It takes roughly 20-30 years for new technology advancements to become widely accepted as the new standard. Even though they’ve been around for quite some time in limited groups comprised of innovators, sociologists, and sophisticated research facilities like the MIT Media Lab or DARPA, it’s only 20-30 years later that they become publicly recognized as “the next big thing,” although they’ve been around for quite some time in restricted groups comprised of inventors, theorists, and advanced research labs like the MIT Media Lab or DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). The internet, email, and wearable computers are all excellent examples.
The Web originated as the ARPANET in 1969, and it was not until the 1990s that it became the great new thing that everyone was learning about and cooperating on.
In 1965, MIT’s CTSS MAIL was the first managed email service. Email services for the public at large did not appear until the early 1990s, and they quickly became the new standard of business and personal communication. Finally, some computers can be worn. Dr. Steve Mann, who’d been building portable pcs in high school in the 1980s, joined the MIT Media Lab in 1991 and continued to develop the self-control with new help and assets until it began to infiltrate the wider prevalent demand on the market such as Google Glass and the Apple iWatch, and many more to arrive.
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Recognizing the Close Relationship Amongst Web Design and Computing
Responsive web design, single page design, card design, and material design are some of the most popular web design ideas right now. These developments are all a result of the technology we use to engage with our material, such as desktops and laptops, smartphones, and i-pads. All of them make use of transparent displays that digitally imitate actual documents and, on a macro level, haven’t changed much in decades.
Now, whatever occurs if computers, as we understand them, undergo a significant transformation, possibly even removing the screen interface entirely? We might be on the verge of finding out. Many software experts and tech buffs believe humanity is soon approaching The Age of Converging Media with the integration of Artificial Intelligence.
Computing in the Future: Context
As per The Age of Context (2013), a new book by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, there are “five colliding forces [in technology] that threaten to impact practically every area of our lives.” Mobile, social media, data, sensors, and proximity services are all examples. Relevance, you guessed it, is the point at where they converge and give birth to a new era of computing.
But, exactly, what does that imply?
Context-specific coding refers to technology that has a deep understanding of us, our needs, and our surroundings, allowing it to integrate seamlessly into our lives in previously unseen ways.
Stoves that identify the food placed within them, understand how well the individual placing the food in it likes that specific meal prepared, and then cook it mechanically. Refrigerators detect when you’re running low on staple products and place orders for you. Virtual Assistants study the ins and outs of an organization in the same way that a real person would to assist you in responding to emails, invoicing clients, and so much more.
Every one of the ideas That are stated, to some degree or another, is achievable right now. On a business level, context-specific computation is already in use, although it is not yet widely used. That, I believe, will alter in the next years.
What We’ve Been Watching Right Now
Whenever it relates to site design, one remarkable example of situational computing in action already exists. The Grid, a dedicated website service, gives customers websites developed with artificial intelligence that adjusts your appearance as you add material to ensure it is optimized for your specific goal, including an art portfolio, lead generation, or sales.
The obvious evolutionary route for this sort of technology, according to various opinions, would be to gradually include knowledge about particular consumers, rather than merely the site owner’s preferences. If one person’s web activity indicates a 90% conversion rate in reaction to a particular sort of website designing, the website will seem one way to them and another way to some other user, ensuring that each viewer sees precisely what they need to see to garner the intended answer.
But, as I already stated, what happens if we eliminate displays? What happens when “wearables” cease to be gadgets and instead become extensions (or at the very least components) of our bodies that communicate directly with our brains? Nicholas Negroponte, the creator of the MIT Media Labs, believes this will happen, and he has a long history of making accurate forecasts.
What Might Be Happening in the Next 20 Years?
Negroponte suggests that in the not-too-distant future (20-30 years), we may interact with or learn things in radically different ways than we do now. Nanobots in tablet form, for example, can deliver data straight to our brains via the bloodstream.
Computers as we understand them aren’t any longer relevant in this situation, or any biotech method. Because there are no web pages, there is no need for a web page design (or designer). We could be networking individuals rather than computers.
Or, at the very least, this is the sort of thing that will almost certainly be achievable. A wide range of external circumstances might have an impact on the development (or lack thereof) of this tech. Legislation prohibiting this type of advancement may be passed. Something utterly new and unexpected might lead us on a completely different route. We could decide as a society that deferring commercial usage of some technologies is preferable for the economy. Or a vast range of additional possibilities.
Having said that, I don’t think websites as we know them today will be around in 20 years.
Web pages/web design as we know it today have an imminent expiration, whether the material we read is developing itself expressly for us or we are just uploading fresh information to our brains grid style.
What Does This Mean for the WordPress Community’s Web Designers?
I don’t know how else to express it, but I’ll just say it. If you’re a web designer, you’ll almost certainly need to look for another career. And don’t panic, content writers and a boatload of other individuals will be affected as well. Mindful computation and situational computing will permanently affect the way we generate and interact with content/data as they become more powerful.
WordPress will have to evolve as well. It’s nothing like it is today in 20 years if it survives at all. If WordPress’ present trajectory is to become an application platform or a web operating system, then 20 years from now will take us well beyond either of those goals.
WordPress, with whichever form (or replacement) it takes, could be an open-source platform for presenting contextualized material in ways we have still not considered. That’s a worrisome thought for someone who makes a livelihood using and writing about WordPress. But it’s also thrilling! After all, we won’t all be dropped into the future with only our current knowledge and experience. Rather, we’ll be along during the journey, responding to and participating to innovation as it occurs, helping to form the tomorrow as often as it shapes us.