Can you do low-level thinking?

The launch of Apple visionpro has triggered all sort of reactions ranging from memes to admiration, but there is one thing that has become clear: the next decade will be very exciting for the design community.

Now why the design community?

For most GenX like me, we have lived partially with and without internet, with and without mobile phones, with and without AI, and now it appears finally AR/VR has a chance of delivering an edge over traditional computing environments.

I can see a pattern here, and remember people saying “I know, but I prefer to read an actual magazine” (and I know what happened to the publishing industry).

Separately, I know TV sets are going down in absolute units sold, and blending with smart devices. Either you buy an internet enabled high-end set… or you are better off with your phone.

Now think about it, in the past design and ergonomics were restricted to their medium (be that, a sheet of paper, the size of your screen) and interactions were mostly limited by your peripherals.

Spatial enabled computing changes that in the sense that your sensorium is your media, without a fixed peripheral setup. The possibilities this would open range from entirely immersive art pieces, entertainment and even memory retrievals, to organically morphing work setups.

Motor skills, attention span, visual memory and -of course- individual ability to withstand sensorial overload, may become as important as a degree.

And behind this quiet evolving state of affairs, you will have the architects of it. Low-level thinkers will design this interactions, imagine how your workspace will look, starting at ‘tabula rasa’. No constraints, not even physics playing a role.

There has been a lot of doomsday thinking about AI eating every creative job out there. I can see creativity changing. The depth of raw thinking required to properly conceptualise at low level in non-constrained environments will make almost impossible for it to be done unassisted.

Creativity will flourish. I think a new renaissance of the creative and design industries may be due, and trust me, it has nothing to do with Ape-looking ‘digital art’.

TL;DR, when one door closes another one opens.