Q&A Interview on UX Design with Golden Krishna, Designer at Google, Lecturer and Author

Unlike most of the content found on our site, this Q&A goes against the digital grain and ferries fresh perspective into the mobile app designer, developer or marketer’s bubble of content consumption.

Today we had the pleasure of talking with Golden Krishna, a design strategist, author, lecturer and thought leader. We invited Golden to speak with us on the topic of UX design, and he willingly oblidged, sharing his opinion on what he calls our “love affair” of screens and why it’s not the right approach for designing a good user experience. Golden’s perspective is drawn from years spent researching the best approach to UX design at several large companies that sell both digital and physical products, including Samsung, Zappos and now Google.

One of our favorite quotes from Golden is “there’s a lot of confusion about what design should be doing in technology today.” Golden has encapsulated this perspective and others on the topic in his best-selling book, titled, “The Best Interface is No Interface.” His book is as enlightening a read as it is hilarious, and is an intriguing change of pace from the usual app/tech blogs. Enjoy this interview, which explores the concept of the best UI being no UI, and includes excerpts from Golden’s book.

Incipia: Hi Golden. Thanks for joining us today!

Golden: Great to be hanging out with you today. Love that jacket, btw. This is such a great bar.

Incipia: Just had it tailored last week! Anyhow — in your book “The Best Interface is No Interface: A Simple Path to Brilliant Technology,” you take the role explaining why our love-affair with apps does not lead to healthy or efficient design decisions. Yet, as an app agency, we naturally must ask: do you think that there are any design problems that apps are well-suited to solve for?

Golden: Months before my book was released I gave a lecture about my book at an intimate design conference in Portland. When I got off stage, a young designer approached me to profess something you might not expect: he told me he hoped I fail. Sure, he enjoyed the lecture, but in seriousness, he hoped I was completely fucking wrong.