Make It So

Diagrams and other illustrations

2012-09-14T15:01:56Z

All 680 (!!!) images for Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction (including front and back covers) are now available from the Rosenfeld Media Flickr site. We encourage you to grab and include them into your own presentations. But please be sure to mention where they come from: cite the book's title, the author's name, the publisher, date, and the book site's URL. Here's an example:

Figure 7.3 from Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction by Nathan Shedroff and Christopher Noessel; Rosenfeld Media, 2012.
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/science-fiction-interface/

Enjoy!

Out of this world!

2012-09-14T14:49:09Z

I can't tell you how awesome (and weird) it is to have the print version of the book in hand, hot off the press. The smell of the ink and feel of the cover bring back sweet memories from my print design days. I can't wait to start hearing readers' feedback and joining conversations. Author pride going at warp 10.

Testimonials

2012-08-01T18:48:26Z

"Designers who love science fiction (and don't we all?) will go bananas over Shedroff and Noessel's delightful and informative book on how interaction design in sci-fi movies informs interaction design in the real world. Many movie interfaces are remarkably creative, effective, and useful, and the authors analyze and deconstruct more than a century of cinema to find the best. With dozens of familiar examples, they illuminate some of the trickier aspects of designing how complex future systems interface with humans. You will find it as useful as any design textbook, but a whole lot more fun."
—Alan Cooper, President of pioneering interaction design company Cooper, "Father of Visual Basic," and author of The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

"Shedroff and Noessel are leaders in their fields. Make It So is well-researched, pragmatic, and entertaining. The authors show us that science fiction can not only give us visions of the future but can help us design a better future as well."
—Brian David Johnson, Futurist and Director, Future Casting and Experience Research, Intel Corporation

"It has been both revealing and refreshing to see a book that, for the first time, so deeply explores the contrasts, connections, and influences from the realm of fantasy to the real. Shedroff and Noessel have created one of the most thorough and insightful studies ever made of this domain and from a unique angle, not only providing comprehensive coverage of the vast number of examples, but also drawing practical and valuable lessons that inform and can be applied to the problems we think about every day."
—Mark Coleran, visual designer of interfaces for movies (credits include The Bourne Identity, The Island, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider)

"Part futurist treatise, part design manual, and part cultural analysis, Make It So is a fascinating investigation of an often-overlooked topic: how sci-fi influences the development of tomorrow's machine interfaces."
—Annalee Newitz, Editor, io9 blog

"Every geek's wet dream: a science fiction and interface design book rolled into one."
—Maria Giudice, CEO and Founder, Hot Studio

Frequently Asked Questions

2012-08-01T18:11:55Z

These common questions and their short answers are taken from Nathan Shedroff and Christopher Noessel's book Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Ficton. You can find longer answers to each in your copy of the book, either printed or digital version.

The topic of this book is a fun idea, but how is science fiction relevant to design?

Design and science fiction do much the same thing. Sci-fi uses characters in stories to describe a possible future. Similarly, the design process uses personas in scenarios to describe a possible interface. They're both fiction. Interfaces only become fact when a product ships. The main differences between the two come from the fact that design mainly proposes what it thinks is best, and sci-fi is mostly meant to entertain. But because sci-fi can envision technology farther out, largely freed from real-world constraints, design can look to it for inspiration and ideas about what can be done today.

See Chapters 1 and 14.

Do you distinguish between science fiction and sci-fi?

In a 1997 article, Harlan Ellison claimed the term "science fiction" for the genre of story that is concerned with science and "eternal questions," with an implied focus on literature. We wanted to look at interfaces, and this led us quite often into that other category of story that he characterized as a "debasement" and "a simplistic, pulp-fiction view of the world" called "sci-fi." We don't entirely agree with his characterization, and it's true that we didn't look at literature for this project, so we don't make the same distinction. We just use sci-fi as an abbreviation for science fiction to save space. Hopefully Mr. Ellison won't be too mad.

Where is [insert an example from sci-fi here]?

To misquote Douglas Adams: Sci-fi is big. Really big. We couldn't get to everything, and we didn't have the room to include everything we got to. Fortunately, many sci-fi examples build on very similar ideas. Sometimes we passed over one example in favor of another that might be more well known or, alternatively, we included an unsung one that deserved some credit. Most of what we've reviewed is sci-fi from the United States, but we've also ventured into sci-fi from other countries. Even given what we've managed to achieve, we've barely scratched the surface. You can find additional material on our website: www.scifiinterfaces.com.

Why didn't you talk about [insert interaction design principle here]?

The lessons are derived from sci-fi, not the other way around. If no example in the survey pointed us toward, say, Fitts's Law, then it doesn't appear, and some principles didn't make the final cut due to space constraints. Another style of investigation would have been to write a textbook on interaction or interface design using only examples from sci-fi, which would be interesting, but isn't this project.

Wouldn't this have worked better as a movie or an ebook that can play video clips?

Because our lessons and commentary involve moments from movies and television, it's a little problematic to publish them in a medium that doesn't allow us to show these interfaces in action. But because our focus was on studying interfaces and deriving lessons, we've started with media that would work best for later reference: traditional book, ebook, and website. If you're eager to see some of these interfaces in action, certainly check out the original movies or TV shows, or come to one of the workshops and lectures we give on the subject, where we share relevant clips. And be assured that we're exploring alternative media for these lessons and ideas next.

These interfaces weren't designed to be studied or for users in the real world. Aren't you being a little unfair?

Indeed, we are using real-world criteria for interfaces that aren't in the real world—the vast majority of which aren't meant to be. But as fans and designers, we can't help but bring a critical eye to bear on the sci-fi we watch, and with most of the world becoming more technologically savvy as time goes on, audiences will become so, too. But it's the "outsider" nature of these interfaces that make them fascinating to study, as their creators produce both blunders and inspired visions.

What was the most interesting thing you discovered when writing the book?

We were surprised at how productive it was to investigate the "bad" interfaces. The "good" interfaces often serve as reminders of principles with which we are already familiar. Sometimes they are inspiring. But the "bad" interfaces, because they still worked at a narrative level, revealed the most surprising insights through the process of "apology," discussed in Chapter 1.

What was left on the editing room floor?

One of our early ideas for the book was to include interviews with sci-fi makers and science practitioners. The interviews didn't make it into the final iteration of the book, but these people gave their time and shared much with us, and we'd like to acknowledge them individually with special thanks: Douglas Caldwell, Mark Coleran, Mike Fink, Neil Huxley, Dean Kamen, Joe Kosmo, David Lewindowsky, Jerry Miller, Michael Ryman, Rpin Suwannath, and Lee Weinstein.

Additionally, we had early draft chapters on sci-fi doors, chemical interfaces, weapons, and spacesuits/spaceships. Early reviews of the sheer size of the book forced us to make some hard choices. Perhaps in some future work we will be able to develop this content further, but for now it will have to wait.

Why didn't you mention [insert title] more?

Several movies and TV shows are incredibly seminal and culturally influential. Star Trek, Minority Report, and 2001: A Space Odyssey are three we can name off of the top of our heads. But we didn't want to lean too much on a small set of movies and shows. Rather, we wanted to use these examples for their most salient aspects, then branch out into other examples from the survey when the topic warranted.

What about other speculative technology found in video games, futuristic commercials, or industry films?

The hard-core genre nerds know that conversations about defining science fiction often lead to conversations about speculative fiction instead, which is a much broader topic of interest to us, but isn't the focus of this project. Anyone interested in these related media should read Chapter 14.

Scifi becomes a patent issue

2011-08-23T20:46:42Z

This is a pretty amazing development. As the patent war heats-up in the mobile computing sector, Scifi is being recognized as instances of "prior art."

Essentially, Samsung is using a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey to bash Apple's IP case, citing it as prior art for tablets. There isn't much in the scene that shows tablets in actual use (two sit on a table playing an interview but there's no interaction with them). Better clips might have come from Star Trek: The Next Generation, which uses PADDs throughout that and the following series.

Read the article at FOSS Patents

We have two thoughts:

1. To interaction designers, this means knowing scifi could become a vital part of their work, since it's public prior art.

2. To studios, this creates some pressure to use experienced designers (outside of production designers) on staff (or consulting) for interface/interaction design. It might also signal the possibility for studios to begin patenting what comes out of their own imaginations, since the relevancy to industry may be just a matter of time.

The survey so far

2011-06-01T00:57:33Z

We haven't posted in awhile but we thought I'd give a quick update. The book is coming together really well and the first draft should be finished in roughly 30 days (at least, we hope). We thought we'd publish the list of properties we've reviewed so far (not all are films and television shows). Not all of these will make it into the book and it's clear to us that we have way more material than one book will hold (sequel perhaps?). However, we want to make sure that, on this maiden voyage, we don't leave-out anything critical (or something we're going to be crucified for later, for not including). So, in the interest of transparency, here is what we've made it through so far. If you don't see something on the list that you think we should know about, now's the time to speak up!

Thanks.

2001: A Space Odyssey
Adaptive Path Charmr
Aeon Flux
Aesthedes
AI
Alien
Alien Resurrection
Alien vs. Predator
Apple Project 2000
Armageddon
Avatar
Back to the Future
Barbarella
Batman
Battlestar Gallactica
Big Bang Theory
Blade Runner
Brainstorm
Brazil
Buck Rogers (1939)
Children of Men
Chronicles Of Riddick
Chrysalis
Cisco Telepresence
City of Lost Children
Clockwork Orange
Cowboy Bebop
Dark Star
Defying Gravity
Deja Vu
Deka Prosthetic Arm
Demolition Man
Demon Seed
Destination Moon
District 9
Dollhouse
Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Who
Dune
Eagle Eye
Enemy Mine
Equilibrium
Event Horizon
eXistenZ
Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four Silver Surfer
Firefly
Flesh Gordon
Flesh Gordon 2
Flight of the Navigator
Flightplan
Forbidden Planet
Futurama
Futureworld
Galaxy Quest
Gamer
Gattaca
Ghost in the Shell 2
Hackers
Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy
Hollow Man
HP Halo
Inception
Independence Day
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
Johnny Mnemonic
Jurassic Park
Kekkou Kammen
Knight Rider
Knowledge Navigator (Apple)
Lawnmower Man
Le Voyage Dans La Lune
Lifted
Logan's Run
Looker
Lost in Space (film)
Lost in Space (TV)
Marooned
Men In Black
Metropolis
Microsoft Actimates
Microsoft BOB
Microsoft Photosynth
Minority Report
Mission to Mars
Moon
Motorola StarTAC
Ms. Dewey (Microsoft)
Odorama
Outer Limits
Pandorum
Paprika
Paycheck
Pi
Pitch Black
Pultius Products
Quantum Leap
Red Planet
Renaissance
RIBA and RI-MAN (robots)
Rocketship XM 2
Serenity
Silent Running
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Sleeper
Solaris
Space Truckers
Space-1999
Star Trek (TV series and films)
Star Wars I-VI
Stargate Universe
Starship Troopers
Strange Days
Sun Starfire
Sunshine
Supernova
The Abyss
The Cell
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Fifth Element
The Final Cut
The Glass Bottom Boat
The Incredibles
The Island
The Last Starfighter
The Lathe of Heaven
The Matrix
The Terminator
The Tonky
The Truman Show
The Visitor
Things to Come
Timeline
Torchwood
Total Recall
Transformers
Transformers 2
TRON
Until the End of the World
Vanilla Sky
Virtuality
Visual Human Project
WALL-E
War Games
Watchmen
Westworld
When Worlds Collide
Wildfire
X-Men
X-Men 2
Xenotran Xenovision
Zardoz

Two new books from Brian David Johnson

2011-06-01T00:47:34Z

Brian David Johnson is a futurist at Intel who's work complements our own investigation well. He's a sharp, fun, and fascinating guy who is exploring how Science Fiction is already being used as a prototyping process for the development of real technologies, products, and services.

His latest two books (he wrote Screen Future last year), investigate the subject from two different perspectives. The first, Science Fiction Prototyping, directly investigates how SF can be used as a design technique, complete with interviews, examples, and some process description. It's a fun, smart read. You can download his book in PDF here: http://www.morganclaypool.com/toc/csl/1/1

The second, The Tomorrow Project , is a set of commissioned SciFi stories specifically to inspire designers and developers to create new things using these stories as a departure

MacWorld presentation

2011-02-17T22:52:33Z

This is the video from our presentation of Make It So at MacWorld this year. It contains some of what is in our draft Chapter 1 on this site.

Events with Nathan and Chris

2011-02-03T22:14:26Z

Upcoming Appearances and Presentations

Past Appearances and Presentations

2011-01-26T17:48:15Z

Chapter 1: Learning Lessons from Science Fiction

Part 1: Elements of Sci-fi Interfaces

Chapter 2: Mechanical Controls
Chapter 3: Visual Interfaces
Chapter 4: Volumetric Projection
Chapter 5: Gesture
Chapter 6: Sonic Interfaces
Chapter 7: Brain Interfaces
Chapter 8: Augmented Reality
Chapter 9: Anthropomorphism

Part II: Sci-fi Interfaces and Human Activities

Chapter 10: Communication
Chapter 11: Learning
Chapter 12: Medicine
Chapter 13: Sex
Chapter 14: What's Next?

Appendix: Collected Lessons and Opportunities

Welcome!

2011-01-26T17:22:49Z

We're really excited to finally have this book on its way to being published. We have been researching this material for over three years now, and have found some incredible examples we'll share with you.

So, to start with, what are the moments in Science Fiction that have excited you, inspired you, or taught you something about interaction and interfaces?

Author Biographies

2011-01-24T21:03:36Z

In his day job as a Director at Cooper, Chris Noessel designs products, services, and strategy for a variety of domains, including health, financial, and consumer. In prior experience he's developed interactive kiosks and spaces for museums, helped to visualize the future of counter-terrorism, built prototypes of coming technologies for Microsoft, and designed telehealth devices to accommodate the crazy facts of modern healthcare.

His spidey sense goes off about random topics, and this has led him to speak at conferences about a wide range of things including interactive narrative, ethnographic user research, interaction design, sex-related interactive technologies, free-range learning, and, most recently, the relationship between science fiction and interface design. Chris was one of the founding graduates of the now-passing-into-legend Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Ivrea, Italy.

Nathan Shedroff is the chair of the ground-breaking MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. This program melds the unique principles that design offers business strategy with a vision of the future of business as sustainable, meaningful, and truly innovative—as well as profitable.

Nathan is one of the pioneers in experience design, an approach to design that encompasses multiple senses and requirements and explores common characteristics in all media that make experiences successful—and has played an important role in the related fields of interaction design and information design. He is a serial entrepreneur, works in several media, and consults strategically for companies to build better, more meaningful experiences for their customers.

Nathan speaks and teaches internationally and has written extensively on design and business issues, including Experience Design 1.1, and Making Meaning, co-written with two members of Cheskin, a Silicon Valley-based strategy consultancy, which explores how companies can specifically create products and services to evoke meaning in their audiences and customers. Nathan is also the editor of the Dictionary of Sustainable Management, a website and now printed book. In addition, he maintains an extensive set of resources on experience design.

Nathan earned a BS in Industrial Design, with an emphasis on Automobile Design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. However, fear of Detroit, coupled with a passion for information design, led Nathan to work with Richard Saul Wurman at TheUnderstandingBusiness. Later, he co-founded vivid studios, a decade-old pioneering company in interactive media and one of the first Web services firms on the planet. vivid's hallmark was helping to establish and validate the field of information architecture by training an entire generation of designers in the newly emerging Web industry. Nathan was nominated for a Chrysler Innovation in Design Award in 1994 and 1999, and a National Design Award in 2001. In 2006, Nathan earned a Masters in Business Administration at Presidio School of Management in San Francisco, the only accredited MBA program in the USA specializing in Sustainable Business.

Home Page

2011-01-03T18:40:46Z

Many designers enjoy the interfaces seen in science fiction films and television shows. Freed from the rigorous constraints of designing for real users, sci-fi production designers develop blue-sky interfaces that are inspiring, humorous, and even instructive. By carefully studying these "outsider" user interfaces, designers can derive lessons that make their real-world designs more cutting edge and successful.

Make It So shows:

Sci-fi interfaces have been there (almost) from the beginning
Sci-fi creates a shared design language that sets audience expectations
If an interface works for an audience, there's something there that will work for users
Bad sci-fi interfaces can sometimes be the most inspiring
There are ten "meta-lessons" spread across hundreds of examples
You can use—and not just enjoy—sci-fi in your design work
Over 150 lessons and 10 “meta“ lessons that developers can use to enhance their realworld interfaces

Publication Notification

2011-01-03T18:40:12Z

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Contact the Authors

2011-01-03T18:39:36Z

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