Author: Ye Lou

Ethical Responsibilities of Interaction Designers in the Age of AI

Interaction designers have an important ethical responsibility to protect users when working with AI, because AI systems can easily influence people without them noticing. Designers should make AI honest, easy to understand, and...

iPod & iPhone

How the iPod/iPhone Changed Our Relationship with Technology

The iPod—and later the iPhone—changed our relationship to technology by making it feel personal, emotional, and always with us. People didn’t just use these devices; they formed daily habits around them and expected their...

pace layers

How Pace Layers Shape the Way Interaction Design Evolves

Pace Layers affect the lifecycle of interaction design work by showing that different parts of a product change at different speeds, and designers have to work with that instead of against it. The fast layers—like trends,...

web 2.0

Title: From Web 2.0 to Today: How Interaction Evolved

I think Web 2.0 interactions were fundamentally optimistic—they assumed people wanted to share everything openly and collaborate publicly. Today’s interactions reflect a more complex digital culture: people want connection...

field trips

CHM Field Trips

My Impression of the CHM:I thought the Computer History Museum was really cool. It was interesting to see how video games and computers have changed over time. Seeing the old machines in person made me appreciate how much...

GUI

The Evolution of Graphical User Interfaces

Since the early Macintosh and Windows days, graphical user interfaces have changed a lot. They used to be very simple, with black-and-white icons and basic windows, but now they are colorful, animated, and work with touch, voice,...

xerox star

Title: Xerox Star: How It Changed Computers Forever

When Xerox released the 8010 “Star” computer in 1981, it completely changed how people used computers. Before the Star, computers were hard to use and you had to type a lot of commands. The Star was the first computer that...

mid-century innovations

The Mouse That Changed the World

The legendary 1968 demo by Douglas Engelbart and his team at SRI — often called “The Mother of All Demos.” That presentation really changed everything.Back then, people saw computers as machines that only did math —...

fitts law

Making Software Easier with Gestalt and Fitts’s Law

When I design interactive software, I think about Gestalt principles because they help users understand the screen faster. For example, the law of proximity tells us that when buttons are close together, people see them as...

manifestos

What might we learn from the different art movements that emerged in the early 20th century?

The art movements of the early 20th century were very rich. They not only changed the look of art but also gave us many ideas to think about. Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, Dada, Bauhaus—each of these names shows how artists...

lovelace & gilbreth

Why are Ada Lovelace and Lillian Gilbreth important to know about for IXD History?

When we talk about the history of Interaction Design, it’s easy to think only about computers and screens. But Ada Lovelace and Lillian Gilbreth show us that IxD has always been bigger than that. Lovelace worked with Charles...