esoteric/ˌɛsəˈtɛrɪk,ˌiːsəˈtɛrɪk/adjective

As a side project I was experimenting with the idea of how the language and processes of digital multimedia design have become more esoteric as it has become more specialised.

By esoteric I mean, ‘intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest’.

Digital design is expanding and fragmenting with the borders of its disciplines constantly shifting and new disciplines being created as new specialisations.

The intangible nature of digital products and information means this specialised work can be ever more finely sliced and diced and divided. So work once done by one person may now be broken into more specialised jobs done by several people. Designing digital products is becoming hyperspecialized.

Every specialised discipline creates its own processes, systems, language and metaphors. Arguing that there is a ‘better’ or ‘right’ way of creating digital products. Where as I think you are always adapting, adjusting and adopting a variety of tools from various specialisations to meet your needs. Less of a shopping list more of a pick and mix. Which also allows more for serendipity and luck. To this end I like the metaphor of a deck of cards, which is game of chance within a framework.

So as a side project I have made a ‘Reading’ section of my blog to explore these ideas. A sort of tarot of UX.

Notes:- Credit and apologies to Neri Oxman and her diagram Krebs cycle of Creativity which she used in an article called the Age of Entanglement (2016), and  Peter Apian‘s medieval depiction of the cosmos in Cosmographia (1539).