What design challenges may exist when today’s junior designers are tomorrow’s design leaders? This extrapolates on current technology trends to speculate on what new design challenges may develop over the next 20 years, and how we can prepare ourselves for the unknown future.

1. Design Careers in the
ScienceFictionFuture
Bill DeRouchey
August 2018 Museum of Tomorrow, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilImage: Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz, via Wikipedia
Presented 31 Aug 2018
at UX Australia in
Melbourne and 12 Sep 2018
at Speculative Futures in
San Francisco.
This version is annotated
with talking points.

2. How may technology evolutions
affect our future design careers?
And what may the world look like
when today’s junior designers
are tomorrow’s design leaders?

3. Lifespan of
a Career Laurie Anderson
Can we get perspective on the
longevity of our careers?

4. 20 70
Roughly, we have 50 year careers,
from age 20 to age 70.

5. 45 55
20181998 2008 2028 2038 20481988 205978
20 7025 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
2018
Today’s 45 year olds have careers
that span years like this.

6. 45 55
2018998 2008 2028 2038 2048 2058 2068 207
20 7025 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
But today’s 25 year old junior designers
have careers that span years like this,
peaking in the 2030s and 2040s.

7. 45 55
2018998 2008 2028 2038 2048 2058 2068 207
20 7025 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
Despite these numbers looking like science
fiction, they are only a half career away.
Is there a way to prepare for this future
that’s so hard to predict? Let’s try.

8. Tony James, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, 1986
The Future
Is Coming

9. New technologies
New design questions
New design disciplines
lead to
which then often lead to
A framework for
anticipating what
new types of design
jobs may exist in
the future.
When new tech is
introduced into the
world, they often
raise questions
about how we
interact with them.
These questions then
often create new
design challenges
and disciplines,
which lead to jobs.

10. First highly complex web sites
“How do people understand them?”
Information architecture
led to
which then led to the need for
Let’s look at some examples
from the recent past to see
how this works.

11. First touchscreen mobile phones
“How do people interact on them?”
Mobile design
led to
which then led to the need for

12. Ownership of multiple devices
“How do we deliver content across sizes?”
Responsive design
led to
which then led to the need for

13. AI & Automation
Let’s now look at some new and
coming technologies that will likely
affect design careers.
The first obvious examples are
artificial intelligence, machine
learning, and automation.
Nearly every industry will be
touched by AI, changing the nature
of work, and therefore creating new
design challenges.

14. AI & Automation Via Shivon Zilis and James Chan
There is currently a gold rush
mentality happening with AI and ML.

15. AI & Automation
By 2030, 14% of jobs globally
may shi6 to those requiring
higher cogni>ve skills, social skills,
and technological skills.
McKinsey Global Ins>tute, May 2018
(Freely available online)
Jobs that can be automated, will likely be.
Design jobs will likely continue to be in demand.
1 out of every 7 jobs may shift when today’s
25yo’s are only 37.

16. Offloading expertise to algorithms
“How do people trust the algorithms?”
Trust design
leads to
which then may lead to the need for
How is the basis of an
algorithm communicated?
That’s a design challenge.

17. Algorithms are trained via data sets
“How do we minimize bias in data?”
Algorithm design
leads to
which then may lead to the need for
How is the basis of an
algorithm determined?
That’s a design input.

18. Robotics Tesla
Related to AI, robotics is another
field that is changing how people work.

19. Robotics
We will increasingly see people and
robots working in tandem. How do they
communicate? How do they collaborate?
Will they have a shared language?

20. Co-mingling people and robots
“How do people and robots collaborate?”
Collaboration or robot design
leads to
which then may lead to the need for

21. Mixed Reality Honeywell and Microsoft HoloLens
Mixed reality, virtual reality,
augmented reality are all letting us
generate new levels of reality on top
of our everyday physical reality, or
replace it altogether.

22. Mixed Reality Magic Leap
This is a home AR creation tool from
Magic Leap, who recently revealed what
they’ve been working on for years. It’s
safe to say that the tools to create
new realities will become easier to use
in the next decade.

23. Ability to manufacture reality
“How do people discern what’s real?”
Perception design
leads to
which then may lead to the need for
As rendering improves, how do
we distinguish manufactured
real from real real?

24. Mixed Reality
Projecting instructional overlays onto
physical objects, in this case, an
engine that needs repairing.

25. Overlaying guidance onto physical
“How do we scale hyperspecific instructions?”
Instructional design
leads to
which breathes new life into

26. Mixed Reality “Hyper-Reality", Keiichi Matsuda, 2016
A nightmarish vision of the future of
augmented reality.

27. Temptation to flood the environment
“How do we moderate the use of AR?”
Ethics design
leads to
which breathes new life into

28. Materials Science Georgia Tech
A lot of research is happening in this
field. The next 20 years should be
interesting.

29. ContourGlow
ShimmyConduct
The ability to program the color and
contour of a material, plus making it
interactable, are all the elements
necessary to create disposable physical
interfaces.

30. Ability to make material come alive
“How does material behave or communicate?”
Kinetic design
leads to
which then leads to

31. And we don’t even have time to cover…
This of course is only the tip of the
iceberg when you consider all of the
technology trends happening now or soon.

32. Drones

33. Automated Driving

34. Genetic Engineering

35. Nanotechnology

36. Language Translation

37. Cryptocurrencies

38. Blockchain

39. Quantum Computing

40. Space Tourism

41. …and so on

42. Let’s notice a pattern

43. New technologies change
how we conceive of the world
Let’s look at a pattern from the past
and then apply it to the future.

44. Before The World is Small
After The World is Big
Before trains, our lives were
typically lived within a contained
area.
After, we literally broadened our
horizons to mentally live within a
larger world.

45. After The World is Live
Before The World is Delayed
Before radio, we learned of faraway
news after the fact.
After, we could experience distant
events as they happened, and within
a community of people.

46. After Knowledge Is Instant
Before Knowledge Requires Effort

47. When AI and automation change
how we think and work…
We may begin to believe that
Work is malleable

48. When DNA can be edited to change the
composition of a person’s body…
We may begin to believe that
Bodies are malleable

49. When language is no longer a barrier
between people in different cultures…
We may begin to believe that
Cultures are malleable

50. When cryptocurrencies simplify
exchanging value across borders…
We may begin to believe that
Economies are malleable

51. When digital reality can no longer
be distinguished from physical reality…
We may begin to believe that
Reality is malleable

52. We may begin to believe that
Everything is malleable

53. Does this sound far-fetched?
Consider that…

54. This behavior happened in only 10 years

55. Given all this potential change,
your timing could be ideal

56. via lawlex.org
Because our fate is on a knife’s edge
right now

57. The climate is changing

58. People are getting desperate

59. Things will get weird

60. Your skills will be in demand

61. We make things for people
However, this fundamental may not change

62. People are stressed.
The world is changing rapidly.
People adjusting to rapid changes.
You’ve developed skills to help them.
2038
And you’re still only 45 years old.

63. Hypothetical Design Challenges
Given all this, let’s take some guesses
at a few potential design challenges

64. Education
Transit
Politics
Finance
Food
Industry Challenge Technology
Collaborating
Trusting
Shopping
Communicating
Analyzing
Kinetic surface
Machine learning
Mixed reality
Blockchain
Robotics
But instead of
just making
things up,
let’s create a
framework to
think within.

65. Education
Transit
Politics
Finance
Food
Industry Challenge Technology
Collaborating
Trusting
Shopping
Communicating
Analyzing
Kinetic surface
Machine learning
Mixed reality
Blockchain
Robotics
Pick any
combination
like a slot
machine and
hypothesize how
they fit
together.

66. Visualizing how produce is grown
via supply chain blockchain data

67. Education
Transit
Politics
Finance
Food
Industry Challenge Technology
Collaborating
Trusting
Shopping
Communicating
Analyzing
Kinetic surface
Machine learning
Mixed reality
Blockchain
Robotics
Another example

68. Designing spaces to explore
how to develop new materials

69. Education
Transit
Politics
Finance
Food
Industry Challenge Technology
Collaborating
Trusting
Shopping
Communicating
Analyzing
Kinetic surface
Machine learning
Mixed reality
Blockchain
Robotics
And another

70. Design AI-based negotiation
systems for optimizing outcomes

71. Now what? Gary Numan

72. Can you plan for 20 years away?

73. No

74. Not exactly

75. Here’s a metaphor for you

76. Be Prepared for Anything

77. Assign yourself homework

78. Learn one new topic every month
Futurism
Space tourism
Fashion Robotics
Automated trucking
AI design systems
AntarcticaAfrican economics
Leadership theories
Cryptocurrencies
ImmigrationMaterials science
Drones
Machine intelligence
Voting
Buddhism
Cobalt mining
Farming
Aviation
Flying cars
Quantum computing
Wind production
Server farms
Women in government
Water management
Buddhism
Algorithm design
Trust systems
Banking
Finance Lobbyists
Genetics
Aging
Retirement planning
Mars
Antibiotics
Dirt
LinguisticsHuman rights
Inclusivity
The Moon

79. Be Your Own Topic of the Month Club

80. January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
2019 2020 2021 2022
Ethics
Leadership
Systems thinking
Elections
Immigration
Banking
Blockchain
Gender
Drones
Genetic engineering
Telemedicine
Demographics
Weather
Project management
Cybernetics
Nutrition
Facilitation
Quantum computing
Cryptocurrencies
Antibiotics
Water management
Trust systems
Mars
Aging
Materials science
Linguistics
Antarctica
Solar energy
Algorithms
Biomimicry
Farming
Hydrogen
Mining
Server farms
Microfinance
Space tourism
Population growth
Education
Global trade
Revolutions
Do this 10x a year, in 4 years you’ll know 40 new things. In 20, 200.

81. Read or watch everything you can
Join all the online groups
Make something
Write about what you learned

82. Prepared when science fiction becomes fact

83. Devo, 1977, Bob Gruen
Thank you
Bill DeRouchey