Design for intelligence: Apps, evolved

Hello and welcome to WWDC.

Hi. My name's Mark Mikin, and I'm the Siri Experience Evangelist here at Apple.

I know this is WWDC, but it wouldn't quite be WW if we didn't have a session about why you should build something in addition to all the awesome videos we've made about how to build it. And this is one of those "why" sessions. In particular, we want to talk about something we call system intelligence from a few different perspectives and over the course of a few videos. First we'll define it, and then I'll talk about how it relates to design and then how it's powered by extensibility.

So now let's explain what we mean when we say "the intelligent system experience." You've probably heard terms at previous WWDCs like "proactive," and being proactive is a key part of this.

Another piece of it is Siri, which is why I, the Siri Experience Evangelist, am here talking to you. So over the course of the next several videos, my colleagues at Apple, the ones that actually work on these technologies, will help me define just exactly what we mean when we say "intelligent system experience" and what you can do to be a part of that system.

Let's get started with the most basic definition, which we'll build on throughout these videos. I found the simplest way to explain it is that it's how the operating system works with the apps that people use every day to make "the everyday" easier for people.

And that's intelligence.

Now, it's easy to view the features we place under this umbrella, like Voice and Siri Suggestions, as a convenience. It makes something easier, and you could keep doing it the hard way if you wanted, but that's not quite the right way to look at it. Intelligence should be viewed as a design practice. In fact, it's a design that's, in a way, alive. So let's talk about this concept of a living design. What do we mean by that? Well, ultimately, what's the core job of a designer? It's to help people accomplish something. And one of the key ways a designer enables this is by leveraging the familiar. Take this, for example: the "share" button.

When someone using an app wants to share something, how is this capability conveyed to the person using the app? By using a signifier, or a symbol. In the case of iOS, someone can easily recognize this symbol because it consistently gets used across our apps and yours.

In other words, it's a platform convention. And guess what? Intelligence is a platform convention too.

It's something enabled and reinforced by its consistent appearance on the platform. But unlike other forms of design, intelligence isn't a static glyph or icon like the "share" button. It's alive.

It manifests itself by adapting to how the system, the platform, conforms to how people use their devices.

No two people's Siri Suggestions or conversations with Siri are alike.

And what's needed or suggested can change at any second. The more we do that, with the help of your apps, the more people's expectations change.

People expect their devices and the apps installed on them to be smart. And "smart" is clearly a loaded term, as is "intelligence." We all know that people get frustrated when their expectations aren't met. When something doesn't feel as smart or as helpful as they think it should be, they don't care if it's the system or the app's fault. It just doesn't feel quite right.

So as an app developer, you have a big responsibility. After all, apps are a key piece of this story