"Scenic design guides users through structured paths. Semantic design interprets and responds to intent. For decades, digital design was scenic, focused on a visual landscape of interfaces. We crafted beautiful buttons, perfected navigation hierarchies, and guided users through carefully choreographed journeys from screen to screen. The interface was the destination: load the right view, click the right control, follow the designed path."
"In the scenic paradigm, every digital experience followed a familiar script. Users navigated URLs, scanned menus, and translated their goals into the language of the interface. Click "Travel," then "Flights," then fill out departure, arrival, dates, and passengers. The burden was on the user to map their intent onto the system's structure. This worked when interfaces were simple and tasks were predictable. But as workflows grew more complex, the scenic approach began to break down."
Design paradigms are shifting from scenic approaches that rely on fixed visual paths to semantic approaches that interpret user intent. Scenic design focused on crafted interfaces, navigation hierarchies, and choreographed journeys where the interface was the destination. Intent-driven interactions prioritize meaning, purpose, and the unspoken why behind actions. AI enables systems to understand and respond to context rather than require users to translate goals into interface actions. Complex workflows expose limits of scenic design as users juggle multiple tools and varied interfaces. Effective design will center semantic understanding, contextual signals, and smoother orchestration across tools to reduce user friction.
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