But very few interfaces do a brilliant job of the third need: showing me where I've been and how I got here. We can do it at small scales. Patterns like breadcrumbs help us navigate through website or wiki with lots of subpages, but those don't scale well beyond ~7 steps.

But most websites today prioritize efficiency and usability, which leads to a kind of architectural sameness. “Everybody's house sort of looks the same,” he says, “you're taking the same hallway... because we’ve fallen into the same UI patterns.” He wonders about a new kind of website that invites curiosity rather than just guiding a behavior.... See more