The keynote document provides a summary of six presentations given at the IxD12 conference. The presentations focused on how interaction design is changing and where it needs to head in the future. The document summarizes that the presenters called for designers to embrace the growing complexity and unpredictability in technology by focusing on disruptive rather than practical ideas, provoking change rather than just predicting trends, and exploring what could be rather than what should be through the use of "what if" thinking.

1. Embrace the madness
IxD12 keynote recap
IxDA Redux Boon Yew Chew
21 Feb 2012 SapientNitro
@boonych
Hi,
my
name
is
Boon
and
I’m
a
user
experience
designer
here
at
SapientNitro.
Tonight,
I’ll
be
covering
the
six
keynote
presenta@ons
at
IxD12
in
a
very
rapid
10
minutes

2. Anthony
Dunne,
Royal
College
of Arts
Genevieve Bell, Intel Labs Luke Williams, Frog Design
Amber Case,
Cyborg Jonas Löwgren @boonych
Fabien Hemmert,
Anthropologist Malmö University Berlin University
Here
they
are,
as
you
can
see
–
star@ng
from
the
top
leG
we
have
Genevieve
Bell
from
Intel
Labs,
Anthony
Dunne
from
the
Royal
College
of
Arts
Luke
Williams
from
Frog
Design
Amber
Case,
who
is
a
Cyborg
Anthropologist
and
TED
speaker
Jonas
Lowgren,
Professor
of
Interac@on
Design
and
co-­‐founder
of
the
School
of
Arts
&
Communica@on
at
Malmö
University
in
Sweden
And
Fabien
Hemmert,
who
is
currently
doing
his
PhD
at
Berlin
University
and
is
also
a
fellow
TED
speaker
The
aim
of
this
talk
is
to
give
you
a
sense
of
where
Interac@on
Design
is
heading
(or
where
we
should
be
heading),
based
on
the
six
keynotes.

3. Embrace Madness?
@boonych
So
I
decided
to
@tle
this
talk,
“Embrace
the
Madness”,
as
a
way
to
sum
up
the
gist
of
the
keynotes.
But
what
does
that
mean?

4. Embrace Madness?
Hundreds of different devices and a multitude of
device types
New behaviours are being discovered
Our tools and methods becoming outdated
Trends: no one really agrees
Prediction becoming futile
@boonych
Well,
we’re
reaching
a
point
where
control
is
becoming
impossible.
It’s
impossible
to
keep
up
with
every
single
device
out
there
be
it
tablet,
phone
or
otherwise.
New
behaviours
are
being
discovered.
We’re
also
finding
that
many
of
the
tools
and
methods
we’re
used
to
just
don’t
cut
it
anymore
–
we’re
having
to
reinvent
new
ones.
And
it’s
becoming
increasingly
pointless
to
predict
what’s
going
to
come
next.
So,
it
seems
there’s
only
one
way
forward,
which
is
to
embrace
the
chaos.

5. Embrace Madness?
OK
Hundreds of different devices and a multitude of
device types
New behaviours are being discovered
Our tools and methods becoming outdated
Trends: no one really agrees
Prediction becoming futile
@boonych
Or,
completely
give
up,
but
I’m
guessing
none
of
us
are
thinking
that
right
now.
The
big
ques@on
is
HOW?

6. “Don’t worry about
trying to select the
most practical ideas;
focus on the most
disruptive ones.”
Luke Williams
Author, Professor
& Fellow at Frog Design
@boonych
Well,
here’s
what
Luke
Williams
from
Frog
Design
says:
“Don’t
worry
about
selec@ng
the
most
prac@cal
ideas.
Focus
on
the
most
disrup@ve
ones”.
Far
too
many
businesses
are
trained
to
predict
the
next
best
thing,
which
merely
leads
(at
best)
to
incremental
change.
We
too,
as
designers,
we’ve
become
good
at
is
gebng
a
lot
of
ideas,
but
we
can’t
lead
those
ideas
in
a
specific
direc@on.
And
this
approach
is
what
leads
us
to
paralysis.

7. Be the change
“provoke, don’t
predict”
“avoid spotting and
reacting”
@boonych
Instead,
Luke
calls
on
designers
to
provoke
rather
than
predict.
To
avoid
spobng
trends
and
reac@ng
to
it.
This
allows
us
to
break
out
of
that
cycle
of
complacency,
and
move
away
from
making
incremental
changes
that
limit
our
opportuni@es.
He
uses
the
shower
scene
in
Alfred
Hitchcock’s
classic
thriller,
Psycho,
to
illustrate
the
disrup@ve
turning
point
in
the
movie.
Just
think
-­‐
what
are
some
shower
scene
moments
we
can
achieve
in
our
own
designs?

8. Biz disruptors
Blockbuster < Netflix
Motorola < Nokia
Motorola & Nokia < Apple
@boonych
So,
companies,
paradigms,
ideas,
industries
that
are
all
trapped
by
this
paralysis
end
up
becoming
obsolete
by
disruptors.
Neclix,
Nokia
and
Apple
are
just
some
disruptors
you
may
be
familiar
with.

9. Biz disruptors IxD disruptors
Mobile first
Content out
Blockbuster < Netflix Designers must code
Motorola < Nokia Lean UX
Motorola & Nokia < Apple Persuasive design
@boonych
It’s
the
same
in
our
industry
as
well.
Do
these
topics
on
the
right
feel
commonplace
in
your
vernacular?
Or
are
they
too
controversial
and
hard
to
wrestle
control
of?
I
think
Luke
is
right
–
we
need
to
constantly
rethink
the
way
we’ve
been
doing
things
and
not
be
afraid
to
take
the
leap.
Again,
the
big
ques@on
is
how?

10. Asking "what if" allows us to shift
from designing for what is
to designing for what could be
Anthony Dunne
Head of Design Interactions Programme
Royal College of Art
@boonych
According
to
Anthony
Dunne,
one
of
ways
to
shiG
this
thinking
is
to
ask
“What
if”.
He
says
that
designers
tend
to
focus
on
what
“should
be”
when
they
should
be
focusing
on
what
“could
be”.

11. D
UL
“Could be” is about...
CO
SHOULD
EXPLORE
Exploring possibilities
Avoiding clichés
@boonych
The
problem
with
“should
be”
is
that
it’s
inherently
limited
in
focus,
so
in
order
to
avoid
being
trapped
in
the
same
cycle
of
old
cliches,
you
need
to
consider
more
possibili@es
in
the
design
space.

12. 1
Fabien Hemmert:
Making telecommunications
more emotional
1. Intimate mobile
2. Weight-shifting mobile
3. Shape-changing mobile
2 3
@boonych
I
think
one
of
the
reasons
why
we
don’t
feel
comfortable
exploring
the
expansive
realm
of
the
possible
is
because
we’re
afraid
of
it.
But
it
doesn’t
have
to
be
that
way.
Fabien
Hemmert’s
research
projects
explored
different
ways
we
could
make
telecommunica@on
more
emo@onal,
by
prototyping
devices
that
could
kiss,
breathe,
shiG
its
weight
around,
and
so
on.
The
point
of
this
is
about
enabling
designers
to
make
the
impossible
a
reality
by
exploring
the
future
through
prototypes
and
learning
from
it.

13. “We have to get ideas out of
our heads, even if they seem
crazy.
Only then can we enable
discussions of how we'll live in
the future
…we must establish design
as a knowledge producing
discipline”
Fabien Hemmert
Berlin University
TED speaker
@boonych
Here’s
what
he
says:
“We
have
to
get
ideas
out
of
our
heads,
even
if
they
seem
crazy.
Only
then
can
we
enable
discussions
of
how
we’ll
live
in
the
future.
We
must
establish
design
as
a
knowledge
producing
discipline”

14. Body synths
Touch + lights + sound
@boonych
So
if
we’re
all
going
to
embrace
this
madness,
we’ll
have
to
embrace
new
methods
and
new
tools.
Omnigraffle
and
Axure
just
won’t
cut
it
anymore.
Here’s
an
example
of
an
interac@on
scenario
that
wouldn’t
work
with
wireframes.
This
is
a
photo
of
a
body
synth
performer
(on
the
leG)
wearing
a
suit.
The
par@cipant
on
the
right
is
invited
to
interact
with
the
performer
through
touch,
which
glows
and
creates
sounds
as
the
par@cipant
gets
closer
to
the
performer’s
body.

15. For new interactions, for
innovative interactions you
need hi-fidelity prototype,
wireframes are not enough
Jonas Lowgren
Co-founder & Professor of
Interaction Design, School of Arts &
Communication, Malmö University
@boonych
Keynote
speaker
Jonas
Lowgren
argues
that
for
interac@ons
like
these,
you
need
to
get
comfortable
prototyping
with
hi-­‐fidelity
materials.
This
is
becoming
more
important
as
we’re
observing
more
of
the
temporal
and
non-­‐idioma@c
nature
of
digital
interac@on
today.

16. we found it very hard to figure out the
interaction without going into code
Jonas Lowgren
As
you
would
expect,
this
includes
sketching
in
code,
or
coding
with
a
sketching
mindset.
This
is
primarily
because
you’re
pushing
the
code
to
explore
the
fuller
range
of
possibili@es,
which
we
as
designers
need
to
do
to
step
away
from
our
old
cliches,
as
men@oned
earlier.

17. 1739
@boonych
So
where
does
that
leave
us?
Amber
Case
and
Genevieve
Bell
took
us
on
a
historical
journey
to
explore
our
rela@onship
as
human
beings
with
technology.
We
started
with
a
fascina@on
of
mechanising
things
in
our
own
likeness
and
to
nature,
as
you
can
see
on
the
top
leG
with
the
Diges@ng
Duck,
which
was
the
world’s
first
automaton
in
1739.

18. 1739
@boonych
Then,
we
started
to
augmen@ng
our
reali@es
with
technology
so
we
could
enhance
our
abili@es
and
lives.
The
man
in
the
@meline
is
Mr.
Steve
Mann
from
MIT,
the
world’s
first
human
cyborg,
who
wore
these
prosthe@cs
as
a
way
to
augment
reality.
Much
like
how
we
use
the
iphone
to
navigate
London,
except
much
nerdier.

19. 1739
@boonych
Meanwhile
we
also
formed
special
rela@onships
with
our
devices,
by
giving
them
human-­‐like
akributes
(like
you
see
in
the
Furby
–
Siri
conversa@on
above)
and
even
extending
that
to
the
aGerlife
(on
the
top
right
is
a
set
of
chinese
paper
ipads,
which
people
burn
at
temples
as
part
of
their
ritual
to
honor
their
ancestors).
This
really
shows
how
integrated
and
complex
technology
has
become
in
our
lives.
In
conclusion,
I
want
to
leave
you
with
two
quotes
from
Amber
and
Genevieve.

20. “Your phone will
become a
remote control
for reality”
Amber Case
Cyborg Anthropologist
The
first
is
about
how
technology
has
now
become
a
huge
extension
of
ourselves.
In
fact,
she
predicts
that
interfaces
of
the
future
will
be
increasingly
invisible,
to
the
point
we
won’t
no@ce
it
anymore.
The
good
news
is
that
we
don’t
have
to
sit
back
and
witness
this
future
to
happen.
We
can
go
out
and
invent
it.

21. "We don't want
machines that can
think...we want
machines that we
can have
relationships with."
Genevieve Bell
Intel Labs
The
second
quote
is
from
Genevieve
Bell,
who
says
“we
don’t
want
machines
that
can
think…
We
want
machines
that
we
can
have
rela@onships
with”.
I
love
this
quote
because
it
empowers
us
as
designers
to
think
beyond
interac@ons
and
technologies
and
devices
and
come
back
to
who
we
really
are
as
human
beings.
And
at
the
end
of
the
day,
if
all
we’re
doing
is
enabling
interac@ons
between
ourselves
and
other
people
amidst
the
madness
of
change,
then
it’s
a
madness
I’m
willing
to
embrace.

22. Thanks
Boon Yew Chew
@boonych
www.gluethink.com
Interaction 2013
Toronto, Canada
“Social Impact,
Social Innovation”
@boonych
And
that’s
the
end
of
my
talk.
Thanks
for
listening.