I explore these ideas both here on my UX blog and on my mental health blog, approaching the same questions / challenge from different perspectives.
This essay is written for people who care about good products, good applications, good design - for everyone working at the intersection of technology, people, and rapidly evolving systems.
Not so long ago, historians described the Great Acceleration — the period beginning around 1750, when society, technology, and the economy started to change at an unprecedented pace. Developments that once took centuries suddenly unfolded within decades. Cities expanded rapidly, communication accelerated, and innovation fundamentally reshaped how people lived and worked.
Today, we are experiencing something that goes beyond even that acceleration. The internet has existed for roughly 30 years, smartphones for about 20, and generative AI — systems capable of creating text, images, code, or even entire interfaces in real time — for only a few. Yet already, it is transforming how we design, how we interact, and how user experiences are created. If the Great Acceleration was fast, today’s digital reality is hyperacceleration.
For UX designers, this means working in environments that are constantly rewriting themselves. Interfaces evolve in real time. Content adapts dynamically. Users expect experiences that are personalized, intelligent, and immediate — often faster than we can comfortably react.
So we have to ask ourselves:
- How do you design something that remains intuitive when the underlying technology never stands still?
- How do you provide orientation when generative systems continuously discover new ways to structure information, rearrange layouts, or propose interactions?
This is where UX becomes more important than ever.
UX is no longer about “just designing screens.” It is — and always has been — a discipline that lives below the surface of the iceberg. For anyone who still believes UX is only about colors, fonts, or text: the visible interface is just the tip. The real work happens underneath — in understanding people, in systems thinking, in building trust, and in creating orientation.
- UX is the design of understanding.
- The design of trust.
- The design of clarity in complex, continuously shifting systems.
A generative UI may automatically adapt content or layouts, but we decide what adaptations make sense for people. We define the guardrails, the control mechanisms, and the moments of surprise — ensuring they inspire rather than confuse.
Hyperacceleration challenges us on two levels: socially and individually. It forces us not just to accept constant change, but to actively navigate it. As designers, we are in a unique position. We have the tools, the perspective, and the responsibility to shape digital transformation in a humane way.
But beneath all this excitement lies a real concern.
Design has long been underestimated — reduced to “just make it look nice,” or “it’s only some colors and text.” Every designer knows this sentence. And now we must ask:
- Do we want to hand this work over entirely to AI?
- To algorithms?
- Where does the human factor belong in the future?
- Where do joy of use, empathy, intuition, and passion live?
- And perhaps the most important question of all:
In what kind of world do we want to live and work — and what responsibilities are we willing to delegate to machines that simulate intelligence but do not experience meaning?
The pace can feel overwhelming — and that’s normal. But it is also what makes this moment so powerful. If we design intentionally, we can steer hyperacceleration instead of being driven by it. We can create interfaces that provide orientation, enable meaningful interaction, and make advanced technology genuinely usable for people — even as the digital world continuously reinvents itself.
Hyperacceleration isn’t a theory.
It is the reality of our work, our products, and our user experiences.
Our task as designers is to shape it — consciously, critically, and above all, in a human-centered way.
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