The world of Interaction Design encompasses principles from various disciplines, and as a result, many pioneers have paved the way for the field as we know it today. One individual I would argue was one of the most influential was Douglas Engelbart.
In 1968, Engelbart and his team debuted their famous demo, often referred to as “The Mother of All Demos.” I would say this demo deserves this name because it was the first time so many of the foundational ideas we use in Interaction Design were introduced. Engelbert and his team introduced the mouse, windows, hypertext, real-time editing, and many other ideas surrounding navigation at SRI, all of which I would say are central to how interaction designers think about their interfaces today.
Not only that, but Engelbart and his team showed how computers can actually be used as collaborative tools. As a result of this, gone were the days when people could only envision one individual typing code. Because of their demo, practitioners could edit together and share their screen, a tool that is famously associated with the Interaction Design world, as we are always iterating and sharing with others. It is so crucial for us to be able to share our work and collaborate on our work so that we might receive feedback and improve.
Engelbart and his team said their goals were to “augment human intellect,” not replace it. Because they introduced their way of thinking, I would argue that is why we design the way we do today. Since Engelbart and his team shared their design thinking and this specific notion, design is no longer just about usability, but rather about expanding what humans can do with the help of machines. I believe that Engelbart and his team were able to broaden our view of what we thought possible with interfaces. They helped the whole world understand that it is not enough to think about progressing technology, but we also have to critically think about how it might serve us as humans. In short, Engelbart and his team reframed computing as a design problem, and not just a technical one, leaving the stage open for Interaction Designers.