My favourite design articles of 2015

The only annual post I actually look forward to is Dan Saffer’s list of his favourite design articles of the year. Go and read his list first and then see what you think of these…

Messaging Is Just Getting Started
On Conversational UIs
Facebook M’s bet and the future of Web interfaces
The radical idea that a simple messaging interface coupled with narrow AI could end up dominating interface design is the most interesting design topic of 2015. I didn’t see it coming and have no idea how to design for it. But it makes total sense and has a weird feeling of inevitability.

The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence
The AI Revolution: Our Immortality or Extinction
A monster two-part article that lays out the terrifying prospect of advancing from the narrow AI we have today to a world-dominating superintelligence. I have doubts whether this is possible, but this is a phenomenal overview.

An Interview with Rochelle King, Global VP of Design at Spotify
Spotify’s design used to be a car crash. But something changed because over the last couple of years they’ve pumped out a slew of user-centred design improvements. So when Rochelle King talks about how to make design and research work together, I listen.

What Is Code?
Be one of the people who read this, rather than one of the people who meant to but didn’t. An amazing story, beautifully told.

How Discover Weekly cracked human curation at internet scale
I loved ThisIsMyJam more than anything but I’ve hardly missed it since Spotify released Discover Weekly. Astonishingly, it turned out that Matthew Ogle was involved in both. This marriage of music with user-centred design and algorithmic data is the most exciting thing I can imagine working on.

4 things I learned from Breaking Smart about the future of work
Treat work as an infinite game. Do whatever is the most interesting thing to do. Stop trying to reach closure and focus on opening things up instead. Interesting, counter-intuitive but strangely liberating ideas.

Harsh Empathy
Not many articles shock you into re-evaluating your own actions. This one, which links empathy with bad behaviour, made me think twice about mine.

I didn’t read as much in 2015 as I would have liked to, so I’m hungry for your recommendations. Send links to @myddelton or point me at your own list.