The limits of conversational interfaces

Last tended to: 05.05.25

Formulating our intention is hard. Once we’ve learned how to do something, it’s way easier for us to simply act. If conversation is going to be the next big interface paradigm, then this is a real UX challenge to tinker with.

Getting ideas based on well-defined problems gets you interesting places

Last tended to: 12.05.25

In 2023, Rasmus Fiske, Victoria Kristiansen and I explored ways of using TouchDesigner to visualize plant behavior in human time scales as a way of inducing deeper appreciation for the flora that surrounds us. This is a root system. This is a place I would never explore visually if it didn’t make so much sense for the project at hand. This is why getting ideas based on well-defined problems is so much more interesting, than building out ideas in a vaccuum.

A world with mostly conversational HCI

Last tended to: 05.05.25

While I remain skeptical that the converstaional interface is HCI in its final form, I think one potential benefit of having chatbots everywhere is a society-wide increase in communication skills. With the quality of your computer interactions being directly correlated with your ability to communicate your intentions, our society will have to shift from valuing “computer skills” in the traditional sense (which are far removed from our natural human endeavors) to communication skills, which are far more transferable.
This also reduces the gap between domain knowledge and technical excecution across the board, giving more agency to those who are otherwise more theoretically inclined.

The effects of expectation on experience

Last tended to: 20.03.25

A lot of things dictate how users might interact with your designs. One of them is how the product is framed before use. It goes without saying that the user’s mental model of a product/service will directly affects how they approach it, and that this mental model exists well before they have interacted with the product/service. This is why communication as a discipline (graphic design, among other fields) should be intimately tied to product/service design.

A shoutout to the Digital Social Underground

Last tended to: 17.03.25

It seems to me that the popularity of any given social platform is mostly dictated by their network effects rather than by their inherent quality. There are many underground platforms that do new and interesting things, that deserve a bigger spotlight. Here are some that focus on smaller, tight-knit relationships:

TenTen turns your phone into a walkie talkie
Vibes lets users into each other’s digital lives through widgets
Locket is another widget-based tool, this time a digital locket for warm, passive interaction

The strategic value of leaving something out

Last tended to: 04.05.25

In the age of over-featured apps, with fatigued users, stripping things down can be one of the most important design decisions you end up making.

Notes

Work

Lord Proctor is an Oslo-based designer who believes that thoughtful design can make complex systems feel personal and help people lead better lives. His work blends user research, service understanding, and visual craft to support that.