Austin Forum | The Future is Low Tech

REGISTER HERE

In the early 2000s, the internet was a place we went. The family computer lived in a specific room of the house; we logged on, did what we came to do, and then went back to our actual lives. As the economics of technology shifted toward engagement, retention and attention – that relationship changed. Products became more seamless, persistent, personalized and difficult to leave.

The Future Is Low-Tech is a framework that looks back at technology from the early 2000s to identify design principles that may become increasingly important as AI and digital systems grow more embedded in everyday life.

In this presentation, we will explore:

Orientation: What loading bars, menus, instructions and visible systems understood about helping people know where they are and what is happening

Useful Friction: Why making everything seamless isn’t always better – and how pauses, choices and effort can increase understanding and agency.

Boundaries: What older technologies can teach us about designing clearer beginnings, endings and opportunities to disengage.

Letting the User Go: How we might build commercially successful technology that helps people accomplish something without demanding more of their attention.

This presentation is for everyone, but especially for technologists, designers, product teams, and anyone thinking about what comes next. It offers a practical lens for questioning the assumptions built into the technologies we make: what should be automated, what should remain visible, where people need more control and what kind of relationship we ultimately want technology to have with the people using it