Designer Raymond Loewy’s MAYA Principle stands for “Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable.” It’s a principle that says to design for the future, while keeping the current audience in mind. People like things that are familiar, but also surprising.
For example, a technique in old computer screen UIs is skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism in digital design is the concept of making something on screen resemble their real-world counterparts. So digital buttons that follow skeuomorphism have shadows that make the buttons appear 3D like a real-world button. Nowadays flat UI has grown in popularity as people have finally fully adjusted to flat screens.
The MAYA principle works with business idea pitches. People pitching ideas for businesses might say something like “It’s the Uber for ____” or “It’s the AirBNB for ____”.
Niantic, the company responsible for Pokemon Go, popularized the concept of AR for gaming. They normalized AR by working off of millennial nostalgia with games featuring Harry Potter and Pokemon. Familiar stories presented in a new, surprising way.
In the Netflix anthology series “Black Mirror” there is an episode that takes place in a retirement home where seniors can travel within a virtual reality world living out their favorite decades again. It’s clear that XR will be an attractive and lucrative tool for nostalgia.