The path to invisibility

Perhaps the highest goal of technology is to become invisible. To become so much a part of life, so ingrained, we rarely notice its presence but distinctly miss it when it is missing (e.g. Electricity).

The path to invisibility, however, usually needs to be quite boisterous and certainly visible. We need to know what exists, why it matters, so we can assume it into our lives.

Electricity had one of its bold moments at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. As tech, electricity benefited from massive potential for re-sellers and products requiring electricity as well as relatively few decision-makers to broadly ingrain the tech. It was to the benefit of many others to tell and re-tell the story of electricity.

Browsers, email, maps and other recent tech face more fragmented challenges:

They are based, often, on a mutating system of hardware and connectivity the tech in question doesn't control.

Their audiences are not universally aligned -- wave after wave come into contact with new tech, effectively restarting the story each time. The bell curve of adoption requires a conversation instead of a speech.

The story of a technology today must continue to evolve as much as its audience.

Google offers many fine examples. This video, from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt's design conversation series "Bill's Design Talks" (with director Bill Moggridge), features many insights from Google Creative Lab's Robert Wong.

Robert begins by wondering what storytellers can do at Google. Turns out, much.

The solution lies less in the artifice and ingredients of story and more in allowing the engineering to surface naturally. Easier said than done.