Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design

The Bifocal Display

The later in the process that a mistake is detected, the more expensive it is to fix.

— Fred Brooks Jr.

In 1983 I saw a video that was a revelation. It had the same effect on me as a user interface designer that seeing the first Starwars had on most of us when it was first released in 1977. The video in question was done by Mark Apperley and Bob Spence at Imperial College, London. The first part of the video was called The Bifocal Display (Apperley … Spence, 1980; Spence … Apperley, 1982).

Now this may not be a title that would inspire most people to run off immediately to their local video store. But for me it changed everything, since it showed a new way to develop a concept and use video to illustrate it clearly, cheaply, ...