How do Pace Layers affect the lifecycle of interaction design work?
Pace Layers is a helpful way to understand how interaction design evolves. At the surface, we have elements that change every day, like UI styles and micro-interactions, and small visual refinements. Beneath that are slower-moving layers such as information architecture and navigation patterns. At the deepest level sit user habits, brand principles, and the core logic that shapes how a product works.
After more than a decade of experimentation and iteration, interaction design has entered a mature and stable phase. The deepest layer barely moves anymore, which is why it can feel like “interaction design has stopped innovating.” But innovation hasn’t disappeared. It has simply shifted upward, toward the layers that can change quickly: visuals, components, and micro-level experience details.
The deepest layer is difficult to shift because any meaningful change requires years of gradual adjustments and proof from the layers above it. Many of the foundational interaction patterns we use today were invented during the Web 2.0 era and remain intact. In that sense, Web 2.0 to today is part of one long innovation cycle. We may only now be entering the beginning of the next cycle, where the surface layers are highly mature but the underlying structures have yet to transform.