Marshall McLuhan was an influential thinker who studied the impact of media and technology. He is quoted as saying that "the medium is the message" and that we fail to fully consider how the choice of medium shapes the message conveyed and its reception. The document presents several of McLuhan's ideas about media and how new technologies can enhance some things, retrieve others, reverse roles, and make older technologies obsolete. It also suggests these ideas remain highly relevant to understanding changes in digital media and user experience design.

1. because
MARSHALL MCLUHAN
Sketchcamp Chicago, 2013
By Dan Klyn from

8. ― faced with
unmeasurables,
people steer
their way
by magic‖

10. As Tom Wolfe has aptly inquired,
What if McLuhan is right?
Suppose he is what he sounds like—
the most important thinker since
Newton, Darwin, Freud, Einstein and
Pavlov?
The Playboy Interview:
Marshall McLuhan,
Playboy Magazine
March 1969

11. I don't necessarily agree with
everything that I say

14. 1964
1967

15. the content of a medium is like
the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar
to distract the watchdog of the mind

17. our conventional response to all media,
namely that it is how they are used that
counts, is the numb stance of the
technological idiot.

19. media = environment

20. any understanding
of social and cultural change is
impossible without a knowledge of
the way media work as
environments
- Marshall McLuhan + Quentin Fiore, The Media is the Massage

22. WHY THIS MIGHT MATTER:
•
Has there ever been a time in
digital when there’s been more
interest in and focus on content?

24. WHY THIS MIGHT MATTER:
•
You sometimes
pick or influence
the medium that your work
is expressed within.

25. WHY THIS MIGHT MATTER:
•
You sometimes
do not
pick or influence
the medium that your work
is expressed within.

26. inherencies

28. in here

30. WHY THIS MIGHT MATTER:
•
The media ecology of UX has under
gone profound change with the advent
of ―lean‖ and agile (!)

31. Source: Langr Software Solutions
Source: Scott Adams, United Features Syndicate

32. enhance
MCLUHAN’S
FOUR LAWS OF
reverse
media
retrieve
obsolesce

33. Enhances:
scope and density of
what we can talk
about together in real
time
Retrieves:
dirt + stick
Reverses:
into documentation
Obsolesces:
chalkboard
Cool

34. Enhances:
ability of
stakeholders to
consider what
might be good to
do
Retrieves:
architect’s
maquettes
Reverses:
into specification
Obsolesces:
sketches
Cool

35. Enhances:
ability of designers
to specify how a
thing will be built
Retrieves:
engineer’s
―working drawings‖
Reverses:
into the actual
product
Obsolesces:
design ―comps‖
Hot

37. mutual
occlusion

41. O
HA

42. OO

43. Some sketches by Jordan Little
iPhone 6 Idea Sketches by Luke Zammit
Mobile UI Wireframe by Siska Flaurensia
Wireframes for sticker app by Jordan Price
UI Wireframe Sketch by Chris No

45. enhance
reverse
wireframe
retrieve
obsolesce

46. enhance
reverse
sketch
retrieve
obsolesce

47. enhance
reverse
retrieve
obsolesce

52. Enhances:
ability of co-located
mixed-context groups
to simultaneously
view what’s being
considered
Retrieves:
stained
glass
windows
Reverses:
into
billboard
Obsolesces:
boardroom projector
/ jumbo-tron TV

53. wireframes
big paper

54. DO THREE THINGS
•
Be Perseus, not Narcissus.
•
Consider the not-necessarily-connected –ness
of message and media.
•
Align medium and message (and temperature),
then set everybody’s expectations accordingly.

56. Enhances:
ability to
understand
person-level
context
Retrieves:
cubism
Reverses:
into characature
Obsolesces:
customer
segments