The first 10,000 days, the next 10,000 days of Web Design

It’s 10,000 days since the first web browsers arrived on our computers. Digital design has evolved hugely since the early 1990s, from the “brochure on a computer” phase in the mid 1990s, graphically heavy table-based websites in the early 00s, the impact of mobile (and responsive design) in the late 00s, and the gradual move of user-centred design from the fringes to the mainstream from 2010 onward. So why does so much digital design remain so bad? Why are we still making the mistakes in 2021 that we made in 1996? This talk will reflect on a quarter of a century of working in digital design, explore what has changed, what is constant and what the future might look like. Most of all it will look at what limits and restricts design and what we can do about it in order to build more effective products for ourselves, our clients and our users.