The Past 100 Years of the Future

Human-Computer Interface Design in Science-Fiction Movies and Television

Aaron Marcus reviews the last century of movies and some television shows. He analyzes their views about user experience, human-computer interaction, user-interface design, information-visualization, and typographic communication. Film and TV directors are both very creative as well as seemingly completely ignorant about user-centered design. He discusses some of the high points and low points of some of the best-known blockbusters like Star Wars, 2001, and Avatar, as well as lesser known films from India, China, and Japan, to introduce cross-cultural issues. This lecture is based on the invited keynote lecture for Mensch und Komputer, Technical University of Chemnitz, Germany, 12 September 2011. Mr. Marcus has presented this lecture as a tutorial at APCHI 2012, Matsue, Japan, at User-Friendly 2012, Beijing, China, and frequently at HCI International over the past six years. He has also published a free, downloadable ebook of the same name, available at his company's website.

Video of the Lecture

This event is part of the Letterform Lecture series, co-presented by Type@Cooper West and the San Francisco Public Library, and sponsored by Adobe Typekit.