The rise of the social network superstructure is creating homogenised design experiences across app and web. Google’s Material Design creates a manifesto for consistency “that synthesizes the classic principles of good design with the innovation and possibility of technology and science”. Are we designing ‘machines for living in”? This talk looks at the rise of distributed media, the erosion of uniquely designed spaces and asks how a future design language can be built that embraces human needs.

1. facebook has killed your
designer
the age of
superstructures
and distributed media
@robboynes

2. super
structures

18. building in
the shadow
of the
superstructure

19. 1.49 billion
304 million

34. meanwhile

36. are we just
creating
junkspace?

37. Should we as content
creators and designers be
trying to remove people
from the networks they
inhabit to impose on them
our hierarchies of content
and user flows?

38. Should we be
disrupting a users
consumption and
impose new behaviours
just to register a click,
a visit or a metric?

39. “products that
require a high degree
of behaviour change
are doomed to fail”
Nir Eyal

40. existing
within the
superstructure

41. Content
Delivery
System
RSS
Mobile APP
Social Networks
Content
Archive
Attributed Public Private / Partner
Summary Email Daily Email Weekly Email
Attributed
Public Email
Apple News (Free)
Apple News
Subscription (TBA)
Mail Chimp
Integration
Sponsored/Branded
Content
Sponsored/Branded
Content
Sponsored/Branded
Content (TBA) Sponsored/Branded
Content
#Channels
(Subscribe)
Sponsored/Branded
Content

42. cost of
materials

43. deep
linking

44. access
to users

45. quick to
load
easy to
share

46. it curates
itself

47. “Everyone is part of a
limitless branching tree of
curation, and everyone is
choosing a particular tangle
of branches. The whole is an
interlocking library of Best Of
playlists”
James Gleick, NYT

48. better
analytics

49. voice

50. future

51. homogenisation

57. ok google hey siri

58. designed for ease of input
designed for browsers
designed for speed
designed for machines

59. the death of
individually created
experiences

60. “a machine for
living in”
Le Corbusier

61. utopia

62. dieter

63. modern
ism

64. ten
principles
of good
design

65. “an
impenetrable
confusion of
forms, colours
and noises”

66. “is my design
good
design?”

67. form and function
replaces reaction
and emotion

68. white space and
order replaces
mess and
disorder

69. no mistakes
no reactions
no challenge

70. the planned
community

71. “Paradoxically the pursuit of
hyper-efficiency in all areas
of life results in unfit human
beings and a peculiarly
unfit-for-organically-alive-
human-beings
environment.”
Donald Kuspit

73. creating
chaos
from order

81. but is it good
design?

82. post-modern

83. enabling the machine
at the expense of the
human undermines
the power of design
as a human construct

84. a future design
language that isn’t
based purely in
engineering
requirements

85. a future design
language that
facilitates the human
that uses it over the
machine that
supports it

86. a future design
language that
embraces human
needs and entertains
mistakes

87. a future design
language that
supports emotion,
discussion and ethics

88. a future design
language that
enables communities
and education

89. a future design
language that is
complex yet open
and collaborative

90. @robboynes

91. facebook has killed your
designer
the age of
superstructures
and distributed media
@robboynes