Gartner’s UI future: Environmentally-aware social interfaces
Gartner is well-known for its analysis of technology’s impact on business. They rarely consider the user interface. But it seems the UI is becoming more “business-critical”. They recently* published an overview titled “The Evolving User Interface From Graphical UI to Environmental UI“. It’s an interesting hypothesis – though perhaps a tad pedantic.
It’s main point is that businesses have to invest in UI to stay competitive – and that UI will evolve into an interoperable framework and away from device specific GUIs.
The conclusion…
The traditional model of a user interface is insufficient for a more-robust environment in which most computer interaction is not through a traditional desk-bound keyboard and screen. In this new environment, the focus shifts from interfaces on individual devices (desktop devices, for example) to the overall experience users have as they interact with the interconnected devices that surround them.
The UI shifts from GUIs attached to individual devices to an “environmental user interface,” acting as a contextual user access and information delivery engine across multiple devices. Today, this model is only a concept, driven primarily by the projected intersection of technology, business and consumer trends during the next 10 years. However, focused implementations of location-based services linking a bounded set of devices in a targeted environment, as well as the explosion of Web 2.0 “mashups” combining Web applications into a new UI, are indicators of this trend.
By 2015, the focus will shift from designing individual interfaces for particular devices to creating a proactive UI framework for the environment (0.6 probability).
Update: * oops – I guess March 2006 isn’t so recent!
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