1. As designers we must realize that in an interconnected world, our work may be viewed by anyone. It will be increasingly difficult to get a single message across the entire world. As the article stated, it is impossible to know how any individual, within your own culture will exactly decipher an image. And since all design has become less about content and more about grabbing the attention, which means images, it is just as impossible to further explain what you are trying to say. Design shall be reduced to its most simple form, color and placement, and no one can encrypt a significant message with that alone. Not only that, the image being made by the designer on his or her personal computer may appear completely different than what a child sees in bangladesh. As designers we must realize that there are many different alterations of technology all across the globe, and we must subject ourselves to being as simple as possible. 

2. New media does present the new direction for design. The world wide web is forcing designers into doing exactly what needs to be done. We are being forced to grab the attention of the viewer in a relatively simple display of imagery(no matter how complicated it was to make your cursor do that). Any website that has too much going on will be ridiculously unsuccessful. The viewer will be too confused about where to go and what to look at. The mono face website is a great example of a success story. (http://www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html). It does an amazing job at making me stop what I am doing and focus on the website for a few minutes. There website tells you so little but en-captivates you so much that you must find out more.

3. I am not sure, however I would believe that it is time for something completely new. Just look at any website, or image. Humans are over-saturated with the past in the world today. Everyday you cannot walk 10 feet without seeing something that is remnant of something that you have seen in the past. The article was right. We may have reached a point where nothing "new," and by new I mean so shocking that people will grovel at the foot of the creator, will be created in a great while. We may have to be reduced to a primitive mind set before a completely original idea will ever be made. And even then the creator may think it is original, but only in his time.

4. The next big thing could be anything. There is no telling what the population will get into next. The nation admired a pet of rock that anyone can find anywhere... ANYWHERE for god sakes. Attempting to predict what the next big thing will be is like on the same level as developing super powers. It just cant be done.