Beyond Screens: Rethinking Interfaces for Future Interaction Design

Designers who work on the internet interact with computers and mobile screens every day, but the author invites us to consider interaction design that exists beyond the screen.

In the design world we constantly encounter the concept of an "interface". Human‑machine interaction is essentially a closed loop: users input information to the interface, which translates it into machine language; the machine processes it and the interface presents the result back to the user.

Two processing steps emerge: converting human input into machine‑readable language and converting machine output into human‑readable information. Over decades, this loop has been optimized by forward‑looking design concepts and technological breakthroughs, moving from CUI to GUI, then to TUI, VUI and now NUI. As a result, machine performance requirements rise while the cost of human input and output drops, driving technology toward speech, vision and understanding.

The interface is the medium that transmits and displays information. Many designers mistakenly equate "interface" with the screen of a computer or phone, treating it as "screen design".

In reality, an interface’s essence is information transmission and presentation, leading to three questions: Is a screen the only possible interface? In the NUI era, is the screen still the best carrier of information? Can a screen serve all digital‑product users?

Elevator Floor Buttons

Elevator floor buttons are a ubiquitous interface that designers often overlook. Their layout, ordering, placement of open/close buttons, and arrival indicators all present design challenges, especially when many floors are involved.

Smart Bicycle

The bike’s headlight indicator functions as an interface, conveying turning direction and partial road‑condition information. Designers must decide what information to transmit, how to present it effectively in outdoor riding scenarios, and how to verify user reception.

Xiaodu Robot

Although the robot has a screen as its "face", its interaction extends to the whole body. Designers explore multimodal communication—voice, touch, and expressive movements—so the robot feels more human‑like, turning the entire body into an interface.

Shape‑Changing Metal

Researchers at Tsinghua University’s Academy of Arts & Design experiment with metal that alters its shape to express "emotions". If such variable metal became an interface, designers must imagine new input methods and feedback mechanisms, opening speculative avenues for future interaction.

Blind Tactile Display

For blind users, visual interfaces are ineffective. A tactile display uses voice input and Braille dot patterns to present information, requiring careful design to ensure high refresh rates, clear differentiation between text and graphics, and an overall smooth reading experience.

Through these examples, the author emphasizes that interfaces are not limited to glowing rectangles; they can appear in many forms across diverse products. As interaction designers, we must broaden our perspective beyond screens to shape the next generation of human‑machine communication.