Mike Kruzeniski discusses the evolution of mobile design, apps, and ecosystems. For design, he traces a shift from representing technology through physical artifacts to prioritizing information overlay. Apps have moved from isolated silos to interconnected webs. Ecosystems have expanded from singular rockstar designers to include broader communities. The presentation covers these transitions and their implications for the mobile landscape.

1. Mobile Now
Mike Kruzeniski
@mkruzeniski

3. Mobile Now
1. Design
2. Apps
3. Ecosystems

4. 1. Design

8. How did we get here?

9. A brief history of Interaction

28. Artifact as UI
Real worlds tools and objects are used as metaphors to
describe the technology.
Hyper-realism is the dominant aesthetic.
Ergonomics, Usability, Cognition are primary concerns.
Translation of content from analog to digital and hyperlinking
are the driving activities.
Focus on techniques for manipulating and organizing
content.
Our digital things.

29. “Leather buttons…feels very much like real
leather buttons would feel: Tacky. It feels
wrong and it is wrong. It’s kitsch. If you use
favor style over function to make
something look like something it is not,
you are not a product designer, you are an
illusion artist.”
-Oliver Reichenstein

36. “…a networked, digital, interactive copy of, say,
the Tao Te Ching is simultaneously more and
less than the one I keep on my shelf. You give
up the tangible, phenomenological’isness of the
book, and in return you’re afforded an
extraordinary new range of capabilities.
Shouldn’t the interface, y’know, reflect this?”
-Adam Greenfield

38. “For years inventions have extended
man’s physical powers rather than the
powers of his mind.”
-Vannevar Bush

47. Microsoft Confidential

48. Microsoft Confidential

49. Microsoft Confidential

50. Information as UI
Content is represented as it exists.
Content is assumed to be interactive.
Augmentation of objects, people, places, and data with
relevant information is the driving activity.
Focus is on seamless overlaying of information and
thoughtless interaction techniques.
Our digital selves.

51. A change in value deserves a change in
expression.
The value is the information on the surface,
not the object it once resided.

52. Design Principles
Clean, light, open, fast
Celebrate typography
Alive in motion
Content, not chrome
Fierce reduction
Authentically digital

53. Metro is our design language. We
call it Metro because it’s modern and
clean. It’s fast and in motion. It’s
about content and typography. And
it’s entirely authentic.

62. 2. Apps

64. 10 Billion+ downloads
500,000 apps
1 Billion+ downloads
250,000 apps

65. “Nothing matters in this world more than apps.
Write that on your forehead. Write that on the
mirror on your bathroom wall. Write that on
your car windshield. Whatever it will take so you
remember it.
Apps are the ONLY thing that matters now.”
— Robert Scoble

68. Basically…
The average application is used once.
1% of downloaded apps are used regularly in the long run.

70. Personal, Relevant,
& Connected

78. 3. Ecosystems

79. It used to be so easy…

84. “Iconic”

100. How do you let get others
participate?

101. Who is the Designer now?

102. Rockstar Designer

103. Design Team

104. Community

111. "A design isn’t finished until somebody is using it.”
— Brenda Laurel

112. A design isn’t finished until a community takes over.

113. Mobile Now

114. 1. Design
From Artifact to Information

115. 2. Apps
From Silos to Webs

116. 3. Ecosystems
From Rockstars to Communities

117. Obrigado
Mike Kruzeniski
@mkruzeniski