about

they open doors and hospitals and

grocery stores and we don't put much

thought into it they're just convenient

but probably the most interesting

automatic solution is automatic

transmission you want to talk about a

place you want to walk into an executive

room and say you know highways are

really really dangerous and I know a

cars the most dangerous place you can be

but I've got a great automatic solution

for it this is crazy right I mean an

automatic Li trans an automatic

transmission on a car I mean you talk to

experts right car lovers they look at

this thing and they call this a flush

box right this degrades from the car

driving experience but you look at

statistics and what's happened to

automatic transmission and by 2009 more

than 91 percent of all cars had

automatic transmission people loved

automatic solutions when they're done

right but they're really hard to get

right and I think any good product

responds to this second criticism which

is failure but any good product knows

that failure will occur and help solve

that and I would personally root for

sensors and predictive analytics so you

don't even have to deal with those

failure moments but there's another way

people are doing it and they're using

user interface as a backup as a

secondary

I think that's a nice shift for example

the headlamp that I showed earlier has a

piece of software that you can use and

unless you tweak the sort of levels of

brightness in the headlamp it's nice

because it's not the everyday thing to

have to deal with but it's the thing in

the background it's the thing you have

to go to when the automatic stuff

doesn't work and of course I showed Ness

that there miss dad and that always

allows you to walk up to it and change

it after kind of learned about you so if

it's automatic solutions aren't working

for you you can always sort of tweak

them and even automatic doors if the

power goes out you can always push to

open them another question is how Wright

talked about this great idea it's kind

of funny it's kind of fun to talk about

but how do we really get this done right

if you're CEO a product manager a

designer might be wondering how can we

how can we think in this no UI kind of

way well when I first published the

piece I quoted something Donald Norman

said in the 90s he said that the problem

that interface is the interface itself

so after I wrote it we kind of exchanged

some emails and I invited Donald Norman

up to to Cooper and we had this parlor

called what good is a screen we kind of

debated he took the anti position I took

the Perot and we had a conversation

about the future of digital interfaces

at the end of the session I handed out

this worksheet this worksheet was to

answer how was to help people practice

this kind of no UI thinking it's based

around the principles so the first is

embraced typical processes in one way we

can do that is through observation right

Mitt Romney so I listed a set of

observations a set of common problems

that people have today the second

principles of leverage computers we have

all sorts of incredible sensors out

there and one way to do it is the

leverage computers is to embrace these

sensors I mean look its product like

twine it has a couple of sensors built

into it look at something like leap

motion and although it's shown here with

a monitor it's an incredible sensor that

can be used in all sorts of places

so I listed a set of sensors in the

worksheet third principle is to adapt to

individuals there's all sorts of great

data platforms out there right there's

all sorts of incredible data sets out

there and one thing we can do is compare

you to the masses and kind of help

predict what might happen so I listed a

set of data sets that you might want to

pull from we handed this out and we gave

everyone 10 minutes just 10 minutes to

come up with a revolutionary new design

idea people who had never met each other

before and some people came with some

pretty silly ideas I mean one of the

things that I threw out there was this

problem around medicine right a lot of

senior citizens have a hard time reading

labels which Deborah Adler has become

famous working at Target and creating

clear rx easier prescription bottles to

read but another problem around

prescription medication is that people

just forget to take their medication you

may be able to read the bottle but you

may not remember to go take the pills so

one group came up with this idea that's

a little bit silly and they came with

this idea that when it's time to take a

new pill the last end of your last pill

kind of makes you smell pine and uses

your nose as a notification system a

little bit out there but a lot a lot

more interesting than the kind of

notification systems we think about when

we create screens another problem I

threw out there was about running now

I'm a runner I ran in college and

coached a high school cross-country team

and right there running specialty store

and one of the things about running is

that you only have one piece of

equipment it's your shoe all right

football you have your helmet your

shoulder pads your knee pads all you

have in running is your shoe and when

your shoe wears out it's not like your

leisure issues the bottom of the shoe

kind of

presses and it's not as supportive right

your knees your ankles can get hurt more

easily and so there's a lot of screen

based thinking around this is a bunch of

apps there are shoe trackers out there

and every time you go for a run you can

remember exactly how far you ran and

type it in and I'll tell you when to buy

a new pair of shoes but instead one of

the groups can't being forced to think

in their UI way decided to put a dye in

the in the bottom of the shoe and when

the foam compressed the dye explodes in

the bottom of the shoe turns red you

know they even thought you could put a

small battery in there with a wireless

radio and when the shoe compresses and

the dye explodes the Wi-Fi signal gets

sent out the Zappos and orders your new

pair of shoes it was a little bit out

there and some people sort of criticized

this and said well this is the

interesting the idea that came out of

here parlor has nothing to do with tech

right it's totally unrelated well about

four months after actually five months

after the parlour ended I got it a lot

of emails in my inbox and there were

emails about a patent that's surfaced

from Apple they just happened to patent

a sensor in the heel of your shoe that

detects when the shoe wears out and it's

time to buy a new pair of running or

exercise shoes as they wrote nothing to

do with tech right I mean how what how

many months did it come up take to come

up with this idea and what would the

legal fees to file this patent we had a

room of people who had never met each

other and in ten minutes and no you I

thinking we came up with the same idea

that Apple decided to patent now there's

so much to talk about around no UI and

so I'm starting to build a website

called no interface comm I'm trying to

cover three main things right what is it

what is this movement and there'll be

video of this talk how how do we do it

what are some case studies what are some

interesting examples out there

and finally practicing it taking that

worksheet sharing your ideas and trying

to solve these problems right now you

can give your email address and in

exchange I'll send you these slides

video the tah PDF of the essay you'll be

informed when it launches you know I

want to just give thanks to some

different people and if I start naming

names it's a little bit dangerous

because there's so many people who have

helped me sort of bounce those ideas off

of them and I think anytime you think

about an author of anything it's kind of

weird to say that because no matter who

it is coming up with something there's

always other people there bouncing it

off of so I want to thank my co-workers

at Cooper my current co-workers at

Samsung CCA's interaction design program

where I practice this talk my girlfriend

Megan who helped me to edit this essay

at 2:00 in the morning a couple of times

and last night when I was stuck on an

airplane at 6:20 she let me know there's

a Southwest flight that was taking off

across the other side of the airport so

I left that airplane left my bag there

but fortunately another friend Spencer

brought my suitcase from Dallas this

morning so I'd have my clothes the last

person I'd like to or last group I'd

like to thank because everyone who sort

of tweeted about this no UI movement you

know it's gotten me this talk here and

I've never spoken at any conference

anywhere so it's an honor to be here and

hopefully have done a decent job you

know there's so much to celebrate in

technology but there's an awful trend

dominating our thinking and I think

thinking about these principles we can

start to think in a different way thank

you guys

you