Every day we are overwhelmed with a barrage of information in the world around us. To make sense of this onslaught of data, we look for patterns, and we make decisions every moment based on the patterns we recognize.
Of course, that skill saves us an enormous amount of time and energy and really helps us make sense of the world, organizing and packaging it, as tidily as possible. But what can go wrong with the way we identify these patterns? What impact does forcing everything into a pattern have upon us a human beings? More specifically, too, how can imposing patterns upon user experiences actually undermine their efficacy - unless they're designed in a careful, thoughtful way?
We'll consider all of these questions and discuss some principles helpful for designing more thoughtful experiences - as well as a more nuanced view of the world around us.