"The foundational shift driving a three part series. 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."
"But intent is semantic. It's driven by meaning, purpose, and the unspoken why behind each action. As AI reshapes our relationship with technology, we're shifting from scenic design (set paths and structured journeys) to semantic design (what systems understand)."
"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."
Design is moving from scenic paradigms that prioritize visual interfaces and fixed navigation paths toward semantic paradigms that prioritize understanding user intent. Scenic design forced users to map goals onto distinct interface controls across multiple tools, increasing cognitive and coordination costs. Semantic design centers meaning, context, and purpose so systems can interpret implicit requests and act across workflows. AI enables interpretation of intent, synthesis of relevant context, and delegation across tools. Designers must model signals of intent, surface appropriate context, and craft flexible, assistive interactions that reduce manual translation between user goals and system actions.
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