Not long ago, our digital desktops looked like a simple digitisation of our analog desks. The components even beared the same names. And it was probably the increasing use of smaller and portable devices, which could not be controlled via mouse and keyboard, but have been used to perform similar tasks, that brought the change. Today GUIs use a “metro-style design language”,  Jens Garberding explains in his talk at NEXT Berlin 2012. It is universally understandable and stripped off unnecessary information,

Microsoft’s “Research Guru” Bill Buxton predicts a development towards invisible technology: “It’s about getting technology out of my face so I can focus on the stuff that’s of interest to me.”  Microsoft’s invisible technology refers to the disappearance of GUIs or at least of screens. One possibility to put this into action is the company’s device Kinect. It is already possible to use this technology to project interfaces on any kind of surface making screens unnecessary.

Nate Elliott, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, shares this vision of the future, but refers to rather centring services and customer needs instead of technology itself. Combining his and Microsoft’s approach might lead to a very promising future.