Lara Portmann

Invisibility, power, and normativity in design

“Interfaces can be consciously designed to create ease for a certain group of people, and that ‘ease’ (and power) is predicated precisely on its invisibility for the ‘average user’.” – Michelle Kendrick, 2005

One of the most persistent myths in design is that, ideally, interfaces should be invisible: that they should feel so natural and intuitive to users that they (almost) disappear for them. Inspired by work in critical interface studies, this talk is about how our attachment to the invisible interface is inevitably bound up with issues of power and inequality – sometimes in ways we might not have anticipated or intended, but which nonetheless cause real and preventable harm.

Using examples from my doctoral research on norms and ideals in UX writing, I offer a critical examination of the myth of the invisible interface. I elaborate on some of its historical roots, how invisibility surfaces in contemporary design work, and what we might want to do differently in the future. In particular, I draw attention to the role that our own, often privileged experience plays in this, an aspect that is sometimes neglected in discussions of design ethics. Ultimately, my goal is to illustrate the pervasiveness of the invisible interface, challenge its persistency, and reflect on how we might detach ourselves from this in many ways problematic ideal. Because in the end, an invisible interface always normalizes certain ways of being while obscuring or even invalidating others.