S’navvigation

Most of the current iPhone fuss is about the way that this single device might finally pay off the promise of convergence.  It’s everything you to carry - all-in-one.

Convergence is all well and good, but that’s not what I find most exciting.  For me, the most progress can be found in the savvy navigation.

It’s Minority Report time.  Between iPhone and Microsoft Surface and a few other mind-blowing navigation tools on the horizon, we’re finally reaching the point where we navigate content intuitively, based on visual cues, rather than creating alphanumeric systems as proxies (think alphabetical filing or dewey decimal).

Google took the first step forward with search - no need for an encyclopedia when you can just type in your query and find the answer.  Search is just now getting to the point of blending media - type in a query and get text, images, video etc back all in one response.  (Would you rather read or watch your answer?).

And now, the beginnings of truly visual information architecture - inexpensive digital imagery can flow through the pipe so we see an actual replica of the content - the album, the book, the person, the report, the cover page - as we navigate.  It’s a much more intuitive, logical system.  (I always point out how Tivo makes more sense than a vcr - you tape the show, not the time slot.  Visual navigation is going to be the same sort of leap forward - you see the content, not some coded proxy). 

Finally, it’s the beginning of an information architecture renaissance, one in which visual imagery finally gets its due.  My old myopic boss ran around chortling that this is the “decade of design”.  He was right, of course, but had only the narrowest of vision.  Design will be the critical differentiator for longer than a mere decade.  And design is bigger than graphic arts.  We’re finally reaching the point where we’re designing information and experiences, intuitively and elegantly.  Savvy navigation is only the beginning - but oh, the places we’ll go.